Custom fields and second contacts

Keep your own details on families, students and tutors, such as a pickup contact or a medical plan, and record a second parent or carer.

Updated 18 October 2026

Why this exists

Details such as who picks a child up, an allergy or a medical plan often end up in notes, emails or someone's memory, where a tutor cannot find them when it matters. Custom fields give your centre a proper place for them on each family, student and tutor, and safety fields are shown to the student's tutor. You can also record a second parent or carer so the right person is contacted.

Custom fields let your centre keep details the portal does not ask for by default. Safety fields are marked and shown to the student's tutor.

Before you start

Setting up fields needs settings.edit and two-step sign-in.
Filling in a family's or student's fields needs families.edit. A tutor's fields are on their user page.
If the page says "Custom fields are not switched on yet", they are not switched on for your centre yet. Ask your centre's admin.

Set up your fields

Open Settings > Custom fields.
Press Add the safety set to add a ready-made set: pickup contact name and phone, medical or asthma plan, allergies, may leave on their own, photo or recording note, learning or behaviour needs, emergency contacts, and a tutor's medical note.
To add your own, use Add a field: choose who it is for (families, students or tutors), a field name and a type (short text, long text, yes or no, date, pick one or number). For a pick-one field, list the choices one per line.
Tick Safety field if the student's tutor should see it.
Press Add field. Use Up and Down to change the order.

Archive hides a field and keeps what was saved. Restore brings it back.

Fill them in

A family's fields and each child's fields are on the family page.
A tutor sees a student's safety fields, read only, on the student's page.

Second contacts

A second parent or carer who does not sign in can be added on the family page under Second contact: name, email, phone, relationship, and whether they may pick the child up. A family can have up to three. Parents can see theirs on their settings page but cannot change them.

For a pickup person who is not a parent or carer, use the student's pickup contact fields instead.

Good to know

Custom field values are never sent to an AI model, put in an email or written to a log.