PortalHQ has a dedicated mobile app for parents and students. Most of what families do with co-curricular — signing up, viewing fixtures, marking absences, getting alerts — they do in the app rather than the web portal.
This article is for staff so you understand what families see and can help them when they ring up confused.
What the app does
For parents:
- See their children’s activities and upcoming sessions.
- Sign children up to activity groups.
- View fixtures with venue, time, opposing team and bus details.
- Mark a child absent ahead of time.
- Get push notifications for alerts, cancellations and reminders.
- See SMS notifications history.
For students:
- See their own activities and fixtures.
- Mark themselves available or unavailable for selection.
- See team rosters and contact details for their coach.
For staff:
- The app is mostly designed for parents and students; staff use the web portal. There’s a limited coach view on the app for marking rolls on the go.
How parents get the app
The app is available on iOS App Store and Google Play. Search for PortalHQ (or your school’s branded version if you have a white-label app).
To log in, parents use the same credentials they use for the PortalHQ web portal.
If your school uses single sign-on, the app supports it via the standard SAML flow.
What parents see when they log in
The home screen shows:
- A summary of upcoming sessions for their children.
- Any outstanding actions (forms to fill, permissions to grant, signups closing soon).
- Recent alerts and notifications.
- Quick links to common actions.
Tabs across the bottom give access to:
- Activities — list of children’s activities and signups.
- Calendar — upcoming sessions across all children and activities.
- Forms — outstanding and submitted forms.
- Notices — school news.
- Settings — notification preferences, account details.
Push notifications
Parents and students opt in to push notifications when they install the app. Once opted in, they receive:
- Co-curricular alerts sent from the school (see Sending alerts).
- Roll reminders before sessions (for coaches with the coach view enabled).
- System notifications (forms due, signup closing, etc.).
If a parent says they’re not getting notifications:
- Check the app’s notification permission on the device (Settings → Notifications → PortalHQ).
- Check the in-app notification preferences (under Settings).
- Check that they’re logged into the right account — if they have children at two schools, they may be on the wrong tenant.
Signing up from the app
Parents can sign children up to an activity group entirely from the app:
- Tap Activities to sign up to.
- Pick the activity group.
- Pick which children to sign up.
- Tick T&Cs.
- Pay (or pay later).
The signup appears in the staff signups list immediately — see Managing signups.
Marking absences from the app
Parents tap a session and choose Mark absent. They pick a reason and submit. The absence becomes a known absence — see Creating known absences.
This is the fastest path for parents who realise on the morning of a session that their child can’t make it.
Common issues parents raise
- “I can’t see my child’s activity.” — Check the child is on the team roster. The app shows what’s assigned, not what’s signed up but unallocated.
- “The fixture details are wrong.” — A staff member needs to edit the session. The app reflects the current data; if the session is updated, the app updates within a few seconds.
- “I didn’t get the notification.” — Check device permissions (see above) and the alert log to confirm the alert went out.
- “I want to talk to the coach.” — The app shows coach contact details on the team page if your school has staff contact details visible. Otherwise, parents go via the school office.
What the app doesn’t do
- It doesn’t replace the web portal entirely. Detailed reports, admin tasks and anything involving rich text editing still go via the web.
- It doesn’t work offline. Most actions need a connection.
- It’s not where staff mark most rolls. The web roll page is more comprehensive; the app’s coach view is for in-the-field marking only.
Branding
Some schools have a white-label version of the app with school branding. If yours does, the app appears under your school’s name in the app store. Talk to your portal admin if you’d like to explore this option.