Class Reminders for Teachers and Parents: Cut Tuition No-Shows

Most tuition owners have lived this morning: a class is scheduled for 5 pm, the teacher forgot it moved from Tuesday to Wednesday, two parents think it is cancelled because of the holiday, and one student is waiting outside a locked door. None of it is a teaching problem. It is a reminder problem, and it is usually solved with a flurry of WhatsApp messages typed by hand.

TuitionDesk can send class reminders for you, to the batch's teacher and to each enrolled student's parent. You choose when they go out and on which channels, or you can tap Remind now for a single class. This guide explains how each part works, what the limits are, and a sensible setup for a typical centre.

Two kinds of reminders

There are two separate mechanisms, and it helps to know which is which.

	Fixed pre-class alert	Configurable class reminders
Timing	About 10 minutes before an online class, about 30 minutes before an in-person class	Day before, and/or 1 to 48 hours before (you choose)
Setup	Nothing to configure	Owner switches it on and picks the schedule
Online classes	Sent only when the session has a meeting link	Any scheduled class
Counts toward the monthly reminder cap	Yes	Yes (same cap)

The configurable reminders are off until the owner turns them on, so nothing about your centre changes until you opt in. The fixed alerts are separate and are not affected by the settings below.

How to set up automatic class reminders

Open Settings, then Notifications and find the Class reminders card.

Switch Class reminders on.
Under When, tick The day before and pick the hour (for example 18:00), and/or choose one or more of 1, 2, 3, 6, 12, 24 or 48 hours before.
Under Who, choose Teachers, Parents, or both.
Under Channels, choose from In-app, App push, Email and WhatsApp.
Press Save. It takes effect on the next check, which runs every 10 minutes.

A few rules are built in so reminders stay useful rather than noisy:

At most three reminder times per class. The day-before reminder counts as one of the three, so "day before plus 2 hours before" leaves room for one more.
Each person's own time zone is used for the day-before reminder. If a parent or teacher has a time zone set, "18:00" means 18:00 for them; otherwise your centre's time zone applies. This matters for centres teaching families abroad.
No duplicates. Each reminder is recorded before it is sent, so a restart or overlapping check cannot send the same message twice.
Rescheduled classes follow the new date and time. Cancelled, postponed and completed classes are skipped.
Demo data never triggers real sends. If your centre is still showing sample data, reminders are held back.

By default, a centre that enables reminders without changing the channels gets In-app, App push and Email. WhatsApp is opt-in because it is a paid per-message channel that uses your WhatsApp credits.

What the reminder says

Teachers see something like "Maths Batch A starts in 2 hours, on Wed 28 Oct, 5:00 pm". Parents see the student's name as well: "Aarav's Maths Batch A class starts tomorrow, on Wed 28 Oct, 5:00 pm". For online and hybrid classes the message includes the meeting link. For in-person classes it currently says Location TBC, because classes do not yet carry a venue field, so keep your venue in the batch name or in your standing parent communication.

Remind now: one-tap reminder for a single class

Sometimes the schedule changes at the last minute and you do not want to wait for the next scheduled reminder. On the batch details page and the sessions list or calendar, the owner (and branch admins who can manage that batch) will see a Remind now button.

It first shows a preview: how many teachers and parents will be reached, the count per channel, and your estimated WhatsApp credit cost against your balance. Nothing is sent until you confirm.
It uses the audience and channels from your Class reminders settings (or the defaults if you never configured them).
After sending, you see a per-channel result of how many went through and how many failed, with the recipients that failed.
A 10-minute cooldown per class prevents accidental double-taps from spamming parents.
Teachers cannot send these. Only the owner or a permitted branch admin can.
Classes that are cancelled, postponed, completed or already started cannot be reminded.

Limits you should know about

Email and WhatsApp reminders share a monthly reminder allowance with the fixed pre-class alerts. In plan_config.py the monthly allowance is currently 0 on Free, 30 on Starter, 150 on Growth, and unlimited on Pro and Enterprise. These figures can change, so check the pricing page for the current plan details.

What happens at the cap is deliberate: once your centre reaches the monthly allowance, the paid channels (email and WhatsApp) stop, while push and in-app reminders continue. Push to teachers also needs the teacher portal on your plan. In practice, a small centre on a lower plan can still get day-to-day coverage from push and in-app, and keep WhatsApp for the classes that matter most.

A practical setup for a typical centre

Situation	Suggested setup
Evening school-age batches	Day before at 18:00 plus 2 hours before, to parents and teachers, via push and in-app
Weekend or exam-prep batches	Day before at 19:00 only, plus Remind now if the timing changes
Online batches with a meeting link	Rely on the fixed 10-minute alert, add a day-before reminder so the link arrives early
Centres with parents abroad	Day before, using each parent's own time zone
Only occasionally, for a reschedule	Leave automatic reminders off and use Remind now

Start with push and in-app, which cost nothing per message, and add email once you see how parents respond. Add WhatsApp only for reminders where a missed class is expensive, such as a paid demo or a mock test.

Pair reminders with the rest of your routine

Reminders work best alongside the rest of the daily workflow:

When a parent cannot make it, the parent leave notice and suggested attendance pre-fill saves the teacher a call.
Send fee follow-ups separately through automatic fee reminders, so class messages stay about class.
Keep expectations clear with attendance best practices.
For a fuller picture of every alert in the product, see the notifications guide and the push notification guide.

Frequently asked questions

Are class reminders sent automatically to every centre? No. The configurable reminders are off until the owner switches them on. The fixed 10-minute (online) and 30-minute (in-person) alerts are separate.

Can I send a reminder only to teachers? Yes. Choose Teachers under Who, or leave Parents off.

Will a rescheduled class send the old time? No. Reminders follow the rescheduled date and time, and cancelled classes are skipped.

Can a teacher press Remind now? No. It is limited to the owner and branch admins who manage that batch.

Does WhatsApp cost extra? WhatsApp reminders use your WhatsApp credits, and Remind now shows an estimate before you send.

Set it up in your centre

Create your batches, add students with a parent phone or email, then switch on Class reminders in Settings. Create your free TuitionDesk account and try the preview on your next class.