Your sign-in link didn't arrive, or didn't work

Work down this list — the first three cover almost every case.

1. Check your spam or junk folder. It's the single most common cause.

2. Check you used the address your centre has on file. This is the one that surprises people: we show the same confirmation message whether or not we recognise the address you typed. We do that on purpose — it means nobody can use the sign-in page to find out which families are enrolled at your centre. The cost is that a typo, or an old address, looks exactly like a link that's on its way. If nothing arrives, a different email address is the likeliest reason. Your centre can tell you which address they have.

3. Ask for a fresh link if you see one of these:

• "This sign-in link has expired." Links last 15 minutes.
• "This sign-in link has already been used." Each link works once. Opening the same email twice — or an email app that pre-loads the link to preview it — will spend it.
• "This link is missing its sign-in code." The link was truncated, usually by being copied by hand or forwarded. Open the original email instead.

4. Open the link on a device you can read your email on, or request a new one on the device you want to use. The link does carry across devices, but a fresh request is simpler than forwarding.

Don't forward the link to anyone. For the 15 minutes it's alive, it's a key to your child's information, not a page address.

If you request several links in a row and they stop arriving, wait five minutes. We cap resends to three every five minutes per email address, so that nobody can flood an inbox by hammering the sign-in page. Waiting clears it.

Still stuck? This is the point to contact your centre directly — by phone or in person. We can't tell from this page which address belongs to your account, and your centre can.