TABLE OF CONTENTS
- 1 Overview
- 2 Prerequisites
- 3 Default templates
- 4 Creating a template
- 5 Configuring a template
- 6 Publishing, withdrawing, and deleting templates
Letter templates define the content and structure of letters sent to students and parents by teachers, mentors, and headteachers. Templates are managed centrally by a system administrator and are shared across all organisations on the site.
1 Overview
Letters in itslearning are formal communications sent to students and/or parents from within attendance, behaviour, or assessment reports. Before any letters can be created, at least one published template must exist.
Templates can include static text, formatting, and field codes that automatically populate data from itslearning when a letter is created. Once a letter is created from a template, the data in that letter is static and is not updated if the underlying data changes.
2 Prerequisites
Admin setting: The Manage letter templates permission is required. This permission can be granted either on a profile or as a policy. Once granted, Letter templates becomes available in the Administration area.
3 Default templates
itslearning includes two simplified letter templates by default:
| Template | Description | Category | Edit allowed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Behaviour markdown | Notification letter, danger of not getting assessed in a behaviour grade | Behaviour | Yes |
| No basis for assessment | Notification letter, danger of not getting assessed in a course | Attendance | Yes |
These templates can be edited directly or used as the basis for new templates via the duplicate function.
Note: If you have existing templates without a category, itslearning will prompt you to add a category the next time those templates are opened for editing.
4 Creating a template
4.1 Add a new template
- Go to Administration > Letter templates.
- Click Add letter template.
- Complete the template form. See Section 5 for details on each setting.
- Click Save. The template is saved with a status of Draft.
- Publish the template to make it available to users. See Section 6.
4.2 Duplicate an existing template
- Go to Administration > Letter templates.
- Click the options menu (…) on the template you want to copy and select Duplicate.
- Edit the duplicated template as required.
- Click Save, then publish when ready.
5 Configuring a template
The template form contains the following fields:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Letter title | The name of the template as it appears in the template list and in the letter creation dialogue. |
| Short description | A brief description shown under the template title in the list view, to help users identify the correct template. |
| Language | The language of the template. Used to filter templates in the list view. |
| Available for | Controls which roles can use this template. See Section 5.1. |
| Permissions | Controls whether users can edit the title and content when creating a letter. See Section 5.3. |
| Category | Determines in which report context the template is available. See Section 5.2. |
| Template text | The letter content. Supports rich text formatting and field codes. See Section 5.4. |
5.1 Available for
The Available for checkboxes control which roles can see and use the template when creating a letter. The options are:
- Course teacher
- Mentor
- Headteacher
All three are selected by default. Deselect a role to prevent users with that role from accessing the template.
Note: The Available for setting works in combination with the category setting. A course teacher can only see templates in the Attendance category (or with no category), regardless of the Available for setting.
5.2 Category
The category determines in which report context the template is available and where the resulting letter appears for the recipient.
| Category | Available from | Letter appears on |
|---|---|---|
| Attendance | Attendance report (teachers, mentors, headteachers) | Attendance page |
| Behaviour | Behaviour report (mentors, headteachers) | Behaviour page |
| Assessment | Assessment report (mentors, headteachers) | Assessment record page |
| None (no category) | All report contexts | All report pages |
5.3 Editability
The Title and content can be edited when letter is created checkbox controls whether the user creating a letter can modify the title and content before sending.
| Setting | Behaviour |
|---|---|
| Enabled (default) | The user creating the letter can modify the title and content before sending. |
| Disabled | Title and content are locked. The letter can still be created, published, and printed. Only the visibility setting (student/parent) can be adjusted when creating the letter. |
Important: Disabling editability affects all future letters created from this template. itslearning displays a warning when this option is unchecked.
5.4 Field codes
Field codes can be inserted anywhere in the template text. When a letter is created, each code is replaced with the corresponding data from itslearning. The full list of codes is displayed below the text editor on the template page.
Note: Include the percentage sign before and after each code, for example %LEARNER%. Data is retrieved once at the time the letter is created and is not updated afterwards.
| Description | Code |
|---|---|
| Learner name | %LEARNER% |
| Learner address | %LEARNER_ADDRESS% |
| Learner birth date | %LEARNER_BIRTHDATE% |
| Title (course name) | %COURSE% |
| Author name | %AUTHOR% |
| Author email address | %AUTHOR_EMAIL% |
| Author phone number | %AUTHOR_PHONE% |
| Date of creation | %DATE% |
| Term name | %TERM% |
| Organisation name | %ORG_NAME% |
| Organisation address | %ORG_ADDRESS% |
| Attendance summary | %ATTENDANCE_SUMMARY% |
| Behaviour remark summary | %BEHAVIOUR_SUMMARY% |
| Final assessments (summary) | %FINAL_ASSESSMENTS_SUMMARY% |
| Final assessments in full | %DETAILED_FINAL_ASSESSMENTS% |
| All assessment record elements by type | %GRADEBOOK_BY_TYPE% |
| All assessment record elements by category | %GRADEBOOK_BY_CATEGORY% |
| Feedback from Mentor | %MENTOR_FEEDBACK% |
Note: %BEHAVIOUR_SUMMARY% only includes remarks that are set as visible for students, regardless of other visibility or workflow settings.
6 Publishing, withdrawing, and deleting templates
New templates are saved with a status of Draft and must be published before they are available to users. All actions are available from the options menu (…) on each template in the list.
| Action | Effect |
|---|---|
| Publish | Template becomes available for creating letters. |
| Withdraw | Template returns to Draft. No new letters can be created from it, but it can be re-published at any time. |
| Delete | Template is permanently removed. Existing letters created from the template are not affected. |