We’re excited to introduce SchoolsBuddy's all-new Sports Portal, designed to elevate the sports experience for international and independent schools globally! Whether you're a staff member, parent, or student, the portal offers an all-in-one solution for managing and viewing school sports fixtures and results.
From upcoming matches to past results, the Sports Portal delivers a comprehensive overview at a glance. Staff can enjoy complete visibility of fixtures, set favourite teams, and get immediate access to results as soon as they're posted. Plus, with real-time updates on match results, stats, and reports, the Sports Portal keeps everyone in the loop - during and after the game.
Streamline your match day prep with downloadable team sheets and stay ahead of the game. Whether you’re a Head of Sports, Athletics Director or Activities Coordinator, the Sports Portal is your one-stop platform to professionalise your programme. The portal’s modern, sleek interface brings a premium experience to staff, students, and families alike, ensuring every aspect of your school’s sports offering is managed efficiently and seamlessly.
Check out our on-demand webinar recording which offers an in-depth look at the Sports Portal and all the ways it can revolutionise your school's sports programme
Here's our FAQ from the session:
Q: Do I need to recreate older groups that were made prior to the sports portal update to access the features?
No, you'll just need to edit the setting Include in Sports Portal in Reception > Groups. If you have already created fixtures for the group in Organising these will be displayed in the Sports Portal - see our Quickstart Guide to Sports Portal Settings for help.
Q: Can the parents just see their children in the sports portal? As opposed to seeing everyone?
No, parents will see all the team members selected to play. If you want to keep student names private you can disable the names in the Settings > Sports Portal panel as a Super Admin user. Parents would just see a number of "Team Members" displayed instead. The portal was designed for showcasing team sports and encouraging community spirit so it includes all teams your school choose to highlight (using the Groups > Include in Sports Portal setting). If parents only want to see what activities their child is participating in, the best place to see this is in their Diary/Calendar.
Q: Do the Sports portal events and trips dovetail with all the other areas - CCAs, Transport & Wrap around care?
Yes, in a CCA Signup the events created are the same as "Practice" events in the Sports Portal - an event for all the team, repeating weekly. These can be seen in the Sports Portal by staff, looking at the Events in the Diary/Calendar for their group. These events are not shown on the main Sports Portal fixtures page - only competitive events with Opponents are shown in upcoming fixtures and results. All Sports events interact with Transport timetables, so if a student has a Sports event at a time that pushes them onto a later transport option they will be removed from their regular Transport choice to their later preference. Our training team can advise on how to set up your Transport timetables in case you need to make adjustments for Sporting events that run later than your usual late options. The Sports Portal has not been designed to accommodate or interact with wraparound care activities.
Q: The Activities assistant in our school would have to use Organising for all curricular trips and the DOA would use the Sports Portal for fixtures? Is this going to be possible?
Yes, absolutely. You can still use the Organising module for anything you'd like to. We are planning to upgrade Trip creation and management functions in a similar way to how we've upgraded Sports events, but Organising will still be available to use alongside the new options. When we have fully upgraded all the features you use in Organising, we'll give notice to say when it will be removed so you have plenty of time to try out new features. We're hoping you'll find them simple and easy to use, that your staff are guided through steps clearly, and you don't need to worry about remembering how to do something - let us know how it goes!
Q: I've noticed that there is only a small character limit for consent forms and vital information. Is there scope to increase this?
Currently the onscreen Consent Message is limited to 255 characters (1-2 sentences) as it is designed to be a direct request for consent: "Please give consent for this event". There is also the option to add up to 10,000 characters (about 1,600 words) in Terms and Conditions. The Vital Information and Additional Information fields for communications are limited to 500 characters each (about 80 words, or one paragraph) and there is now the option to present Portal links (Policies, Seasonal Notices etc.) in Invitations. We need to consider the impact of changes to these limits on web and mobile devices so please tell us more about how you want to use these in our Product Portal.
Q: Do we know around when the Organising function will no longer be in use?
There is no set date yet. We are busy upgrading the other features that customers use Organising for (Trips, Camps, Residentials, Lessons, Assemblies etc. ). When these are available we will send you updates by email and on our blog, and hold a webinar to introduce them. We will set a long notice period and send emails to all our customers to confirm when the Organising section will be removed.
Q: When Organising is removed, will there be a separate trips section to the Sports Portal itself?
Yes, we're planning to introduce a new, separate Trips Portal - a dashboard view like the Sports Portal - designed for staff only, to help Trip Coordinators oversee the management of all trips in one place.
Q: I would like to inquire specifically for the Custom form with below questions:
+ What kind of data fields could be use (ex: drop down, date, ...);
+ Are there any constraint to ensure data accuracy (ex: User could not enter text in the Datetime field,...)
+ Our school require parent to upload some documents, is it possible to set up the "Upload fields" in the custom form?
The answer types we offer are: Text (short answer), Notes (Long answer), Number, Date, Dropdown menu of options, Boolean (select/deselect) and Email. There is validation on date, email and number fields. We don't currently offer document uploads although this feature is gathering votes in our Product Portal so please add your feedback here. Please see our Custom Forms guide for more information.
Q: Is it possible to organise the drop down venues in alphabetical order and have the option to press the first letter to take you down the menu automatically?
We will take a look into it. If you have more than one location there is a search option where you can type the first letter in and see less options.
Q: Is it possible to generalise the teams ? e.g. if the whole year group is involved but the teams are not selected in advance i.e. we don't have 1st, 2nd or 3rd teams published
Only groups that are set to show in Sports Portal will be visible, and they display by activity category, so to achieve this we would recommend creating a group containing students from the whole year group and setting the category to the relevant sport.
Q: Can you only list the sports that take place in each season (in each container)?
Sports are displayed by the Groups > Include in Sports Portal setting which you can change in all areas where you manage Groups: Reception > Groups, Activities & Clubs Admin > Preference Based Signup > Groups and Sports Portal > Group screens. Archived groups are not shown, so if you are using the Activities & Clubs signup module as well we recommend archiving the container and all old groups after the season has ended to remove any old groups from view.
Q: Will the portal be as easy to use as the desktop platform?
Currently the Sports Portal is available on the web only. It can be accessed in a browser on a mobile device and we plan to upgrade our mobile app in the future. As of now, the mobile app has been updated to accommodate the new Invitation and Diary features (parents will still see Invitations on the home tab) and staff using the app will have access to the new 'Form data' tab to see any custom form answers from registers in their Diary.
Q: Is this a separate portal to regular activities/trips/conferences portal available to Parents? Or is it an add on?
When parents log in to SchoolsBuddy on the web they will see the Sports Portal as an additional button on their home page, just like Staff see it on their homepage. It is in addition to all the current features which focus on their children's activities - the Sports Portal is a new place to share news about competitive events and foster engagement with the school community. This is an upgrade to SchoolsBuddy's core package so there is no add-on charge. As per the question above, this is only available on a web browser currently. We plan to upgrade the mobile app at a later date.
Q: Are we able to include live links of online consent forms we use?
Yes, the text editor for Consent Message has an option to Insert Links. You can also add links to the Vital Information, Additional Information or Terms and Conditions.
Q: Before we roll out to parents could you develop some simple how to videos for parents that we could share? This would help immensely.
Sure, we've just added a new page SchoolsBuddy's Sports Portal and Invitations to the Parent Help section.
Q: Is it possible to edit multiple events at the same time? e.g. If a year group has 3 or 4 teams playing at the same time. Can I place pupils in multiple team sheets and edit the details start time, finish location etc. or do you have to edit each individually?
Currently, events are created individually unless they are a repeating event for the same team. Copying or adding multiple events is high on the priority list for a future update. Our next step is to gather feedback from our customers about what settings they need to quickly add multiple events so we can design the most efficient way of doing this. Please add your feedback to our Product Portal as this helps us to understand how your school organises events and prioritise which new features are most important to our customers.
Q: Where do the photos/avatars come from? Where are they stored in the system?
If you are using ManageBac we can sync student photos from your ManageBac site. If you are not, you can upload them via SFTP in a one-time (termly/yearly) batch upload. Contact help@schoolsbuddy.com to find out more.
Q: What if it’s just friendlies with three or more schools? How is the team costume set?
There's an option to create Friendlies in the event types. When you create events you can customise the opponent's team kit.
Q: How does the costs systems on SchoolsBuddy link to my finance department? We currently do not use this but I would like to explore this option privately with my finance department.
SchoolsBuddy's Fees module offers comprehensive management and reporting of financial transactions. Contact your School Experience Manager or book a demonstration here.
Q: Can we add the form after saving the details on sports portal?
Unfortunately not. Forms have to be added while creating your event.
Q: In settings, can a standard template be set up for fixtures - for example, they all start at 1530 and that is what comes up for each event across all users.
Not currently, but that's a great idea - we'll pass it on to our Product Team.
Q: How far ahead can the fixtures be added and be seen by admin?
You can add fixtures as far ahead as you like. The default view in the Sports Portal's upcoming fixtures view is for the next month, but you can change the date range to see more.
Q: Does quick re-invite only go to students who have not responded already?
Yes, re-inviting sends another email (and push notification if they have enabled them) to those that have not responded yet.
Q: Where can I see the Terms & Condition message?
If there are Terms and Conditions or a Custom form on the event, these will be presented in a pop-up window after parents press the button to consent and they will need to check a box to confirm they have read them.
Q: Is there a way to copy and edit a previous fixture/match when organising? Instead of starting from scratch for each match you organise?
Not currently, but copying or adding multiple events is high on the priority list for a future update. Our next step is to gather feedback from our customers about what settings they need to quickly add multiple events so we can design the most efficient way of doing this. Please add your feedback to our Product Portal as this helps us to organise your feedback and find customers we can talk to, to gather insights.
Q: When an event is created - for example a match or tournament - can all of the allocated coaches/supervisors see the responses, or does this need be be sent to them by the event creator?
Yes, all Internal staff members linked to the group will be able to create and manage their own events, including viewing form responses from the register. External coaches can also see the answers and even create their own events if you allow them to do so - see our Permissions guide for more information or contact the Support team to request a permissions change.
Q:Is there a way to add multiple groups to a single event? We have a groups for girls and boys. They train on different days, but games are always at the same time and place.
Not currently. Please add your feedback to our Product Portal as this helps us to understand how your school organises events and prioritise which new features are most important to our customers.
Q: Is it also possible to use this for ski racing or Ice Skating event organisation ? Because it is not a sport of team.. (recording timing, etc.)
Yes. If your school has a sport or activity they want to showcase and we don't have statistics relevant to it please contact our Support team and tell us what score or statistic type you want to record. All the Event types shown in Sports Portal are competitive fixtures (Match, Cup, Friendly, Tournament...) but we can add others to suit your purposes. You can enter a title for the event instead of the Opponent name e.g. Autumn term time trials.
Q: When adding an event under the selection bracket has the no consent function required send/notify button been fixed?
Yes. There was a case of some events without consent getting stuck when we released the update. This was quickly addressed and all affected events have been fixed.
Q: What are the key differences between the Sport Portal and the Organising?
There are quite a few new features in the Sports Portal which you'll see in the Webinar recording and Slides, but the overall aim of this upgrade was to promote team spirit and unity in your school community, bringing parents, students, and staff together through a shared passion for sports. Organising is a place for staff to create and manage events, but the Sports Portal is a hub to engage your community, to share your highs and lows and celebrate your achievements together.
Q: We noticed there is an issue with older Organising features regarding consent - we can't send parent communications when we do not require consent, it somehow sends communications to students instead. How do we avoid this issue from the older Organising feature? Are we forced to use Sports Portal?
This is how non-consent events in Organising work. One of the reasons that we introduced the Sports Portal is to give more visibility and flexibility for communications in event creation and management. The features in Organising are less transparent, so we do recommend switching to Sports Portal events. Our team will be happy to help with training or discuss any concerns you have.
Q: Can someone book on a sports competition when they have an ECA already on the same day.
Yes, a student can be invited to a Sports fixture on a day that they already have an ECA or other activity. They will have both activities in their diary and would need to inform staff themselves which activity they choose to attend. The only events that will be updated automatically are Transport events, where the students will be removed from Transport events at a clashing time (and added to a later option if configured).
Q: When you send the consent email, is there a way that both the students and parents get the email but only parents can consent? Sometimes our parents miss the email but if the students receive it too, they are likely to remind them.
Yes, the settings for Communications and who will give consent are separate, so you can send emails to both students and parents, but request consent from parents only if you choose. There are also new consent options for both students and parents to give consent, or either students or parents.
Q: Is there a CSV file to upload the games (fixtures)? Rather than manual upload?
Not currently. One of the next items on our roadmap is building a Public API, which will be the foundation for developing new import features. Please add your feedback to our Product Portal as this helps us to prioritise which new features are most important to our customers.