Pupil Progress reports can be generated as individual PDF files per student, containing detailed attainment and progress information that cannot be replicated within most MIS platforms.
Common school communication systems, such as SIMS or ClassCharts, don't typically support bulk uploading and distributing external PDF reports to parents. Instead, you're able to use Outlook mail merge to send reports securely and efficiently.
This article walks through:
Note: Your Pupil Progress account will need School Admin permissions to be able to complete the steps outlined below. You'll also need access to a third party mail-merge add-in that supports file attachments, such as MAPILab Mail Merge Toolkit.
Step 1: Prepare your Pupil Progress reports
Before starting a mail merge, you'll need to ensure that your Pupil Progress reports are formatted appropriately. To do this, start by creating a new report template.
To add a new report template to your school, hover over Reports at the top of the page and select Report templates from the dropdown. Click the blue button Add Report Template to begin creating your template.
Report requirements
First, you want to ensure that reports are produced as individual files, as opposed to merging all reports into one file. Then, set a consistent naming convention using the selector buttons below Possible values.
💡 Consistent file naming is essential for mail merge to work correctly. We recommend selecting {UniquePupilNumber} or {CandidateNumber} to ensure a straight forward matching process.
Lastly, you can customise the remaining template options to include the relevant information on your student reports. Take a look at the article below for more guidance on this 👇
Step 2: Download and file your reports
Once you've created the template, you can go on to download individual student reports. To do this, hover over Reports and click Downloadable Reports, before selecting the specific cohort of students to produce reports for.
Once you have the report PDFs saved on your device, ensure the files are saved in an easily accessible location (e.g. Downloads\Pupil Progress reports\Y11 Reports May 26). This is important as you'll need to reference the file locations later when setting up the mail merge.
Step 3: Prepare your recipient spreadsheet
In order to begin setting up a mail merge, you'll need to create an Excel spreadsheet with the following three columns as a minimum:
Unique identifier (UPN or Candidate Number)
Parent/Carer email address
Report file path
You may want to include additional details, such as Parent Title, Parent/Student First Name or Parent/Student Last Name, in order to add customisation to your email content.
💡 The unique identifier that you include here must match the same one selected on your report naming convention.
Set the report file path in your spreadsheet
To set the report file path for all students quickly, create an Excel formula to automatically create a text string. *This is why it's important to ensure all of the files are in the same folder, as mentioned earlier.*
In the example from the screenshot above, our report file names use the UPN as the unique identifier, and this is in column C. So, the formula:
="C:\Downloads\Reports\PupilProgress\" & C2 & ".pdf"
Would output the value:
C:\Downloads\Reports\PupilProgress\U881266523051.pdf
You can then double click the bottom right hand corner of the cell in which you entered the formula to automatically populate the rest of the list.
Step 4: Create the email using Word mail merge
Mail merge is created in Microsoft Word, even though emails are sent via Outlook. To set up your mail merge, follow the steps below:
Create a new file in Microsoft Word.
Click the Mailings tab → Start Mail Merge → Email Messages.
Click Select Recipients → Use an Existing List.
Choose your Excel spreadsheet and select the correct sheet.
Step 5: Write the email content
In the Word document, write the body of your email. This should follow a standard message, for example:
Dear Parent/Carer,
Please find attached your child’s Pupil Progress report.
If you have any questions, please reply to this email.
Kind regards,
The School Team
As mentioned earlier, you can personalise the email content to include more specific information by inserting merge fields from your Excel list.
Depending on which mail-merge add-in your school uses, the following steps will change slightly, but broadly:
You tell the add-in:
Where the PDFs are stored
Which column (UPN / Candidate No) to match on
Then, automatically it will:
Find the right PDF
Attach it to the right email
Send all emails in one run
However, if your school uses MAPILab Mail Merge Toolkit, this would simply be a case of including the file path we generated previously as a merge field when creating your mail merge. Further guidance on this process for this specific tool can be found on MAPILab's website 👇
💡 These steps may differ depending on the add-in you use, and how that tool matches the attachment file from the relevant folder.
Step 6: Send the mail merge
How you send out the reports will depend on the mail-merge add-in that your school uses. Broadly, you'll need to follow instructions such as:
Select Merge and Send.
Set:
To: Parent email column
Subject line: e.g. Your child’s Pupil Progress report
Mail format: HTML
Confirm and send.
If using MAPILab Toolkit:
Instead of using Finish & Merge, you need to:
Select Merge and Send (added by Mail Merge Toolkit).
In the To: field, confirm the email column (e.g. ParentEmail).
Enter the subject line (merge fields can be used).
Under Attachments, choose Insert file from the data source field.
Select the column containing the report file path (e.g. ReportPath).
Select Send messages.
The Toolkit will:
Read the file path for each row.
Attach the correct PDF to each email.
Send individual emails via Outlook.
This way, you're able to email all parents at the same time, whilst also ensuring the correct report files are going out. ☑️
📖 Team Tip
We strongly recommend sending a test email to yourself first to confirm that the correct recipient is selected and the correct PDF is attached.