Mana Families is the app that keeps you connected to your child's learning at their centre. Catch-ups, goals, updates and messages from educators all live in one place.

💡 This article describes Families 2, the updated family experience. If the app on your phone doesn't match what you see here, your centre is still on Families 1 — that's set by your service, not something you can change yourself. Every service moves to Families 2 on 24 August 2026, so you'll see this experience by then whatever your centre does in the meantime.

Signing in for the first time

Your child’s centre sends you an invitation by email. The subject is You’ve been invited to join [your child’s name]’s learning journey, and it comes from Mana. Select the button in that email to get started.

On the screen headed Make every child’s start magic, choose Sign in with Google, Sign in with Microsoft or Sign in with Apple — or enter your email address and create a password.
If you created a password, Mana emails you a verification link. Open it, then come back and select Confirm Verification.
Select Accept on your child’s invitation.
Enter your first and last name, then select Continue.

⚠️ Use the same email address the invitation was sent to. If you sign up with a different one you will not see your child. Ask your centre to reissue the invitation to the address you want to use.

If you haven’t received an invitation, ask your centre to resend it — and check your junk or spam folder.

Home

Home shows catch-ups, learning stories and updates shared by your child's educators.

If you have more than one child enrolled, you'll see updates for all of them in one feed — tap your child's name at the top to filter to just theirs.

Tap any catch-up card to read the full story. You can respond using the Discuss control, and it will reach your child's educator through Chat.

Goals

Goals shows the learning goals your child's educators have set, along with Try at Home ideas — ideas for supporting that learning at home. Activities sit under the goal they relate to, so you can see the connection.

Chat

Chat is where you read updates from your centre and message your child’s educators. Your channels are listed down the left, with All and Show only unread at the top.

There are two kinds, and the difference matters:

Update channels — a room, or your whole centre. These are for reading; the centre posts and you’ll see “You can read updates from your centre here.” at the bottom.
Conversations — these you can write in. An empty one invites you to Send a message to start the conversation.

If a channel looks read-only, that’s deliberate rather than a fault — your centre chooses which chat types are switched on.

Coach Sue

Sue is Mana’s coach, and she’s available to you as well as to your child’s educators. Open Sue from the menu and ask her anything about supporting your child at home.

She opens with a few suggested questions about your child by name — things like “How can I support [your child’s name] with big feelings?”. Selecting one puts it in the message box so you can change it before sending, or you can type your own.

🔒 Your conversations with Sue are private. Each one is marked Private at the top of the screen. Your child’s educators do not see them.

Sue knows your child’s name and age, but she doesn’t assume she knows what they’re into — expect her to ask, and the more you tell her the more specific her suggestions get. You can rename a conversation, and copy, download or print it using the icons at the top.

Sue is an AI coach, and the app says so: “Sue is still learning and can make mistakes.” For anything about your child’s day at the centre, ask their educators in Chat instead.

Account

From Account you can set your preferred Document language, manage Notification preferences, and open each of your children to see their All About Me.

More on Mana Families: Viewing your child’s goals and Try at Home ideas · Reading catch-ups in your language · Managing your notification settings in Mana Families

Getting started with Mana Families