Education · 2026
School management system and parents app
A system for a group of private schools: admissions and enrolment, timetables, daily attendance, grades and report cards, fees and instalments, and a parents app for absences, results, payments and messages from teachers.
Built by
- Client
- Withheld at the client’s request
- Users
- Admin · Teachers · Parents
- Platforms
- Web · iOS · Android
- Typical timeline
- 4–5 months
- Squad
- 7 people · 6 disciplines
Technologies
- Laravel
- Next.js
- Flutter
- MySQL
- Redis
- Firebase (FCM)
- Payment gateway
- Docker
The product
10 images01
Brief
Parents heard about absences a week late.
Context
Each school ran its own spreadsheets for students, grades and fees, and parents were reached by printed notes and phone calls.
Problem
Report cards took weeks to prepare, fee follow-ups were manual, and the group had no single view of its students.
Goals
- Attendance taken in class, seen at home
- Report cards generated, not typed
- Fees and instalments tracked
- One view across every school
02
Team
The squad behind it.
| Tech leadArchitecture, academic structure and fee rules | ×1 | Architecture, academic structure and fee rules | Senior | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Product designerTeacher, admin and parent flows | ×1 | Teacher, admin and parent flows | Senior | |
| Frontend engineerAdmin and teacher web app | ×1 | Admin and teacher web app | Senior | |
| Mobile engineerParents app for iOS and Android | ×1 | Parents app for iOS and Android | Senior | |
| Backend engineerAcademic data, fees, notifications and APIs | ×1 | Academic data, fees, notifications and APIs | Senior | |
| DevOps engineerHosting, backups and peak-time scaling | ×1 | Hosting, backups and peak-time scaling | Senior | |
| QA engineerTest automation and device testing | ×1 | Test automation and device testing | Senior |
03
UI/UX design
Attendance done before the lesson starts.
Who worked on it
Teachers mark attendance on a tablet or phone with everyone present by default, so they only tap the absent. Parents see the same day’s attendance, homework and teacher notes in one feed.
- Present by defaultTap only the absent students.
- One feed for parentsAttendance, homework and notes together.
- Several children, one appSwitch between children in one tap.
04
Frontend
Report cards in a click, not a week.
Who worked on it
Admins set up years, grades, classes and subjects once. Teachers enter marks per assessment, and report cards are generated in Arabic and English from those marks, ready to review and publish to parents.
- Set up onceThe academic year copied forward.
- Generated report cardsBoth languages, school branding.
- Fee follow-upOverdue instalments listed per class.
05
Mobile
The school in a parent’s pocket.
Who worked on it
Parents get a notification when their child is marked absent, see grades as soon as they are published, pay fees and instalments online, and message teachers within school hours.
- Absence alertsSent the moment attendance is saved.
- Online feesInstalments and receipts in the app.
- Quiet hoursTeacher chat closes after school.
06
Backend & architecture
One student record from admission to graduation.
Who worked on it
Every school shares one API and database, with each school’s data kept apart. A student keeps a single record across years and transfers between schools in the group, and notifications are queued so a whole school’s attendance can go out in a moment.
Decision 1
One database, data separated per school
The group needs combined reports; schools need privacy.
Trade-off · Every query is scoped by school, enforced in one place.
Decision 2
Grades calculated, never stored as totals
Changing an assessment weight updates every report card.
Trade-off · Report generation does more work at publish time.
Decision 3
Notifications through a queue
Morning attendance creates a burst of messages.
Trade-off · A few seconds’ delay at peak.
07
DevOps
Ready for the first day of term.
Who worked on it
Traffic spikes at registration, on results day and at fee deadlines, so the platform scales up on those dates and back down after. Backups run nightly, and every release goes through staging with the real structure and fake students.
- Planned scalingResults day and fee deadlines.
- Nightly backupsRestore tested every term.
- Safe staging dataReal structure, fake students.
08
QA
Checked by teachers before parents see it.
Who worked on it
Automated tests cover attendance, grading rules and fee calculations. Before each term a group of teachers and parents tries the release on their own phones, and their notes are fixed before launch.
- Grading rules testedEvery weighting scheme the schools use.
- Fee calculationsDiscounts, siblings and instalments.
- Pilot groupTeachers and parents before each term.
Tell us what you’re building.
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