Ravenclerk / For schools
Ravenclerk for schools and trustsOne school inbox. Every email to the right person.
Ravenclerk reads every message that arrives in your main office inbox and forwards it to the right member of staff, from attendance and finance to the SENCo. Safeguarding concerns are checked first and go straight to your DSL.
Runs on your school's own Microsoft 365. Built by someone who has worked in school IT.
The school office inbox never stops
Absence notes, trip questions, payment queries, admissions enquiries, supplier invoices and messages for the head all arrive in one place. Someone in the office has to read every one, work out who it's for and pass it on, usually while the phone is ringing and there's a queue at reception.
Most of those emails are routine. A few aren't. A worried parent or a concern about a child can sit unread between a uniform question and a dinner money reminder.
- Staff spend time reading and forwarding emails rather than helping the people in front of them.
- Messages go to the wrong person, or to nobody, when the office is busy or someone is off.
- Safeguarding concerns can be buried among routine emails and reach the DSL later than they should.
- FOI and subject access deadlines start when the email arrives, not when the right person sees it.
- General-purpose AI tools aren't built for school data protection or safeguarding duties.
of teachers and middle leaders say they spend too much time on general admin, including email.
Source: DfE, Working lives of teachers and leaders, wave 3school days to answer an FOI request, counted from the day the school receives it.
Source: ICO advice for schoolsto answer a subject access request, including during school holidays.
Source: DfE, Data protection in schoolsSafeguarding is checked before anything else
Keeping children safe comes before convenience. Ravenclerk is designed so that a possible concern is never treated like a routine email. For schools, the safeguarding check is always on and can't be switched off.
- Checked first, every timeEvery email is screened for safeguarding signals, such as disclosures, welfare worries or risk of harm, before normal routing runs. The whole email is read, however long it is.
- Straight to your DSL and deputyFlagged emails go directly to your Designated Safeguarding Lead and deputy DSL as a priority alert, with the original attached.
- No auto-replies, no summaries in shared placesRavenclerk never auto-replies to a flagged email and never puts its content into shared inboxes, channels, dashboards or queues.
- When unsure, it treats it as safeguardingIf the AI can't rule out a concern, or anything fails, the email goes to the DSL. A false alarm is better than a missed concern.
- Tested against manipulationWe test Ravenclerk against emails written to trick AI into downplaying a concern, in line with the DfE's generative AI product safety expectations.
What happens to every email
A school template, ready to tailor
Start with categories that match a typical school office, then point each one at your staff.
Absence and lateness
Absence notes go to the attendance officer before registration closes, with the pupil, dates and reason pulled out.
SEND and EHCPs
Annual reviews, local authority consultations and therapy reports go to the SENCo.
Admissions
In-year applications, waiting lists, visits and appeals go to whoever handles admissions.
Payments and invoices
Parent payment queries and supplier invoices go to the finance office. Bank-detail changes are flagged for the business manager.
Trips and clubs
Consent forms, medical forms and trip payments go to the trips coordinator.
Head's PA and complaints
Meeting requests go to the head's PA. Formal complaints are kept apart from everyday queries.
Local authority and DfE
Messages from known local authority, DfE and trust addresses go to the business manager, data manager or head.
Staffing and supply
Supply bookings, references and applications go to HR or the business manager, with minimal logging.
The clock starts when the email arrives
Ravenclerk recognises requests with legal deadlines, sends them to the right person and shows the due date.
Freedom of Information
20 school days or 60 working days from receipt, whichever comes first. The due date is calculated from your term dates.
Subject access requests
One calendar month from receipt, including school holidays. Sent to your DPO or data lead with the due date.
Formal complaints
Your complaints policy timescales, such as acknowledging within 5 school days, are tracked from the day the complaint arrives.
Deadline tracking is being built with our pilot schools. Ravenclerk helps requests reach the right person quickly. Your school stays responsible for answering them.
Everything the office needs, nothing it doesn't
Routing rules you control
Set who gets attendance, SEND, finance, admissions, trips and messages for the head's PA in a simple dashboard. Change them at any time.
Your own categories
Add categories for your school, such as a nursery, a sixth form or a breakfast club, and describe them in plain English.
Confidence thresholds
Decide how sure Ravenclerk must be before it forwards an email by itself. Anything less certain goes to the review queue.
Human review queue
When the AI isn't confident, the email waits for someone in the office to decide. No guessing.
Cover for absence
Point a route to a colleague when someone is off, so nothing waits in an empty inbox.
Audit log
Search the history of every routing decision and the reason for it. Safeguarding entries show no content.
Sign in with Microsoft
Staff use their existing school Microsoft accounts, so there are no new passwords to manage.
Built for school IT
Designed by someone who has run Microsoft 365, Intune and Entra ID in a secondary school.
Private by design, ready for your DPO
School email contains personal data about children and families. Ravenclerk is built around UK GDPR from the start.
Your own Microsoft 365
Ravenclerk is limited to the mailbox you choose. Your mail stays in your school's tenant, under your existing controls.
No content kept for safeguarding
For flagged emails, the audit log records only the time, that it was sent to the DSL, and why. It records no subject, sender or content.
DPIA and DPA
Pilot schools receive a DPIA template and a Data Processing Agreement to review. The school stays the data controller.
For schools of every size, and trusts
Primary schools
A small office team handling everything. Ravenclerk takes the sorting off their plate, so absence notes, club questions and payments reach the right person without anyone forwarding them.
Secondary schools
High volumes across heads of year, attendance, exams, SEND and finance. Clear rules and a review queue keep busy inboxes moving and accountable.
Multi-academy trusts
Safeguarding and data protection settings agreed once for the whole trust, with routing rules each school can adjust for its own staff.
Questions schools ask
Do parents need to do anything differently?
No. Parents, suppliers and partners keep emailing your usual office address. Ravenclerk works behind the scenes on that mailbox.
Does it reply to parents?
Ravenclerk is built to route emails, not to hold conversations. Optional acknowledgements use only wording the school has approved, and it never replies to anything flagged as a possible safeguarding concern.
Does it replace our safeguarding procedures?
No. Ravenclerk helps concerns reach your DSL quickly, but your safeguarding policy, staff training and reporting procedures stay exactly as they are. Staff should keep reporting concerns in the usual way. If a child is in immediate danger, call 999.
What happens if the AI gets it wrong?
If it isn't confident, the email goes to a review queue rather than being guessed. For safeguarding, it errs on the side of caution and sends anything uncertain to the DSL. Every decision is logged.
Do we need Microsoft 365?
Yes, for now. Google Workspace support is coming soon, so let us know if your school uses it.
What will our IT team need to do?
An administrator approves the Ravenclerk app in Entra ID and limits it to the office mailbox. We'll walk you through it and explain what each permission is for.
See Ravenclerk with your own office in mind
Tell us a little about your school or trust and we'll arrange a short call to show how Ravenclerk works and answer your questions about safeguarding and data protection.
Email hello@ravenclerk.comUseful to include
- Your school or trust and your role
- Roughly how many emails your office gets a day
- Who currently sorts the office inbox
- Any questions from your DSL or DPO
Please don't send us real emails or personal data at this stage. We'll arrange a short call and a demo with sample data.