A walkthrough of everything a parent can do on the JoomSchool frontend portal: log in, see the dashboard, read announcements, message teachers, view their children's attendance and exam results, edit their own profile, and check fee invoices.
Overview
When a school administrator adds a new parent in JoomSchool and links one or more students to the parent record, the parent gets a Joomla user account in the Parents group plus a JoomSchool profile. With the credentials supplied by the school, the parent logs in and reaches a portal designed for their role — read-only access to their children's academic life and a private messaging channel to teachers.
The portal is a single Joomla page that swaps its contents based on which menu item is active. The top of every page shows a navigation bar with the school's name, the menu items, an envelope icon with an unread-messages count, and a profile dropdown.
Prerequisites
- The school has installed and configured JoomSchool.
- The administrator has added your parent profile and linked one or more student records to you as your children.
- A frontend menu item linking to the JoomSchool dashboard is published.
If you log in and see the regular school website but no JoomSchool menu, check with the school office:
- Your account is in the Parents group.
- The JoomSchool menu item exists and is published.
- You're linked to your child's record (without a child link, even a published parent account has nothing to display).
Logging in
Open the school's website and use the standard Joomla login form. Enter your username (or email) and password. If you've forgotten your password, use Joomla's forgot-password link or contact the school office for a reset.
After login, you land on the JoomSchool dashboard. The dashboard greets you by name.
Dashboard tour
The parent dashboard is divided into two widgets, both full-width:
- Latest announcements (top) — recent announcements posted by teachers and the school, targeted at classes your children belong to.
- Latest messages (below) — recent private messages from teachers and other staff. The unread count is also shown on the envelope icon in the top navigation bar.
Below the greeting, the menu bar lists eight pages a parent can visit:
| Menu item | What you do there |
|---|---|
| Dashboard | The home page. |
| Announcements | Browse the full archive of announcements with filters and search. |
| My Profile | View your profile in read-only mode. |
| Message | Inbox; reply to teachers; send new messages. |
| Attendance Report | View your children's attendance day-by-day. |
| Results | View your children's exam scores. |
| Payments | Check fee invoices and pay where supported online. |
| Profile Setting | Edit your profile (separate from "My Profile" which is read-only). |
My Profile (view)
Choose My Profile from the menu to see your details on a single page:
- Name and photo
- Linked children — each child's name, class and roll number
- Account email
- Any custom fields the administrator has defined for parents
Use this page to confirm what's on file. If anything is wrong (incorrect contact details, child missing from the list, photo out of date), correct what you can in Profile Setting and contact the school office for the rest.
Profile Setting (edit)
The edit form has four tabs:
Profile tab
- Name — your full name.
- Custom fields the administrator has marked visible to parents (e.g. emergency contact, mailing address).
Academic Info tab
Shows the children linked to your account. This is read-only for most schools — to add or remove a child link, contact the administrator.
Account Details tab
Update your account email here. To change your password, use the standard Joomla user profile from the front-end.
Photo tab
Upload a new photo. The photo is used on the parents list view (admin-side) and on certain printed records.
Save changes with the Save button at the top.
Reading announcements
Click Announcements in the menu. The list shows every announcement targeting a class one of your children is in. Each row shows:
- The title and a preview of the body
- The publishing date
- Any image preview
Click an announcement to open it. The full version shows the formatted body and download links for any attached files (permission slips, syllabi, event details).
The page also has filters for date and keyword search, useful when you remember reading something earlier and want to find it again.
Messaging teachers
Click Message in the menu, or the envelope icon in the top navigation bar.
Reading and replying
Each row in the inbox shows the sender, subject and a preview. Click to open the thread; type into the Reply box and click Send Reply.
Sending a new message
Click Compose. Pick the recipient — for parents, this is typically a teacher.
Fill in:
- To — pick "Teacher" from the dropdown.
- Recipient — type the teacher's name; suggestions appear as you type.
- Subject — short summary of what the message is about.
- Message — your message body.
- Attachment — optional files (e.g. medical certificate, scanned permission slip).
Click Send. When email notifications are enabled, the teacher also gets an email at their account address.
Notifications
If you stop receiving message notifications, check your Spam folder first. Then verify your account email at Profile Setting → Account Details.
Viewing children's attendance
Click Attendance Report in the menu. The view shows a calendar-style grid for the selected child, month and academic year.
If you have more than one child, a child picker at the top lets you switch between them. Pick the child you want to see.
Each day is coloured by status:
- Green — Present
- Red — Absent
- Yellow — Late
- Blank — no record (weekend, holiday, no school)
Use the year and month filters at the top to switch between periods. Past academic years are kept for reference.
If you spot an error (a Present day that should be Absent, or vice-versa), contact the teacher of that subject so they can correct it.
Viewing children's results
Click Results in the menu. The page lists every published exam from the current academic year for the selected child, with:
- Exam name and date
- Per-subject marks alongside the maximum mark
- Grade letter (A+, A, B...) based on the school's grading scale
- A teacher's comment, if filled in
If you have more than one child, the picker at the top lets you switch.
A Print button at the top lets you save or print a clean copy of the result sheet, with the school's official logo, header and footer.
If a result you expect is not visible, the school may not have published the marks yet. Wait or ask the relevant teacher.
Payments
Click Payments in the menu. This is the fee-invoice list — every invoice the school has issued for your children, with these columns:
| Column | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Student name | Which child the invoice is for. |
| Roll | The child's roll number. |
| Total bill | The total amount owed for that invoice. |
| Paid amount | What you've already paid against this invoice. |
| Due amount | The outstanding balance. |
| Pay by | The payment method assigned by the school (Cash, Cheque, PayPal, etc.). |
| Pay month / year | The billing period. |
| Status | Paid, Unpaid, Pending, Cancel, Under Review. |
Two buttons sit next to each invoice:
- PDF — downloads a printable PDF of the invoice.
- Invoice — opens an online printable view.
If the school has assigned the invoice to an online payment method (PayPal in particular) and the invoice is unpaid, a Pay Now button also appears. Click it to go through the gateway flow; once payment completes, the invoice status updates automatically.
You cannot create a new payment from this page — fee invoices are issued by the school. If an invoice is missing or incorrect, contact the school's accounts office.
Logging out
Open the profile dropdown in the top-right corner of any page (the small circular avatar) and choose Log out. You will be returned to the login page.
Tips & Best Practices
- Check the dashboard daily during the school week. Announcements and messages can be time-sensitive (permission slips with deadlines, last-minute changes to schedules).
- Reply to teacher messages promptly — a quick acknowledgement closes the loop.
- Keep your contact details current. If your phone number or email changes, update Profile Setting → Account Details and notify the school office. Many automated emails depend on the email being right.
- Use the print version of the result page for a clean copy with the school's letterhead.
- Pay invoices early — last-day-of-the-month payments often run into transient gateway issues. Mid-month is safer.
- Take a screenshot or PDF of important announcements so you have a record even if the announcement is later edited.
FAQ
Q. I'm linked as a parent but only one of my two children appears. A. Open Profile Setting → Academic Info. The Children field shows everyone linked to you. If only one child is there, contact the school office to add the second.
Q. I changed my email but didn't get a confirmation. A. JoomSchool updates the email immediately, without a confirmation. Confirm by logging out and logging back in with the new email.
Q. How do I know whether the school has my child's results published? A. The Results page lists only published exams. If your child wrote an exam recently and you don't see it, the marks haven't been entered or published yet. Ask the school.
Q. The Pay Now button doesn't appear on a Cash invoice. A. That's by design — Cash and Cheque payments are paid in person at the school office.
Q. Can I message another parent? A. The default JoomSchool setup doesn't allow parent-to-parent messaging. Contact teachers for school matters; for personal contact, exchange details with other parents directly.
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Login succeeds but you see the regular Joomla site, not the JoomSchool dashboard. | Your account isn't in the Parents group, or the dashboard menu item isn't published. | Contact the school administrator. |
| Your name in the welcome message is wrong. | The name on the linked Joomla user account is different from what you set in JoomSchool. | Update the name via Profile Setting → Profile. |
| The child picker on Attendance Report or Results shows only one child. | Only one student is linked to your parent record. | Contact the school office to add the missing child. |
| Email notifications stopped arriving. | School's mail provider may be flagged, or your email changed without notifying the school. | Check spam, update your email in Profile Setting, contact the school. |
| The Pay Now button is greyed out on an unpaid invoice. | The invoice has an offline payment method (Cash, Cheque). | Pay in person at the school office. |
| Result page shows "no exams" even though you know your child wrote some. | The exams haven't been published yet, or the academic year filter is on a different year. | Switch the year filter to the current year and wait for marks to be entered. |
| Announcement attachments fail to download. | File was deleted from the server, or you're behind a corporate firewall blocking the download. | Try from a different network; ask the school to re-upload. |