A family login
A parent signs in once and switches between their children. Older students can have their own login with the access you decide, and a child’s details never show to another family.
Academies × Client portals
Parents and students find it themselves.
One login for the family: timetables, fees and instalments, homework, progress reports, announcements and messages to the school, all on the phone. Tutors get their own view on the same system. A client portal designed for how a school talks to families.
Sound familiar?
Term starts and the same twelve questions arrive again.
What time is Tuesday’s class? Has the second instalment been received? Is there a make-up for last week? Where do I find the practice notes? Each reply is quick, and together they fill a week. Parents don’t want to ring; they want the answer on their phone. Tutors want to log a lesson once and have it reach the parent.
- Timetable changes go out in group messages that half the parents miss.
- Parents with several children get several emails for each one.
- Progress reports are PDFs emailed one by one.
- Fee reminders feel awkward to send and awkward to receive when they are done by hand.
- Tutors keep lesson notes somewhere the office can’t see.
What gets built
The parts, shaped to you.
Pick the ones you need. Each is built around how your team already works, then joined up on one set of data.
Timetable and changes
A live timetable with notifications when a class moves or is cancelled, and a link to book a make-up within your rules.
Fees and instalments
What is due, what has been paid and the next instalment date, with card payment and receipts. Reminders arrive before the due date and escalate if it is missed.
Homework and resources
Tutors set homework and share resources, practice notes, sheet music or reading lists. Students find them under their class rather than in a chat history.
Progress reports
Reports written by tutors in the system and published when ready, kept as a history so a family can look back through the year.
Announcements and messages
School-wide or class-only announcements, and threaded messages with the office or a tutor that land against the student’s record.
Tutor portal
Schedule, registers, lesson logs, reports and messages for tutors in one dashboard, so what they enter reaches the family and the office without duplication.
Installable and on your domain
Your branding and address, installable on the home screen so it behaves like an app. A native app on the same backend is an option if you want store presence.
Connects to
- Your student records
- Stripe
- Google sign-in
- Google Calendar
- Gmail
- Google Drive
A good fit if
- Parents and students regularly ask about timetables, fees or reports.
- Fees are paid in instalments and reminders take the office’s time.
- Tutors need to enter lessons, homework and reports somewhere the school can see.
- You already have student records and timetables in a system the portal can build on.
Not the right call if
- A small group class with a handful of families. A WhatsApp group and a payment link are fine.
- You expect the portal to replace the student management behind it. It shows and collects; the record still needs a home.
Proof
Built before, running now.
MCMA is the named case, a music academy. The parent and guardian side is the same portal pattern with family links, which I’d agree with you rather than assume.
Education · LiveMCMA
Student and tutor portals: schedule, payments, resources, rescheduling, progress reports, homework and messages, on one system with the admin.
Read the case study Music & events · LiveMusicPlaygroundA curator portal with live sales, analytics and payout bills, plus locked-down ticket access, shipped with 35 security-rule test cases.
Read the case studyHow it runs
From first call to daily use.
The same five steps on every project, sized to yours.
- 01A short call or the quote builder
Tell me how the business runs today: the tools, the workarounds, the bit that drives you mad. The quote builder takes about five minutes and gives me a scoped brief.
- 02A fixed quote, in phases
I reply with a fixed price and a phase plan. The must-haves go first, so you are using the system while the rest is still being built.
- 03Previews as it’s built
You see the real system on a private link while it is being built, with your own data in it as early as possible. Changes are cheap at this stage, so this is where we make them.
- 04Your data moved across
Spreadsheets, an old system, email threads: the data comes with you, checked against the source so nothing is lost on the way.
- 05Launch, then care
Your team gets a walkthrough, and I stay on for fixes and new features, either on a monthly support plan or pay as you go.
FAQ
Questions, answered.
Can one parent manage several children?
Yes. A guardian account links to each child and switches between them, while another family’s children stay invisible. Siblings can share a single payment and statement.
Is children’s data protected?
Access is by role and enforced on the server, guardians manage minors’ accounts and changes are logged. I don’t claim certifications; the data protection set-up is agreed in the proposal before real student data is loaded.
Can parents pay fees through the portal?
Yes. Card payments, instalment plans and coupons through Stripe, with receipts and reminders. MCMA’s portal does exactly this.
Do students need a native app?
No. Portals work in the phone browser and install to the home screen. If you want an app in the stores, it can run on the same backend.
Does the portal need the student system first?
It does need the records, timetable and fees to exist. They can be built together with student management and class booking, in phases: records first, portal second.
What do tutors see?
Tutors see their own classes and students only: the schedule, the register, homework they have set, lesson notes and reports they are writing, and messages from families about their classes. They don’t see fees or other tutors’ students unless you give them that role. What a tutor enters once reaches the family and the office without anyone retyping it.
Go deeper
Read next, then decide.
ServiceClient portals
A secure login for clients: invoices, documents, bookings, payments and messages.
IndustryAcademies & schoolsApplications, enrolment, timetables, fees and student and tutor portals.
SystemStudent management systemApplications, levels, groups, attendance, fees and agents for language schools and academies.
SystemClass booking and timetable systemTimetables, class capacity, rooms, tutors, make-up sessions, packs and waitlists, synced to calendars.
Case studyMCMAA music academy run end to end from one platform: applications, scheduling, payments, portals and programmes.
Case studyMusicPlaygroundMalta’s alternative music community on one platform: events, tickets, memberships and curator payouts, built with the MusicPlayground team.
IntegrationStripeCheckout, deposits, subscriptions and payment links tied to your invoices and bookings.
ComparisonCustom vs off-the-shelfWhen to buy a product, when to build one, and when to do a bit of both.
Often built together
Related systems.
Client portals
A secure login for clients: invoices, documents, bookings, payments and messages.
Academies & schoolsApplications, enrolment, timetables, fees and student and tutor portals.
Custom CRMEnquiries, clients, pipeline and follow-ups in one place, shaped to how you sell.
Booking systemsOnline booking with your rules: deposits, reminders, waitlists and calendar sync.
How pricing works · Digitalise Your SME grants · All case studies
Start here
Get a fixed quote.
The quote builder opens with the parts on this page already switched on. Add or remove what you like, and I reply with a fixed quote.