Getting Started

Welcome to Ask.School — the AI-powered assistant platform built for schools, colleges, and universities. This guide walks you through everything you need to get started, from creating your account to having your first chatbot conversation.

What is Ask.School?

Ask.School lets your school deploy AI chatbots that answer questions from staff, students, and parents using your own school information. You upload documents, add knowledge topics, connect calendars — and the chatbot handles the rest. Every conversation is automatically monitored for safeguarding.

Schools typically use Ask.School for:

  • Reception and front-office queries — Parents asking about term dates, uniform, admissions, or contact details
  • IT helpdesk support — Staff and students getting help with common technical issues
  • New starter onboarding — Pointing new staff or parents to the right policies and procedures

Free Trial

Every new school gets a 14-day free trial with full access to all features and up to 200 students included. No credit card is required to start. When the trial ends, subscribe to keep your chatbots active.

Setup Checklist

Here’s the recommended order for getting your school up and running. Most schools complete this in under an hour.

1. Create your account

Sign up with your school email address, verify it, and log in. If a colleague has already created your school, they can invite you instead — you’ll receive an email link to join.

2. Create your school

Once logged in, create your school by entering your organisation name, slug, website URL, and main school email. Ask.School generates a unique URL slug (e.g. your-school-name) that you’ll use to access your dashboard and share chatbot links. If you manage multiple schools or a MAT, see Managing Multiple Schools.

3. Configure your school profile

Go to School Profile in the sidebar under Your School (see School Profile Settings) and fill in:

  • Basic Information — School logo, school name, website URL, primary school calendar URL, main school email, and preferred language
  • School Profile — A description of your school that the AI uses to answer general questions. Click Auto-generate to create one from your website automatically.

4. Add your contacts and notification emails

Open Contacts in the sidebar under Your School to add the people and email addresses your chatbot can refer users to and where notifications are sent. The page is organised into:

  • General Contacts — Office, reception, and other day-to-day points of contact
  • Safeguarding Contacts — Where safeguarding alerts are sent and who chatbots can refer users to for safeguarding concerns
  • Other Contacts — Absence reporting, admissions, finance, and any other named contact you want available

5. Add your school sites

If your school operates across multiple locations (e.g. a lower school and an upper school), open School Sites from the sidebar to add each location with its own address, phone, email, and safeguarding contact.

6. Upload your documents

Go to Documents under Knowledge in the sidebar, and upload the key files you want your chatbot to know about:

  • School prospectus
  • Behaviour and safeguarding policies
  • Admissions information and FAQs
  • Staff and parent handbooks
  • Term dates and timetables

Supported formats: PDF, DOCX, TXT, MD, and CSV (max 100 MB per file). Documents are processed automatically and added to your chatbot’s knowledge.

7. Add knowledge topics

Go to School Knowledge under Knowledge in the sidebar, and add knowledge topics for your most common queries. Each topic gives the chatbot ideal answers that take priority over document search. Good examples:

  • “What time does school start?” → “Registration is at 8:30am. Students should arrive by 8:25am.”
  • “How do I report an absence?” → “Call 01234 567890 or email [email protected] before 8:30am.”
  • “What is the school uniform?” → Full details including supplier information.

8. Set your style guide (optional)

Go to Style Guide under Knowledge in the sidebar, and write an example response in the tone you want your chatbot to use. This helps the AI match your school’s communication style — whether that’s warm and informal, or professional and structured.

9. Connect calendars (optional)

Go to Calendars under Your School in the sidebar, and add ICS/iCal feeds from Google Calendar, Outlook, SOCS, or Apple Calendar. The chatbot can then answer questions about upcoming events, parents’ evenings, and term dates.

10. Connect your MIS (optional)

If your school uses SIMS, Arbor, Bromcom, or another MIS, go to Wonde Sync under Settings in the sidebar to connect via Wonde. This automatically syncs students, staff, and class groups — saving you from manually importing users.

11. Create your first chatbot

Go to Creating Chatbots and set up your first AI assistant from the + Add Chatbot button on the dashboard:

  • Give it a name (e.g. “School Assistant” or “IT Helpdesk”)
  • Choose a brand colour to match your school identity
  • Write a welcome message
  • Set the system prompt — instructions that tell the AI how to behave
  • Choose which audiences (staff, students, parents) can access it

12. Test and share

Open the Chat Interface and try asking your chatbot some questions. Check the answers are accurate, adjust your knowledge if needed, then share the chatbot link with your school community using the Copy button on the Share this link with parents banner above the chatbots panel.

Key Concepts

Concept What it means
Organisation Your school or institution. Everything — chatbots, documents, users — belongs to an organisation.
School Site An additional physical location belonging to the same school (e.g. lower and upper school). Sites share chatbots, documents, and users.
Contacts & Notifications Named people and email addresses used for chatbot answers and system notifications — including safeguarding contacts and absence reporting.
Chatbot An AI assistant configured with specific instructions, knowledge, and access controls. You can create multiple chatbots for different purposes.
Documents Files you upload (PDF, DOCX, etc.) that the chatbot reads and uses to answer questions.
School Knowledge Curated topics that give the chatbot ideal responses to common questions. These take priority over document search.
Website Content Pages discovered from your school website that can be selectively included in the chatbot’s knowledge.
Groups Collections of users (Staff, Students, Parents) with configurable permissions. Used to control who can access which chatbots.
Safeguarding Alerts Automatic flags raised when a conversation contains concerning content. Alerts are emailed to your designated safeguarding contact.

Next Steps