Introducing Your School Community to Faria Platforms
Practical guidance from the Faria team on how to prepare students, parents, and families for their first experience with ManageBac+, OpenApply, SchoolsBuddy, and Atlas - and how to keep engagement high year after year.
Onboarding staff to a new platform is one challenge. Onboarding an entire parent and student community is another. Families approach school platforms with varying levels of technical confidence, different devices, and different expectations about how often they are meant to log in and what they are supposed to do when they get there. Without a structured introduction, a significant portion of your community will simply not engage - and the school loses the visibility and communication benefits the platform was implemented to provide.
This guide covers the key steps to introducing Faria platforms to your student and parent community, from preparation through to ongoing engagement. The principles apply across ManageBac+, OpenApply, SchoolsBuddy, and Atlas, with platform-specific notes where relevant.
From the Faria team: The schools with the highest community engagement rates do not rely on a single welcome email. They make platform access visible, expected, and easy to find - through orientation sessions, handbooks, school website links, and clear communication about what parents and students are actually supposed to do on the platform.
Before You Send Welcome Emails: Prepare the Experience
The moment a parent or student receives their welcome email is the moment they form their first impression of the platform. If the experience they encounter is incomplete - missing class data, empty gradebooks, or a confusing default view - that first impression is difficult to reverse.
Before sending welcome emails to any user group, confirm the following are in place:
- Student records are complete and accurate - names, year levels, class assignments, and family links should all be verified before parents can see their child's profile
- The platform reflects the current academic year - classes, units, and relevant content should be visible and correctly assigned; do not open access to an empty system
- Permissions are correctly configured - confirm that parents can see what they should see and cannot see what they should not; test this from a parent account before sending invitations
- Welcome email password links are ready to send - password reset links in Faria platforms typically expire after 30 days; time your send to allow families enough time to activate their accounts before the link expires
Use Test Accounts to Prepare Your Introduction
One of the most effective preparation steps - and one of the most underused - is logging into the platform as a student or parent before your community does. This gives you direct visibility into what families will experience and lets you catch anything confusing before it reaches them.
- Add a test user to your account - create a dummy student and parent account in your school's system and log in as each. You will not be charged for test accounts. Use these accounts during orientation evenings, parent information sessions, or staff training to demonstrate the platform from the family's perspective
- Request demo account credentials - for ManageBac+, contact support@managebac.com to access a demo account with pre-populated data, useful for demonstrations before your own school's data is ready
Viewing the platform through a parent or student account before launch is the single most effective way to identify setup gaps that admin-side testing will not reveal.
Make Platform Access Visible on Your School Website
A login link buried in an email sent six months ago is not accessible. Parents and students should be able to find their platform login from the school's website without searching their inbox.
- Add direct login links to your school website - a "Parent Portal", "Student Portal", or "Community Login" section in your navigation or footer, with clearly labelled links to each platform your community uses
- Include platform links in your school's email footer - so every communication reinforces where families go to access their accounts
- Include login URLs in physical and digital handbooks - particularly for new families at enrolment; the OpenApply enrolment confirmation is a natural place to include ManageBac+ or SchoolsBuddy login details for incoming students
- Post links in your school's existing communication channels - class message boards, newsletters, and parent association channels are all useful places to resurface login information at the start of each term
The goal is for "where do I log in?" to never need to be a support query. If the answer is not immediately findable from your school's public presence, it will be asked repeatedly.
Run Orientation Sessions Tailored to Each Audience
Students and parents use school platforms differently and have different questions. A combined orientation session that tries to cover both audiences is less effective than two shorter, focused sessions.
For students
Focus on the tasks students perform most frequently - accessing assignments and deadlines, submitting work, checking grades and attendance, and understanding notifications. Keep it practical and task-based with live platform access. Cover mobile access explicitly - most students will use the platform primarily from their phone.
For parents
Focus on what parents can monitor - their child's academic progress, attendance, upcoming deadlines, and school communications. Address how often they should log in and what to do if they see something concerning. Record the session if possible so parents who cannot attend still have access to it.
For new families each year
Build platform orientation into your standard new family induction process as a required step, not an optional extra. New families joining mid-year should receive the same introduction - not just a welcome email and an assumption they will figure it out.
Create a Community Handbook
A parent and student handbook specific to how your school uses each platform is one of the most durable onboarding tools you can create. Unlike an orientation session, it is available on demand whenever a family has a question. A useful handbook covers:
- Your school's specific login URL for each platform
- What each user type can see and do on the platform
- How often the school expects parents and students to log in
- What notifications to expect and what they mean
- Who to contact if there is a login problem or a question about data
- School-specific policies on platform use
Always customise any template handbook with your school's name, logo, and specific platform URL. A handbook that refers to a generic URL signals to families that they have received a form document rather than guidance specific to their school.
Frequently Asked Questions
When should we send welcome emails to students and parents?
Send welcome emails once the platform is fully set up and ready - not before. You can send them after a back-to-school assembly, an orientation session, or the start of a new term. Password activation links expire after 30 days, so time your send to give families enough time to act.
Can parents and students see content before it is ready?
In ManageBac+, teachers can mark units as Draft to hide them from student and parent view until they are ready to publish. Confirm with your teaching staff that this setting is being used consistently - parents should not encounter empty or incomplete units when they first log in.
How do we send regular news and updates to parents through the platform?
ManageBac+ includes a Parents Association message board for sending news to all parents or specific year groups. SchoolsBuddy supports direct messaging and activity communications to families. Use these in-platform channels alongside your existing communication methods to increase the likelihood that parents associate the platform with useful, regular content - not just login prompts.
What about families who do not engage after the initial introduction?
Non-engagement is common in the first term and improves once families understand how the platform connects to their child's day-to-day school experience. Resurface the login link and a reminder of key features at the start of each term. Avoid sending too many notifications for minor events - families who receive too many low-value alerts learn to ignore all of them.
In Summary
- Prepare the platform experience before sending welcome emails - families should encounter a complete, accurate system on their first login.
- Add direct login links to your school website, email footers, and handbooks so platform access is always easy to find.
- Run separate, tailored orientation sessions for students and parents - combined sessions are less effective for both audiences.
- Create a community handbook with your school's specific URL, expectations, and guidance - always customise any template with your school's name and logo.
The Faria team runs on-demand webinars covering community onboarding for ManageBac+, OpenApply, SchoolsBuddy, and Atlas. Visit events.faria.org/on-demand-webinars to access the full library.