Notices can be targeted at specific staff groups — by department, by role, by year level, by location. Targeted notices only appear in the digest and the today’s notices view for the relevant staff, reducing noise for everyone else.
Available group types
PortalHQ supports several group dimensions you can target on:
| Group type | Examples |
|---|---|
| Access groups | Custom groups defined by your school. Maths Department, Pastoral Team, Boarding Staff. |
| Year groups | Year 7 staff, Year 12 staff. |
| Roles | Heads of Department, Deputy Principals. |
| Campuses | Main Campus staff, Junior School staff. |
| Whole school | Default if no targeting set — all active staff see it. |
You can combine multiple groups on one notice. The notice appears to anyone matching any of the targeted groups (OR logic, not AND).
Setting targets on a notice
When creating or editing a notice:
- Open the Audience or Target groups section.
- Pick one or more groups from the dropdown.
- Save.
If you set no targets, the notice goes to everyone.
Setting up access groups
Access groups are the most flexible targeting dimension. To set one up:
- Go to your school’s permission/groups settings (typically under Members → Groups or similar).
- Create a new group with a clear name (e.g. Maths Department).
- Add staff members to the group.
Once an access group exists, it shows in the notice targeting dropdown.
Common targeting patterns
| Pattern | Why |
|---|---|
| Whole school | Genuinely whole-school notices (assembly times, term dates, IT outages). |
| Specific department | Department-internal communications (curriculum changes, staff meetings). |
| Year-level pastoral team | Year-level issues (event prep, parent concerns at that year level). |
| Cross-group | Wellbeing team + relevant year coordinators when escalating an individual student concern. |
Targeting students or parents
By default, notices are staff-only. Some schools extend the module to target students or parents:
- Students — notices appear on the student dashboard. Useful for student-relevant announcements (school assembly, lunch arrangements).
- Parents — notices appear on the parent dashboard. Less common — most parent communications go via Newsroom instead.
If you want to enable student or parent targeting, talk to your portal admin.
Untargeted notices (whole school)
A notice with no target groups appears to all active staff. Use this for:
- Whole-school operational changes.
- Calendar / term reminders.
- Universal IT or office announcements.
Don’t default to whole-school out of laziness — staff fatigue from notices that don’t apply to them reduces attention on the ones that do.
Auditing targeting
Periodically review who’s seeing what:
- Open the today’s notices view as a sample staff member.
- Check that the list matches what they’d expect.
- Look for notices that shouldn’t apply to them (too-broad targeting) or notices missing that should apply (under-broad targeting).
If the digest list is overwhelming for some staff, narrow your targeting. If staff are missing notices, broaden.
Tips
- Use access groups for most targeting. Year-level and role-based targeting works but access groups give you more flexibility.
- Keep access group membership tidy. A group with 100 members defeats the purpose — break into smaller groups if it sprawls.
- Test targeting via preview. Use the digest preview (see Configuring the daily digest) with a sample member to confirm the targeting works.
- Document group purposes. A note on each access group describing who should be in it makes maintenance easier when a new admin takes over.