Skip to main content
Setting up your school requires the Owner or DSL role. If you do not have one of these roles, ask your school’s Signal administrator for help.
Signal provides a role-specific onboarding wizard on first login that guides you through the key setup steps. The detailed settings reference below covers everything the wizard introduces.
When your school first joins Signal, there are a few key areas to configure before your team can start recording safeguarding concerns. You do not need to complete everything at once — you can return to settings at any time to make changes.
The Settings page with the School Information panel and the settings navigation listing Profile, Academic Years, Groups, Locations, Categories, Policies, Workflows, and more

​
Setup checklist

​
Tips for getting started quickly

You do not need to have everything perfect before your team starts using Signal. Begin with the essentials — categories, a few locations, and your staff — then refine as you go.
  • Start with categories and staff. These are the minimum requirements for recording incidents. You can add locations, events, and policies later.
  • Connect your MIS early. If you use Arbor, setting up the integration first will automatically populate your year groups, classes, students, and staff.
  • Create a few alert rules. Even basic rules (such as alerting DSLs on all incidents) ensure nothing is missed from day one.
  • Upload your core policies. Start with your main safeguarding policy and child protection policy. You can add more over time.
  • Invite a small group first. Consider onboarding your safeguarding team before rolling out to all staff, so you can answer questions and refine your setup.