Toddle provides an intuitive experience for educators to create class announcements. You can send announcements to all or selected staff, students, and family members of one or more classes you are tagged to. As educators, you can also track read receipts, ensuring important updates reach everyone. Read this article to learn more!
This article will cover:
Creating announcements
Viewing announcements
Creating announcements
To begin creating an announcement, click the ‘Announcements’ tab on your homepage. On the landing page, click on the plus button.
💡You will be able to create announcements only when the corresponding setting is enabled from the admin’s end.
This will take you to the announcement creation page, displayed as a single scrollable interface. Here's how to go about creating an announcement step by step:
1. Add a banner image
If you’ve configured default banners for announcements from the admin portal on the web, the relevant banner will be automatically applied based on the curriculum you’re in.
You can click on the banner to view it, remove it, or replace it by:
Uploading a new image from your device
Taking a picture using your camera
If you remove the default banner or if no banner has been set, you’ll see the ‘Add banner’ option at the top. Click this to:
Upload a new image from your device
Take a picture using your camera
Or click ‘Set to school default’ to reapply the school-configured banner
💡The ‘Set to school default’ option will only appear if a default banner exists for the selected curriculum.
2. Enter the announcement details
The next step in announcement creation is to add a title (mandatory) and write a description. You can style the description using formatting options, adding emojis, bullet/numbered lists, etc.
If your school has AI features enabled, you can also generate a description using it. Read this article to learn how to use AI in announcements.
Your content is automatically saved as you type when creating new announcements. This means your work is preserved even if you navigate away. You can find your auto-saved announcements under the ‘Draft’ tab at any time.
3. Add attachments
Next, add supporting files to your announcement. You can upload an image, record and attach an audio message, or click the three-dot menu to explore more options.
From the three-dot menu, you can:
Capture a photo or video directly
Add photos/videos from your device
Add a hyperlink
Upload files from your device or Google Drive/OneDrive
Additionally, if your school has integrated Google or Microsoft Workspace, you’ll see the option to create a document, spreadsheet, or presentation directly from within the announcement. Once created, the document will be automatically attached to your announcement.
💡The available creation options depend on your school’s configured cloud storage integration.
4. Choose recipients
Under the ‘Who should receive this?’ section, you can configure your audience in the following ways:
Option 1: Select recipients from recent announcements
This section displays recipient lists from your previously sent announcements in the current academic year. You can use the three-dot to scroll through the list to view older announcements if needed.
Click any of these to instantly reuse the same recipient list.
Option 2: Select recipients afresh
Start by selecting the recipient type for your announcement. You can choose staff, students, family members or all user groups.
Next, select specific classes in your programme to share the announcement with. If you wish to share the announcement with specific members of your school community, you have the option to do so using the ‘Custom’ option. Let’s explore each one of these options in detail:
1. Class level
If you want to send the announcement to one or more classes, select 'Classes' and click on the 'Add classes' button.
You will see a list of all the classes you are associated with, grouped by grade levels. Simply select one or more classes where you want to share the announcement.
Based on your selection, the announcement will be shared with the selected audience for the chosen classes.
2. Custom recipients
If you wish to share announcements with specific members of the school community, use the 'Custom' option. This allows you to create a personalized recipient list for your announcement. To do so, simply click on the 'Custom' option, then select the 'Add custom' button to add the relevant members.
💡You can only select one group type at a time (e.g., you cannot select both Classes and Custom together).
Next, you can search for specific members or filter your view using the filters on the top. You can choose to view recipients by:
Members
Classes
This helps you easily narrow down your recipient list. For instance, if you select the ‘Classes’ filter, you’ll see all classes you are associated with. Upon selecting a class, all the members associated with it will be added as recipients.
💡Please note that the list of users that appears will depend on the recipient types you selected before selecting the recipient group. For example, if you only select Students, the screen with only show individual students or students grouped by classes. If you select ‘All members’, you’ll be able to choose from students, staff, and family members.
To further customize the recipients list, simply uncheck the members you do not wish to include in the announcement.
5. View recipient summary
After adding recipients, you will see a summary that includes:
The number of recipients in each user group: Staff members, Students, and Family members
The total number of recipients
Delivery options for each user group – via Toddle, email, or both
Use the checkboxes under the ‘Email’ column to control whether each user group should also receive the announcement via email in addition to Toddle.
6. Preview the announcement
Before publishing, you can preview how your announcement will appear to recipients by clicking the eye icon at the top right of your screen. Use the ‘Toddle Preview’ dropdown at the top-right of the screen to switch between different preview modes:
Toddle preview: See how the announcement will appear inside the Toddle platform
Email preview: View how the announcement will look when delivered via email
7. Publish or schedule the announcement
Once you’re ready, you have two options:
Click ‘Publish’ to send the announcement immediately
Click ‘Schedule’ to send it at a later date
For scheduling an announcement, use the date/time picker in the scheduling modal. Your announcement will be automatically published on the exact date and time you have selected.
After publishing, recipients will:
Receive a notification under the bell icon
The Announcements card on the homepage will show the count of unread announcements
Viewing announcements
To view announcements, use the toolbar on the 'Announcements' page. Let’s explore each tab:
Inbox - Lists all the announcements that you have received.
Draft - Lists all the auto-saved announcements.
Scheduled - Lists all the announcements scheduled by you for a later date.
Sent - Lists all the announcements that you have sent/published.
Bin- Lists all the announcements that you have deleted.
Clicking on any announcement will show its details such as title, description and attachments, if any. Furthermore, you will be able to view the name of the publisher and the date and time when the announcement was published.
For visibility on the recipients of the announcement, use the 'Read on Toddle' option. This will present a comprehensive list indicating who has accessed and read the announcement, as well as those who have yet to do so.
Likewise, you can review the classes with whom the announcement has been shared by using the 'Sent to' option. This will provide you with a curriculum-based list of classes that have received the announcement.
You also have the ability to edit or delete your own announcements. Simply choose an announcement from the list and click on the pencil icon to edit any necessary information. While publishing an updated announcement, you can choose to update with or without notifying the recipients. Alternatively, if you wish to delete an announcement, use the trash icon.
💡It's important to note that when editing an already published announcement, auto-save is not enabled. Changes to live announcements must be explicitly saved. This prevents accidental updates from going live.
When you delete an announcement, instead of being permanently removed, it is moved to the ‘Bin’ tab and is no longer visible to the recipients.
Note that when you delete a draft announcement, it will be permanently removed and will not be stored in ‘Bin’.
To restore and republish a deleted announcement, select the announcement you wish to recover and click the ‘Republish’ button.
This will open up the announcement in edit mode, where you can make the required changes. Adjust the recipients and choose whether to republish immediately or schedule it for later. Once republished, the announcement will appear as a new post in recipients' inboxes, and they will receive a notification.
Additionally, you can quickly find specific announcements using the search icon at the top right. You can also filter the announcements based on your needs using the filter icon.
Clicking on the filter icon will open a modal with the following filtering options:
Created by: This lists all staff members who have published an announcement. You can choose one or more names from here.
Published date: You can filter and view announcements based on the date they were published.
Class(es): This tab will show a list of classes you are tagged to. You can select one or more classes to view announcements specific to those classes.
Recipient type: This tab allows you to filter announcements based on the recipients they were targeted to.
Once filters are selected, click ‘Show announcements’ to view the filtered announcements. To reset a specific filter, you can click the ‘Reset’ option, on the top right corner.
We hope that you could find what you were looking for. Explore other articles for more!