Group names that explain themselves
Built from the year, subject, teacher, day and time, and kept up to date when any of them change.
Y10 Biology – Priya Raman – Monday 5 PM – Group 04Run your tuition centre from one screen, not a dozen WhatsApp groups.
Mentorlark keeps students, parents, teachers, groups, lessons, messages, attendance and payments in one place. Teachers send their requests through it, the office approves them, and parents hear about it on WhatsApp.
Monday 12 October
5 things need you this morning
8lessons today
2cancelled
1rescheduled
3absent students
1new student
1withdrawal
2payment issues
14reminders ready
Hannah Okafor asks to move Monday's lesson to Tuesday 4:00 pm Y3–4 Primary Maths, Group 01. Reason: school parents' evening
A lesson change takes one approval, not five forwarded messages.
The teacher asks in the system, the office decides, and every parent in the group is told. The original lesson and the change both stay on record.
Teacher asks
From their own page: cancel, postpone or move a lesson, with the reason and a new time.
Office is alerted
The request lands on the Today screen, and in Teams or Slack if you use them.
Office approves
Approve as asked, pick a different time, or reject with a note back to the teacher.
Parents are told
Each parent gets the message on WhatsApp, text or email, using your own wording.
The old way: teacher, coordinator, admin, WhatsApp group, parents.
One system, three ways in.
Everyone sees what they need and nothing more. The office sees everything. Teachers see only their own groups and students. Parents see only their own children.
The office
Admins, coordinators and finance
- Today screen with lessons, changes, absences, new students, withdrawals and payments due
- Groups by year, subject, teacher, day and time, with capacity and a meeting link
- Students and siblings linked to one parent account
- Calendar by day, week or month, with clash and availability warnings
- Withdrawals with dates, reason, last lesson, refund and who confirmed it
- Separate permissions for operations, accounts, exports and settings
Teachers
Email and password, or their private link
- Today's lessons and meeting links
- Confirm the week's lessons in one tap
- Take attendance: present, late, absent or excused
- Notes, homework and progress for each student
- Ask to cancel, postpone or move a lesson
Parents
One sign-in for every child
- Each child's timetable, teacher and meeting links
- Attendance, homework and notes shared by teachers
- Announcements from the office
- Invoices, balance and card payments
- Tell the office about holidays and absences
The morning reminder writes itself.
Every morning Mentorlark finds today's lessons and drafts one reminder per parent, siblings included. You read them, change any wording, and send them all in one go. You can also let them go out on their own.
Message templatesWelcome, lesson moved, postponed or cancelled, payment due and withdrawal confirmed, plus announcements such as holiday closures, written once and reused.
Delivery you can seeEvery message is logged with its status. If WhatsApp can't send one, an "Open in WhatsApp" button sends it from the office phone.
Group rulesStandard cancellation, late, payment and withdrawal rules are attached to every new group, so nobody types them into a group description again.
Morning remindersMonday, 7:30 am
Good morning Rana, a reminder that Maya has Primary Maths with Hannah Okafor today at 4:00 pm. The lesson link is on your Mentorlark page.WhatsApp to Rana Haddad
Joy Mensah2 children
Diego AlvarezEdited
11 more parentsReady
Nothing is deleted. Everything has a history.
Students who leave become inactive rather than vanishing, so their lessons, attendance, payments and messages stay on file.
Membership history
Every student added, removed, moved or paused, with the date and the person who did it.
Lesson records
Scheduled, completed, cancelled, postponed or rescheduled, with the original time kept beside the new one.
Attendance
Percentages by student, group and teacher, with an alert after repeated absences.
Payments
Monthly fees or lesson packages, due dates, paid and unpaid, method, balance, notes and reminders, in pounds.
Reports
Students, teachers, groups, attendance, payments, withdrawals and lessons, filtered and exported to Excel or printed as a PDF.
Search everything
Students, parents, teachers, groups and lessons from one search box, filtered by year, subject, teacher and status.
Alerts that matter
Teacher requests, absences, new students, withdrawals, overdue payments, full groups, clashes and unconfirmed lessons.
A help chat on every page
Staff, parents and teachers ask how to do something and get the answer with a button to the right page. Connect an AI provider and it can also look up live information and draft messages.
Teachers' pay
Lessons taught and rates per group become each teacher's pay statement, ready for a bank transfer.
Children's data, handled the way UK schools expect.
Tuition centres hold details about children, so who can see what is decided by role, and everything is recorded.
Each person sees only their own
Parents see only their own children. Teachers see only their own groups and students, by first name and initial. Office staff get the permissions you give them, and money stays with the people who handle accounts.
Background checks on file
Each teacher's DBS check status and expiry date are kept on their record, and a teacher without a valid check isn't offered groups.
Consent and messages
Parents choose how they're contacted. Texts and WhatsApp messages go only to parents who agreed, and every message is logged with its delivery status.
Records that last, and backups
Withdrawn students become inactive rather than deleted, so attendance and payment history stay available. Encrypted nightly backups can be kept off the server.
Built with UK GDPR and the ICO Children's Code in mind. Your data is never sold or used to train AI models.
Questions centres ask.
Do parents need to download an app?
No. Parents get WhatsApp messages, texts or emails, and open their own page in any browser to see lessons, homework, attendance and bills.
How does WhatsApp work?
Mentorlark sends through the official WhatsApp Business service from your centre's number. Until that's set up, every message has an "Open in WhatsApp" button so the office can send it from the phone in one tap.
We use spreadsheets and WhatsApp groups now. How do we move?
Parents, students and teachers can be imported from a spreadsheet. We help you set up your groups and rules, and you can keep using WhatsApp for parents while the office moves over.
Can we take card payments?
Yes, through Stripe. Parents pay invoices and lesson packages by card from their page. Cash and bank transfers can be recorded too. Direct Debit through GoCardless is available if you want it.
Does it handle group lessons?
Groups are the normal case: each has a year, subject, teacher, day, time, seats, meeting link and its own rules, with a full history of who joined, moved or left.
Can we get our data out?
Any time. Reports export to Excel or CSV, or print as PDF, and a full export is available from Settings.
Works with the tools you already use.
Connect each one when you're ready by pasting your account details into Integrations. Until then, everything still works inside Mentorlark.
Stripe
Parents pay invoices and lesson packages by card from their page.
Reminders, lesson changes and notices to parents, with replies coming back to the office.
Microsoft Teams
Staff alerts, teacher requests and the morning summary in a Teams channel.
Slack
The same alerts and summary in a Slack channel.
Also ready to connect: email by SendGrid, texts by Twilio, Direct Debit by GoCardless, off-site backups and an AI assistant for the office.
See it with your own groups in mind.
Book a 30-minute walk-through. We'll show the office, parent and teacher views with practice data, and answer your questions.