Archived messages
Messages from previous years are stored separately, so the day-to-day list doesn't get heavy. This screen is where you search them.
Why they're separate
A mid-sized school sends thousands of messages a year. If they all lived in the same list, finding last week's message would get slower and slower.
So the archive is its own screen, built for searching rather than browsing.
Don't expect to walk in and see a useful list. This screen is built for you to tell it what you're after.
The filters
They all combine with each other, so it's worth using two or three to narrow things down fast:
| Filter | What it narrows |
|---|---|
| Sender role | Whether it was written by a teacher, guardian, student or staff member. |
| Sending user | A specific person. The options load based on the role you picked. |
| Recipient | A teacher or group it was sent to. |
| From / To | The date range. |
| Keyword | Text appearing in the message. |
It's the filter that shrinks the search most. If you can remember even the month, put it in: everything else becomes far more manageable.
How to use it
Pick a date range
Even a rough one.
Add whatever you remember
Who sent it, which group it went to, or a word that was definitely in the text.
Search
And tighten the filters if too many results come back.
Open the record with the envelope
It opens without losing your search: when you close it, the same results are still there.
What it's used for in practice
- Complaints: "nobody told us about the trip". In two minutes you know whether it was sent, when, and whether that family read it.
- Consistency: seeing how the same notice was worded last year.
- A family's history: everything communicated about a particular student.
If you can't find something
It may be in the day-to-day list
The archive holds messages from previous years. This year's are under Message tracking.
It may be in another level
The search covers the level you're standing in. If the student moved from Primary to Secondary, the old message is in the level they were in at the time.
It may never have been sent
If it stayed pending approval and nobody approved it, it never went out. An unsent message isn't in any archive.
