for parents and carers
Your school decides what you see. You see it in one place.
Some schools that use Descant offer a family portal. It is optional and switched off unless your school turns it on. Here is how it works and what it shows.
What you don’t need
- An app
- A password
- To share anything you haven’t chosen to
- To wait for paper forms to come home
- 1
The school invites you
If your school uses the family portal, it sends an invitation to the email address it has for you. Schools choose whether to use it at all.
- 2
Sign in with a code
Enter that email address on your school’s portal page and we email you a one-time code. There is no password to remember.
- 3
Confirm it’s your child
The first time you open a child’s page, you enter their date of birth. Nothing about the child shows until it matches the school’s record.
- 4
See what the school shares
The documents the school has sent you, and anything else the school has chosen to share.
the school stays in charge
School leaders switch the portal on and choose what families see. Staff decide which parents and carers are invited, and they can remove access or keep a student out of the portal altogether when that is the safe thing to do.
What families can see
-
Documents
What you have signed, what is waiting for you, and signed copies to download. You can read and sign a waiting document from the portal.
-
A support plan summary, if the school shares one
Goals in plain language, how the school is supporting your child, and the next review date. A staff member writes and checks it before it is shared, and can stop sharing it.
-
Your contact details, if the school turns this on
You can suggest a change to your name, email or mobile. Nothing changes until the school checks and approves it.
What the portal never shows
- Staff notes, case files or meeting records
- Risk, safeguarding or wellbeing check-in records
- Anything about another family or another student
- Messages: contact the school in the usual way. Its portal page tells you how.
Questions families ask
Something we haven't answered? Ask us and a person from the team will reply.
Ask a questionDoes every Descant school have a family portal?
No. It is off until a school switches it on, and the school decides what families see beyond their documents.
Who can sign in for my child?
Only a parent or carer the school has on its record with an email address, after the school invites them. Schools can exclude a student from the portal entirely, for example when a court order is in place, and a parent or carer the school has marked “no contact” is not given access.
Does the school know what I looked at?
Yes. Each sign-in, page view, download and change you suggest is recorded, and the school can see what each family viewed and when.
Can I message my child’s teacher through the portal?
No. The portal does not carry messages. Each school’s portal page says who to contact and how.
What if something on the portal looks wrong?
Contact the school. It holds your child’s record and can correct it.
A school leader thinking about the family portal?
Tell us about your school and we’ll show you how it works and what families see.
- A made-up school like yours to explore for 14 days
- We check each request by hand and reply within two school days
- Made-up students only: no real student information needed
Prefer email? Write to [email protected].