Setting up activity groups

An activity group is a specific instance of an activity in a specific term — Football 2026 Term 2, Senior Concert Band 2026 Term 3. It’s where the signup window, price, capacity and rules for this term live. The underlying activity (see Setting up activity content) sits above it as the catalogue entry.

Where to set them up

From the activity, choose New activity group, or go to Co-Curricular → Activity Groups → New.

Core fields

• Name — usually . Football 2026 Term 2. Keep the format consistent so the group list sorts cleanly.
• Activity — pick the parent activity.
• Term and year — when this group runs.
• Campus — for multi-campus schools, the campus this group belongs to.

Signup settings

These control who can sign up and when:

• Signup open date and Signup close date — the window during which parents/students can sign up.
• Student signup — students can sign themselves up.
• Parent signup — parents can sign their children up (often used for the same activity group, particularly where parental consent matters).
• Max capacity — total places. Once filled, additional signups go to the waitlist if enabled.
• Has waitlist — tick to allow waitlist signups after max capacity is reached.
• Invite only — only students who have been explicitly invited can sign up. Useful for selective trials or top-grade teams.
• External registration — links to an external provider (e.g. Sportstime). PortalHQ doesn’t take the signup; it just points parents at the link.

Payment settings

• Price — what parents pay per student. Inherits from the activity by default but can be overridden per group.
• Has tuition — for individual lessons (music tuition, learn-to-swim), enables the tutor assignment workflow.
• Has pay later — allows parents to defer payment.
• Includes GST — whether the price is GST-inclusive.

Eligibility

• Year groups — which year levels can sign up to this group. Defaults from the activity but can be overridden (e.g. the senior team for a sport that runs across multiple year groups).
• No teams — tick if the group runs without team structure (choir, club, big-ensemble music). The activity group has students directly without intermediate Team records.

Terms and conditions

• Tandc required — if ticked, parents must accept terms before signup completes.
• T&Cs text — the body of the terms.

If your school has school-wide default T&Cs, those apply unless overridden here.

Newsroom tag

PortalHQ auto-generates a Newsroom mailing list tag for the group (e.g. Football 2026 Term 2). Parents who sign their child up get added to that tag — useful for Newsroom campaigns targeting just that activity.

After setup

Once the activity group is saved:

1. Add teams — see Setting up teams — unless No teams is ticked.
2. Assign Teacher in Charge — see Assigning teachers in charge to activities.
3. Open signups by setting the open date.
4. Manage signups as they come in — see Managing signups.
5. Schedule sessions for the group — see Setting up fixtures.

Copying a group from a previous term

For recurring activities, the fastest setup is to copy the previous term’s group:

1. Open the previous group.
2. Choose Copy.
3. Set the new term and year.
4. Adjust price, capacity and signup dates.
5. Save.

The copy carries forward most settings, but you’ll need to:

• Update teams (most schools rebuild teams each term).
• Open fresh signups (last term’s signups don’t carry across).
• Schedule new sessions.