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Every Signal setup begins with a demo. The demo gives you a fully working version of Signal loaded with sample data, so you can explore features, invite colleagues, and decide if Signal is right for your school — all before committing to a subscription. The demo and the subscription are the first two stages of a longer process. See Your Onboarding Journey for what follows, including connecting your MIS and bringing your existing safeguarding records across.

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What the demo gives you

When your school is set up on Signal, the demo automatically generates:
  • Demo students — sample student records with realistic profiles
  • Demo staff — sample staff accounts for testing
  • Academic years and classes — a school structure to explore
  • Attendance records — sample attendance data for AI analysis
  • Sample incidents — pre-created safeguarding incidents so you can see how the system works
Signal also pre-configures essential settings for you:
  • Categories — a standard set of incident categories (Attendance, Behaviour, Wellbeing, etc.)
  • Events — a standard set of event groupings and types, including External Agency Contact (CAMHS, Police, Social Care, etc.)
  • Locations — default school locations (Classroom, Lunchtime, Break Time, Breakfast Club)
  • Working schedule — a standard Monday to Friday schedule
During the demo, the whole Integrations area is unavailable — including Arbor, Bromcom, and Wonde. It becomes available when you subscribe.

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Exploring the demo

The demo is your opportunity to get to know Signal before going live. Here are some things to try:
  • Browse demo students — open student profiles to see how incidents, timelines, and documents are organised
  • Create a test incident — try recording a safeguarding concern using the demo students
  • Explore action plans — create and manage intervention plans with monitors
  • Use the AI Assistant — ask questions about the demo data to see how AI analysis works
  • Check Insights — view charts and reports built from the sample incidents
  • Set up alert rules — configure automatic notifications to see how alerts work
  • Invite colleagues — add staff with different roles (DSL, School Admin, Contributor) so they can explore their own experience
Invite your safeguarding team to the demo with different roles. This helps everyone understand what they will see and can do when you go live.

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Demo banner

While in demo mode, an amber banner appears at the top of the screen reminding you that the current data is sample data. This banner is visible to all staff and disappears when you subscribe. Each staff member can dismiss the banner for themselves using the X on the right-hand side.
The amber demo mode banner shown at the top of the app, with the dismiss button on the right

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Moving to a subscription

When you are ready to go live with Signal, you can request a subscription from your school settings.
1

Open your school settings

Go to Settings from the sidebar. Settings opens on the School page, and the other settings pages are listed as links down the side. The School page is available to Owners and shows a Subscription card with your current demo status.
2

Click Request Subscription

Click the Request Subscription button.
3

Enter your student count

Tell us how many students are in your school. This helps us prepare your quote.
4

We send you a quote

The Signal team will be in touch with a quote based on your school size.
5

Your school goes live

After payment is received, your demo data is cleaned up and integrations are enabled. You are ready to start using Signal with real data.

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What happens when you subscribe

When your subscription is activated: Kept — your configuration is preserved:
  • Categories, locations, and events you set up or customised
  • Working schedules
  • Staff accounts and role assignments
  • Alert rules
Removed — all demo data is cleared:
  • Demo students, staff, and academic years
  • Demo incidents and attendance records
  • Any test data you created during the demo
  • All policies and all uploaded documents
  • Your establishments directory and any transfers
Enabled — new features become available:
  • MIS integration with Arbor, Bromcom, or Wonde for syncing real student, staff, and attendance data
  • Importing your existing safeguarding records from your previous system
Subscribing is stage 2 of six. Next you connect your MIS, bring your existing records across, and we tailor your configuration to how your school actually works — see Your Onboarding Journey.
Download any policy documents you uploaded during the demo before you subscribe. Subscribing removes all policies and all uploaded documents, and they cannot be recovered afterwards.
Any test incidents, action plans, or documents you created during the demo will also be removed when you subscribe. The demo is for exploration — your real safeguarding records start fresh after subscription.

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Switching from another provider

If you are currently using another safeguarding system and have time remaining on your contract, Signal’s Pay for One Promise can help. We will extend your first year subscription to cover the remaining time on your existing contract, so you never pay for two safeguarding systems at once. Contact support@signalschools.com to arrange this, or visit our Pay for One Promise page for details.

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Need help?

If you have questions about the demo or subscription process, contact the Signal team at support@signalschools.com.