Chapter Family · for parents & carers

Know what they're exploring.Know what to ask.

Chapter Family is the parent's side of Chapter - the careers app your child uses at school. Each week it turns what they did into one short highlight and a couple of good questions, and puts the dates, forms and decisions that need you in one place.

  • Free for families
  • Invited by your school
  • Browser or app
  • No password to remember
17:02
HomeSM

Needs you

Work experience consent

Signature needed · due in 3 days

Healthcare Careers Fair

RSVP · 18 Mar

This week's conversation

Week of 16 March

Maya spent time on healthcare careers and finished the “Money & Pay” quest.

What drew you to the healthcare roles?

Did anything about the pay surprise you?

We talked about this

Maya's term so far

12Careers
4Events
6Skills

Paused - this is the parent's view

Why this exists

You're the biggest influence on their future. Nobody gave you the script.

Careers education happens at school, but the decisions happen at home. Chapter Family closes the gap between what your child did this week and what you can say about it.

61%

of young people say their parents are the biggest influence on their career choices - more than double teachers and advisers (28%).

1 in 2

parents doubt their own knowledge of today's jobs market. You are not expected to be the expert - that is what the guides are for.

1 in 10

feel confident helping with an apprenticeship application. Chapter Family shows you the route, step by step.

UK parental-engagement research summarised by the Careers & Enterprise Company and the Talking Futures campaign.

A week with Chapter Family

Thirty seconds on Monday. One question at dinner. Done.

It's built for a weekly glance, not daily checking. Here's the whole loop.

Monday, 5pm

The digest lands

One email (or a push notification) with what your child actually did in Chapter this week - careers explored, skills levelled, events attended. Thirty seconds to read.

Weekly, fortnightly or monthly
Dinner time

Ask one good question

Every digest opens on a conversation starter: one thing they did, two or three questions worth asking about it. Written from their week, not a generic list.

Built on the Talking Futures approach
Afterwards

Tap "We talked about this"

That's the whole job. It tells the school that the conversation happened - the kind of home support they are asked to evidence - without anyone filling in a form.

One tap, no forms
When it matters

Do what needs you

A placement consent to sign, a careers fair to RSVP to, a reply from the careers team, a short pulse survey. The app queues them by consequence, most urgent first.

Sign, RSVP and reply in-app

What's in the app

Just enough of their journey to help - and nothing that gets in the way

Every part of Chapter Family answers one parent question: what did they do, what's coming up, what needs me, and what should I say?

This week's conversation

Your home screen opens on one thing your child did and two or three questions to ask about it, refreshed every week from their real activity. Tap once when you've had the chat.

  • Written from their actual week
  • Questions, not a lecture
  • Logged for the school with one tap

Needs you

Everything waiting on a parent, in one ordered list: consents, replies, surveys, RSVPs and anything you agreed with the school. Gone the moment it's done.

Key dates

Careers fairs, parents' evenings, guidance appointments and application deadlines - with a one-tap RSVP so the school knows you're coming.

Permissions

When the school arranges a work placement, the consent form appears here. Read the placement details and sign on your phone - no hunting through emails.

Ask the careers team

A question about options, apprenticeships or what's coming up? Ask the careers team directly and get the reply in the app. It's a thread with the team, never a private DM.

Pathways coach

Short, plain-English guides to the choices ahead - GCSE options, T Levels, apprenticeships, UCAS - matched to your child's year group. You don't need to be an expert.

  • Real salary and demand data
  • Myth-busting on apprenticeships
  • What to say at 14, 16 and 18

Documents

When your child shares a draft personal statement or CV, read it and leave a supportive note - right alongside the school's feedback.

Explore & recommend

Browse courses and apprenticeships yourself. Anything you save can be recommended to your child - it lands straight in their Chapter app.

Work experience & UCAS

Follow their placement diary as they write it, and see where their university or apprenticeship applications have got to - without chasing.

Their term journey

Events attended, skills grown, quests finished and the careers they've explored this term - plus the milestones your child chooses to share with you.

Pathways coach

The big decisions at 14, 16 and 18 - explained for the people at home

The guides are matched to your child's year group and to the careers they've been exploring, so the right one is waiting before the decision arrives.

At 14 · GCSE options

What actually matters about options - and what doesn't

Which subjects keep which doors open, which 'rules' are myths, and how to back your child's choice without choosing for them. Plain English, no education jargon.

Guides waiting for you

  • Choosing GCSE options~4 min
  • How to talk to your child about careers~4 min

Nine guides in total, written for parents and carers - with real pay and demand data from the UK labour market, not opinion.

Wherever you are

Phone at the school gate.
Laptop at the kitchen table.

One account, signed in with a code sent to your email - no password to forget, nothing to install unless you want to.

  • On your phone

    Tap the link in any email and you're in. Add it to your home screen, or use the Chapter for Schools app - same email, it shows you the parent view.

  • On a laptop

    The same account works on a computer - handy for reading a personal statement draft properly or comparing pathway guides.

  • Every carer, their own account

    Separated parents, step-parents, grandparents with parental responsibility - each gets their own sign-in, and a switcher covers more than one child.

  • Your pace

    Weekly, fortnightly or monthly digest. Optional notifications for replies, events and consents. Light and dark mode.

Prefer an app? Sign in with your parent email:

SM
MO

Maya's term so far

Year 10 · Spring term

12Careers
4Events
6Skills
Communication
Ambition
Problem solving

Talk about it tonight

Based on Maya's week

Maya spent time on healthcare careers and finished the “Money & Pay” quest.

What drew you to the healthcare roles?

Did anything about the pay surprise you?

We talked about this

Paused - this is the parent's view of Chapter

Safe by design

A window, not a watchtower

Your access is granted and verified by the school against its own records, and your child keeps control of what they share. Here is exactly where the line sits.

What you see

  • Milestones your child chooses to share - careers explored, skills built, quests finished
  • A weekly conversation starter written from what they actually did
  • Pathway guides with real salary and demand data
  • Key dates: events, guidance appointments, UCAS and apprenticeship deadlines
  • Drafts they share with you - personal statement, CV - so you can leave a note
  • Placement consents, and replies from the careers team

What you never see

  • Attendance, behaviour or academic records
  • The adviser's private notes from guidance sessions
  • Safeguarding or risk information of any kind
  • Anything your child hasn't chosen to share
  • Their private messages or app activity in real time
  • What the other parent or carer does in their own account

Access verified by the school

against its own MIS records

UK GDPR, hosted in the UK

never sold, never advertised to

Your child chooses what's shared

highlights are opt-in on their side

Each carer, their own account

no cross-visibility between parents

Read the privacy policy or the trust centre. Your school holds its own privacy notice for Chapter Family.

Getting in

Three situations, three short answers

There's no sign-up form here on purpose: your school confirms who you are, so only the right people ever see a child's journey.

I've had an invite

Tap the link in the email - that's your sign-in. After that, signing in is three steps and no password:

  1. 1Enter the email address your school has for you
  2. 2Type the one-time code we email you
  3. 3You're in - same account on every device
Sign in

Invite links expire after 7 days - ask the school to re-send if yours has.

My school uses Chapter, but I've had nothing

Check junk first. Then email the careers leader or the school office - they can add you and send an invite in under a minute. Here's a message you can paste.

Hi - I'm a parent/carer of a pupil at the school. I understand the school uses Chapter for careers education and that there's a parent side called Chapter Family. Could you send me an invite, please? My email address is the one I'm writing from. Many thanks.

My school doesn't use Chapter yet

Schools switch Chapter Family on as part of Chapter - parents can't buy it separately, and don't need to. The most useful thing you can do is tell the careers team it exists.

Hi - I came across Chapter Family, a free parent app that sits alongside the Chapter careers platform for schools. It sends parents a weekly conversation starter about their child's careers activity, plus key dates, consents and plain-English guides to the choices at 14, 16 and 18. I'd love to use it. Details for the school are at chapterschools.com/features/parent-engagement - could the careers team take a look?

Questions parents ask

Straight answers

Do I need to download an app?
No. Chapter Family works in the web browser on any phone, tablet or computer - tap the link in your invite or digest and you're in. If you prefer an app, the Chapter for Schools app on the App Store and Google Play shows you the parent view when you sign in with the same email, and supports notifications.
How do I sign in? I don't remember setting a password.
There isn't one. Enter your email on the sign-in page and we send you a one-time code. Your invite and digest emails also carry a link that signs you straight in.
I didn't get an invite - how do I get access?
Invites come from your child's school, not from Chapter. Check junk or spam first, then ask the school's careers leader to send (or re-send) your invite - it takes them a minute. Use the message below if it helps.
Does it cost anything?
No. Where your child's school provides Chapter Family, access for parents and carers is included. There's nothing for you to pay and nothing to upgrade.
What if I have more than one child?
One account follows all of them - at the same school or different Chapter schools. A switcher at the top moves you between children, each with their own conversation starter, key dates and guides.
We're separated. Can we both have access?
Yes. Each parent or carer the school recognises gets their own account. You each see your child's highlights; neither of you sees the other's activity, notes or questions.
Can my child see what I do in the app?
They see what you choose to send them: a recommended course or apprenticeship lands in their Chapter app, and a note on a draft they shared appears next to it. They can't see your conversation-starter history, your questions to the school, or the guides you read.
What does the school see?
That the conversation happened (the tap, not what was said), your RSVPs, signed consents, survey answers and the questions you send the careers team. Schools are asked to evidence that families are involved in careers education - this is how that happens without a form.
Is the conversation starter written by AI?
Yes - it's generated each week from your child's activity in Chapter: the careers they looked at, the quests they finished, the skills they built. It only uses that activity, never grades, attendance or guidance notes, and you can always ignore it and ask your own question.
How often will I hear from you?
Your digest comes weekly by default; switch it to fortnightly or monthly in Settings, or turn it off and just open the app when you like. Notifications for a reply, an event tomorrow or a consent are separate and optional.

For careers leaders

The parent engagement you're asked to evidence - happening on its own

Chapter Family is included with Chapter. Switch it on, invite families from your MIS, and every conversation at home counts.

  • Invite a year group in one go

    Verified parent contacts pulled from your MIS, with reminders for the ones who haven't opened it.

  • Evidence that writes itself

    Conversations logged, guides read, RSVPs, surveys and consents land in your parental-engagement evidence for Gatsby 1, 2 and 8.

  • A safe, visible channel

    Parent questions go to the careers team as a thread - answered by careers leads, readable by staff, never a private DM.

Ready when your invite arrives

The next conversation about their future is one tap away

Check your email for a link from your child's school, or ask the careers leader to send one. Nothing to download, nothing to pay.