Help

Help is where you ask the service a question. It answers straight away where it can, and hands you to a person where it cannot.

Where to find it: the help icon, or Help on the menu

Asking

Type the question as you would ask it out loud — "when is my daughter's next lesson", "why have I been charged twice this term", "how do I stop lessons in the summer". You do not need to know what the service calls things.

While it is working out the answer you can carry on reading; it does not need you to sit and wait.

If the answer is not enough

Two things on every conversation:

• Ask for a person — hands the conversation to the service, with everything you have already said attached. You do not have to explain it again.
• Mark as done — closes it off when you are satisfied.

Your earlier questions stay listed, so you can go back to an answer rather than asking twice.

What it is good at, and what to take to a person

It is quick and accurate on how things work, where to find something, and what a word on the Portal means. Take to a person anything about your particular money, a decision somebody has to make, or anything urgent about a child — those need somebody who can act, not just explain.

You do not have to be signed in

You can ask a question before you have an account. Asking creates a contact record so the service can reply, and that is all — it does not sign you up for anything.

See also

• Messages — writing to a particular teacher
• My Finance — what you owe, before you ask about it