Product news

Release notes

April 21 2026

Headline Update: Groups Improvements

This release introduces a new and improved approach to Groups in ReachMoreParents. 

The update gives schools greater flexibility when managing groups, makes membership easier to maintain, and reduces the administration required to keep groups accurate throughout the academic year. 

A full video series of training is available here. 

A new approach to Groups

Groups have been redesigned to make them easier to create, manage and maintain. 

Schools can now create both: 

Static Groups – where members are added and removed manually.  

Dynamic Groups – where membership updates automatically based on rules set by the school.  

This gives schools greater control over communications while reducing the need for manual administration. 

Why?

Many schools use Groups to communicate with parents, carers and staff. 

Previously, maintaining group memberships often required manual updates whenever pupils joined, left or changed classes. 

Dynamic Groups remove much of this administration by automatically keeping memberships up to date based on the criteria defined by the school. 

This helps schools: 

• Reduce administration time
• Improve communication accuracy
• Avoid missing recipients
• Keep groups aligned with MIS data

What's new

Static Groups

Schools can continue to create groups with manually managed memberships. 

These work in the same way as traditional groups and remain useful for:

• Clubs
• Temporary projects
• One-off activities

Dynamic Groups

Schools can now create groups that automatically populate based on selected criteria. 

Examples include:

• Year groups
• Registration groups
• Classes
• Staff roles
• Houses
• SEN cohorts

Membership updates automatically when underlying data changes.

Improved management

Managing groups is now easier with:

• Clearer group type identification
• Improved membership visibility
• Improved editing and maintenance
• Better control over hidden and inactive groups

Group cloning

Schools can now create new groups more quickly by cloning existing groups and making any required adjustments. 

This reduces setup time and helps maintain consistency. 

Better membership visibility

Schools can now clearly see how a group is populated, who belongs to a group and whether membership is manual or automated.

This makes troubleshooting and management significantly easier. 

Important information

No existing groups have been removed.

Current groups remain in place and continue to function as expected. 

Schools can choose whether to continue using existing static groups or take advantage of the new dynamic options. 

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This update changes how groups are managed. 

It does not change:

• Messaging
• Newsfeed posting
• Forms targeting
• Notices
• Calendar events

Groups continue to be used throughout the platform exactly as before.

Recommended actions

We recommend that schools:

• Review their existing groups.
• Identify any groups that require regular manual updates.
• Consider whether Dynamic Groups could reduce administration.
• Familiarise themselves with the new group management options.

Helpful resources

Full Groups training series