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Help and Guidance on using the Schools' Portal

This page contains guidance on using this site for the first time, help regarding changes and new features, guidance aimed at helping your school adopt the portal in a way which is best for you and guides to specific tasks or tips on how to use the portal more effectively.

If you require any additional assistance please email us at schoolsportal@lancashire.gov.uk

Guidance on How to Return a File from a Post Item

Submitting Batch Invoices

The Guidance for submitting Batch Invoices is located on the BTLS website

My School Folder - User Access

Special Educational Needs Annual Review Recording System

Guidance for Action Tracker

Governors Portal

Post

The following guides will help you to archive items of post you no longer need, forward items of post to other staff on the Schools' Portal or by email and save attachments to shared drives.

Account Management

The guide for individual users will help you to change your account details (your name, email address or password), choose whether you want to receive an email alerting you to new post, and select your areas of responsibility for receiveing post.

The guide for Supervisors is relvant to Schools' Portal Supervisors only as they can; request that new Schools' Portal accounts are created; request that Schools' Portal accounts are deleted; edit the name or e-mail address of members of staff and set up which members of staff should be sent which types of post by assigning them different Responsibilities. 

Our School Area

Our School Area brings all personal/school specific information into one area making it easier to manage. This guide gives an overview of the different information you will find in Our School Area and how to use it.

My School Folder

This guide gives information on what this feature is and how to use it.

School Calendar User Guide

The following guide will show you how to:

  • View your school's calendar and session times
  • View the information held about your school and update this using the maintain calendar option
  • Inform us if you have an Unavoidable Closure

Pupils Eligible for Free School Meals User Guide

You can view eligible pupil data via a link on the Forms page of the Schools' Portal. You can also advise Pupil Access of any amendments you are aware of such as pupils that need to be removed or any amended details. To view the list, you must have responsibility on the Schools' Portal for Catering, School Administration and Support or Finance. You can amend this in Account Management, all changes need to be authorised by the Schools' Portal Supervisor for your school.

 
Please see the user guide below for more details.

My Traded Services

This system has been developed to provide you with comprehensive information on, and an easy gateway to, Lancashire County Council's full portfolio of Traded Services.

Downloads Section

Autodesk Design Review

Some schools are having difficulties accessing the floor plans through PAMIS.  This free download available on the link below can be installed onto the machine you wish to view the floor plans on.

This only needs to be installed if you receive an error when trying to view floor plans and once installed does not need to be run again.  Please follow the instructions when prompted.

Why can't I see any post?

If you cannot see any post this means that you have not yet had responsibilities assigned to you by your Schools' Portal Supervisor. Once these have been assigned, you will begin to receive new post sent to these responsibilities the next day; you will also be able to access previous post sent to these responsibilities.

You can nominate yourself for the responsibilities you feel are appropriate by clicking Change User Responsibilities from the Account Management area of the homepage. Simply select the boxes you feel are relevant to you and click Submit Changes, this will then send a message to your Schools' Portal Supervisor to approve.

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What are Alerts?

Supervisors will receive alerts relating to the activity of other staff within school. These include items of unread post over 7 days old, items of post with no lead contact assigned responsibility, requests from users to change their responsibilities, and notification of users that have been recently added or removed.

All users will receive alerts to notify them when they have unread post of their own which is over 7 days old, along with any changes to their responsibilities since they last logged in.

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Does the alert to unread post include post that has been archived?

No.  If you archive an item of post, it will be marked as read and will not generate an alert.

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In Account Management, what are user responsibilities?

Selecting your user responsibilities enables you to tailor the type of post you receive based on your responsibilities in school. 

Your Responsibilities also affect your access to some systems on the Schools' Portal for example Free School Meals, Online Admissions, Income and Expenditure and Emergency Contacts.

For each responsibility there should be at least one lead contact for your school.  The lead contact(s) will be responsible for any actions indicated in the post, and will also see more confidential post than interested parties.

For more information about responsibilities and associated systems please see the document "Areas of Responsibility (Post Categories)"

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How can I see what responsibilities have been assigned to me and how do I change these?

On the homepage click Change User Responsibilities in the Account Management area. This will display your current assigned responsibilities (types of post you receive) as green filled boxes. If you would like to change your current set up, simply click in the boxes for the new categories of post you would like to receive and Click Submit Changes. This will send a notification to your Schools' Portal Supervisor asking them to approve your changes.

Once approved, the change in responsibilities will begin to affect your post the next day.

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When a responsibility is assigned to me by the Supervisor, how am I notified?

You will receive an alert when any change is made to your responsibilities; you will find this in the Alerts area in Account Management.

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How can I check who is assigned to each responsibility in my school?

Click Account Management and then School Overview in the left hand menu.

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What is the difference between Lead Contact and Interested Party?

The Lead Contact of a category will be the person or people in the school with primary responsibility for an area and can see all postings sent to that responsibility at any sensitivity level. Users set up as an Interested Party can also see postings sent to that responsibility that are classified as Context Sensitive or Unrestricted but not higher level classifications such as Protected or Controlled.

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How many members of staff should be a Lead Contact for a responsibility?

Ideally you should have one or two staff as lead contact.  The lead contact should be the person responsible for responding to or actioning a posting, having just one or two lead contacts per responsibility makes it easier to manage who responds to the authority, reducing the likelihood of us receiving multiple or conflicting responses from your school.

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I have been assigned responsibilities and I still can't see any post

The post updates overnight and so any changes to your responsibilities will take effect with respect to your post the next working day. Once this happens you will see both current and past postings sent to your assigned responsibilities.

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How do I request a new account for a member of staff?

The Schools' Portal Supervisor can create new accounts for the following types of Schools' Portal user:

  • Headteacher/Head of Centre
  • Bursar
  • Chair of Governors
  • Governor
  • Governor Clerk
  • Standard User

using the Account Management section of the Schools' Portal.  An email will be sent to the user containing their details.

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How do I delete a user?

Only Schools' Portal Supervisors can request that accounts are deleted.  If you are a supervisor, please click Account Management in the left hand menu, click the Edit button next to the user name you would like to remove, and on reaching the User Details screen click Remove Access.

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I am a Supervisor, how can I edit the account details of another member of staff?

Go to Account Management, click the Edit button next to the user name of the person whose details you wish to edit, and on reaching the User Details screen edit the details as required and click Submit Changes.

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Will my account be disabled if I do not login frequently?

Yes! If you do not access your account for 180 days or more your account will be disabled automatically. This is an Internal Audit suggestion for security enhancement.

The Schools' Portal Supervisor for your school can re-enable a disabled account from the Account Management area.

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As a Supervisor, when I prompt a member of staff to unread post, what does the e-mail look like?

The e-mail will appear as follows:

Alert from the Schools' Portal

 You have been sent this e-mail to alert you to the fact that you have unread post items over 7 days old.

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I am a Supervisor, how can I check the post for another member of staff?

Click Post and then All School's Post in the left hand menu (accessible to Supervisor only) and use the drop down menu marked 'User' to search for post belonging to a specific member of staff.

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I have clicked Forward Post, what does 'Redirect within Schools' Portal' mean?

Redirect within the schools portal is a new feature which allows staff to forward postings to other portal accounts within school – all portal accounts at your school are automatically displayed in the drop down menu marked Member of Staff. The post will be redirected overnight to the user(s) you select.

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Who decides what user responsibilities are used and can we request new responsibility categories?

The list of user responsibilities was produced and agreed by a group of Lancashire Headteachers and is not directed by Lancashire County Council. If a new category is requested, the Schools' Portal team would consult with heads at other schools and if there is general agreement, they will add the category to the system.

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How do I stop the daily e-mail to my inbox to notify me I have new post?

Please click on Account Management in the left hand menu, then on your account details page, remove the tick from the box under post preferences.  For more detailed guidance and screen shots to help you, please click here to view the full account management guide.

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How is access to My School Folder set up?

Access to My School Folder can be set up by the Schools' Portal supervisor through the link in Account Management.  You must first click on Account Management, then click on the link below account management to the left of the screen which says My School Folder, then click on the link below that: Change Access.

Click here for full guidance on this process.

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Can I place a notice on the Schools' Portal?

Yes.  You can advertise items for sale or free on the Activities and Events page by clicking on the submit and item link.

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What is a Supervisor?

There can be up to two Supervisors for one school. A Supervisor is given to users who have the responsibility to add and remove users as well as setting up responsibilities and restricting and giving access to others.

Supervisors are identified by  icon next to their name in Account Management.

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