This guide walks you through managing your school's Jigsaw app from the online management portal. Each section takes you step by step with screenshots of exactly what you'll see, so you can work through it in order or jump straight to the task you need.

1. Signing in

1. In your web browser, go to manage.jigsawschoolapps.com.
2. Enter the email address and password you already use — your existing username and password still work, so there is nothing new to set up.
3. Tick Remember me if you are on your own device and want to stay signed in.
4. Click Sign in.

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2. Your dashboard

When you sign in you land on your school's dashboard. Your school's name (here, Oak Mount Academy) appears top-left and as the page heading, so you always know which app you are managing.

The menu (left-hand side)

Everything you manage lives in the left-hand menu, grouped into three areas:

• Items — your everyday content: Calendar, News and Surveys.
• Admin — setup and management: Access Groups, App Menu, Manage Categories, Contacts and Users.
• Categories — your own labels (Year 1, Sports, Trips and so on) for organising and targeting posts.

The charts (main panel)

The four charts give you an at-a-glance health check — no action needed:

• Installs — how many times the app has been installed per week.
• Posts Published — news, calendar and survey items published per week.
• Notifications — push notifications sent per week.
• Post Opens — how often posts are actually opened.

Along the very top of every page you'll also find Search, a Switch Org button (only relevant if you manage more than one app), and your initials for account options.

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3. Posting news

News posts are your main way to share announcements with parents and pupils. Posting one works much like a calendar event — create it, submit it, then publish it — with two useful extras: a full text editor, and control over exactly when the post appears and when parents are notified.

Step 1 — Open the news list

1. In the left menu, under Items, click News. You'll see your existing posts with their status and their visible-from / visible-until dates.
2. Click Add News Item at the top right.

Step 2 — Write the post

• Title — the headline shown in the app (required).
• Content — the body of your post. Unlike a calendar event, this is a full text editor: use the toolbar to add bold and italic text, headings, links, bulleted or numbered lists and tables (required).

The paperclip icon in the toolbar attaches a file within the content itself — ideal for an image or graphic you want to appear inside the post. To attach a PDF or document for parents to download, use the separate Attachments section instead (see Step 5).

Step 3 — Choose when it appears

Two date fields control the post's lifespan in the app:

• Visible from (24-hour clock) — when the post starts appearing in the app (required).
• Visible until (24-hour clock) — when it stops appearing. Leave this blank to keep the post visible indefinitely (optional).

Step 4 — Categories and access groups

Categories and access groups work exactly as they do for calendar events — tick categories to target the post and help filtering, and leave access groups unticked to show it to everyone (or tick groups to restrict it). Then click Create.

Step 5 — Add attachments (PDFs and documents)

As soon as you click Create, the post is saved as a draft and an Attachments section appears beneath it. This is where you add PDFs and other documents for parents to download.

1. In the Attachments section below the post, click Add Attachment.
2. Choose your PDF or file, give it a title, and save. It appears in the list, ready for parents to open from the post.

Step 6 — Submit and publish

When the post and any attachments are ready, it goes through three stages before it goes live:

1. Draft — review the post, then click Submit at the top right.
2. Submitted — a green Publish button appears; click it to make the post live.
3. Published — the post is live (and, at the Visible from time, parents are notified).

The Submit and Publish buttons look exactly like those shown in the next section, Adding a calendar event.

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4. Adding a calendar event

Calendar events appear in your app's calendar — inset days, sports days, trips, bake sales and so on. Adding one takes three short stages: create it, submit it, then publish it.

Step 1 — Open the calendar list

1. In the left menu, under Items, click Calendar. You'll see any existing events with their status, dates and who created them.
2. Click Add Calendar Item at the top right.

Step 2 — Fill in the details

Complete the form. Fields marked with a red asterisk (*) are required.

• Title — the event name shown in the app.
• Description — what the event is.
• Starts at / Ends at — the date and time, using the 24-hour clock.
• Categories — tick any that apply (e.g. Year 1, Sports, Trips). These let parents filter the calendar and help you target the right audience.
• Access groups — leave all unticked to show the event to everyone, or tick specific groups (Governors, PTA and so on) to limit who can see it.

When you're done, click Create. (Create & create another saves this event and immediately opens a fresh blank form for the next one.)

Step 3 — Submit, then publish

A new event isn't live straight away. It moves through three stages:

1. Draft — after you click Create, the event is saved as a draft. Check it over, then click Submit at the top right.
2. Submitted — the status changes to Submitted and a green Publish button appears. Click Publish to make the event live in the app.
3. Published — the event is now live and visible to your chosen audience.

Adding a file? Once an event has been created, an Attachments section appears on its page where you can add PDFs and documents — the same as for news posts (see Step 5 of Posting news).

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5. Creating a survey

Surveys let you gather feedback from parents and pupils through the app. You build one in two stages — first the survey's details, then its questions. Results come back anonymously, and each device can complete a survey only once.

Step 1 — Create the survey

1. In the left menu, under Items, click Surveys, then click Add Survey Item.
2. Complete the details: a Title of your survey (required), an optional Description, and the Visible from / Visible until dates — these control when the survey appears in the app, and notifications follow the same rule described under Posting news.
3. Choose Categories and Access groups just as you would for any other post.
4. Click Create. You'll then move on to adding your questions.

Step 2 — Add your questions

After creating the survey you land on its page, where you build it up one question at a time.

1. Click Add Survey Question (top right).
2. In the pop-up, type your question and choose a Question type (for example, Multiple Choice).
3. Under Survey options, type each answer. Click Add another option for more; use the arrows to reorder an option or the bin icon to remove one.
4. Click Create to save the question. Repeat Add Survey Question for each further question — a survey can have as many as you need.

The survey's page has two tabs: Survey Questions and Attachments. To add a PDF or file to the survey, switch to the Attachments tab and click Add Attachment — the same as for news posts.

Step 3 — Submit and publish

As with news and calendar posts, the survey starts as a Draft. Click Submit, then Publish to make it live. It will then appear in the app between your Visible from and Visible until times.

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6. Contacts

The Contacts section holds the useful phone numbers, addresses, email addresses and websites that appear in your app, so parents can reach the right place quickly.

Each contact has a Contact type — Address, Telephone Number, Email Address or Website — shown as a coloured label in the list, along with the details parents will see.

To add or change a contact:

1. Under Admin, click Contacts, then click Add Contact (or Edit next to an existing contact).
2. Choose the Contact Type — Address, Telephone Number, Email Address or Website.
3. Give the contact a Title — the label parents see, such as "Absence Reporting".
4. Enter the detail in the Content box — the phone number, email address or website. (If you chose Address, you'll get address and postcode fields to fill in instead.)
5. Click Create. The contact then appears in your app's contacts area.

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7. Access Groups

Access groups let you make certain posts visible only to a particular audience — for example a Governors group, a PTA group, or the Senior Management Team. Each group has a Code, which is how members join the group in the app.

To create or change a group:

1. Under Admin, click Access Groups.
2. Click Add Access Group at the top right, or Edit next to an existing group.
3. Give the group a Name and Description, and set a Code — members enter this code in the app to join the group and see its posts.
4. Save.

Once a group exists, it appears as a tick-box under Access groups whenever you create a news post, calendar event or survey — tick it to limit that post to members of the group.

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8. App Menu

The App Menu controls the order of the tiles parents see in your app. Each tile is one of your categories (Year 1, Sports, Trips and so on). To change the order:

1. Under Admin, click App Menu.
2. Drag the tiles into the order you'd like them to appear in the app.
3. Click Save.

To add or remove a tile, or change its colour or icon, use Manage Categories (next section). A category only appears here if its Show in menu setting is switched on.

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9. Manage Categories

Categories are the labels you attach to posts (Year 1, Sports, Trips and so on). They do two jobs: they let parents filter what they see, and — when Show in menu is switched on — they appear as tiles in the app's menu (which you order under App Menu).

Each category has a Name, a Description, a Colour and an Icon (used for its tile), and a Show in menu toggle. To add or change one:

1. Under Admin, click Manage Categories.
2. Click Add Category at the top right, or Edit next to an existing one.
3. Set the Name, Description, Colour and Icon, and switch Show in menu on if you want it to appear as a tile in the app.
4. Save. If you've added or removed a menu tile, go to App Menu to set its position.

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10. Users

The Users section lists everyone who can sign in to manage your app. The number beside Users in the menu shows how many management accounts you currently have.

1. Under Admin, click Users to see everyone with management access, listed by name and email address.
2. Click Add User at the top right to give someone new access, or Edit next to a person to change their details or access.

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This guide covers the everyday tasks in the management portal. New features — such as Access Groups and password reset — will be available as they go live.