Your school life, sorted.
Twelve newsletters, four permission slips, and a World Book Day costume you found out about at 9pm. Penny reads the lot, and answers in plain English — 24/7, in your browser.
Join the beta
Quick start
It all happens in your browser at app.ask-penny.uk. Nothing to download.
Fill in the form above. Currently KCS and WCPS parents only.
We email you straight away — open the link within 24 hours and sign in with that same address. Meanwhile a real person reviews your account; the two run side by side. You'll get a second email when you're ready to go.
Go to app.ask-penny.uk/login and sign in with Google, using the same address throughout.
Open My children at the top of the chat screen:
Type or speak normally: "when's the next inset day?", "how much is the Year 4 trip?" Many schools already have information loaded, so try a question before adding anything. Every answer names its source.
Sources appear underneath each answer, as real links where one exists. Penny never invents one.
Optional, but worth it
Same Penny, opening full-screen from your home screen instead of a browser tab. No App Store, nothing to download — it takes about ten seconds.
In Safari, open app.ask-penny.uk → tap the Share icon → Add to Home Screen → Add.
In Penny, tap the gear icon (top right) → Install Penny as an app. Or use Chrome's own install prompt in the address bar.
In Chrome or Edge, click the install icon at the right of the address bar — or the same gear icon → Install Penny as an app.
No install button? Your browser has decided not to offer one — Penny works exactly the same in a normal tab.
What she can do
Penny answers only from what she's actually been given: whatever your school's admin has loaded for everyone, whatever your family adds, and anything you'd sent her on WhatsApp before. Nothing invented.
Term dates, permission slips, kit lists, inset days. Every answer names its source.
Hold the mic button to record, or tap it to go hands-free — tap again to send. Your question shows briefly with a cancel button before it actually sends, so a misheard word doesn't have to go through. Penny transcribes it, and reads the answer back aloud.
The Agenda gathers dates and deadlines out of what you've forwarded and uploaded, sorted into this week, next week and later — plus the ones that clearly need doing but never said when. A weekly thing from a timetable — a club, for instance — shows up on each of its dates, for as long as the term that timetable covers. If you've added a class timetable, PE and Games-type days show up too, for this week and next, so you know when the kit needs packing; the rest of the timetable isn't listed there, but you can just ask her about it. If the school emails you your child's own music lessons and rehearsals, those are listed as well, with their times, under a Music label. Forward the school’s clubs or activity summary and the clubs your child is actually booked into show up too, with the day and finish time, under a Club label — just the ones confirmed for your child, not everything the school runs. Tap any entry to open it up, and there's an Ask Penny button there to ask about it in the chat without retyping it. Nothing nudges you, so you do have to open it.
Paperclip button: PDF, Word, text or a photo of a letter or timetable, up to 10 MB. She reads the text off the photo. If she had to guess anything — what it’s called, what date it’s from, whether you’d already sent it — she says so underneath, so you can put it right.
My documents → Rename. If Penny had to name a document herself she’ll say so — and a clearer name makes it easier for her to find later. Adding the term (“Autumn 2026”) to a timetable also lets its weekly entries land on real dates.
Family admin only. Get your private forwarding address from Settings, then forward from your own inbox.
Once you're both linked, hover or tap any message for a share button — it lands straight in their chat, clearly marked as shared.
Hover or tap any message for a copy button — it goes straight to your clipboard, ready to paste into WhatsApp, an email, or anywhere else.
Hover or tap any message of your own for a delete button. It's gone from your chat straight away.
Up to 5 per family, each at a different school if needed. Add or remove them any time in My children.
No password to remember. Needs a Gmail or Google Workspace address.
Open or reload the app with no signal and you'll still see your chat, Agenda, and My documents/My children exactly as they last loaded, clearly marked as saved on your device. Sending a question or a voice note, or adding a document, needs a real connection.
Reference
Mostly buttons. A few extras are typed into the chat box starting with a / — /help lists them all.
Buttons on screen
| Where | What it does |
|---|---|
| Chat box | Type a question, press Send or Enter. Your conversation is still there when you come back. |
| 🎤 Mic | Hold to record a spoken question and release to send, or tap to lock it hands-free — tap again to send. Either way, it shows briefly with a cancel button before it actually sends. Penny transcribes it, and reads her answer back aloud (switch that off in Settings). |
| 📎 Paperclip | Add a PDF, Word document, text file or a photo of a letter, notice or timetable — up to 10 MB. |
| Message actions | Hover or tap any message for share (send it to your linked partner) and delete buttons. |
| 📅 Agenda | What's coming up, worked out from the emails and documents your family has added — grouped into This week, Next week and Later, with a Needs a date tab for things that clearly need doing but never said when. Something that happens weekly — a club, for instance — appears on each of its dates within the term the timetable covers, and stays in Needs a date if the timetable never said which term. From a class timetable you'll also see the days with PE, Games, Swimming and the like, for this week and next, so the right kit gets packed — the ordinary lessons aren't listed here, but ask her and she'll read them off the timetable. Your child's own music lessons and ensemble rehearsals are listed with their times, from whatever the school sends you, under a Music label the Type filter can pick out. The clubs your child is booked into appear the same way — day and finish time, under a Club label — once you’ve forwarded the school’s clubs or activity summary. Only the ones confirmed for your child, so a club missing from the list doesn’t mean it isn’t running. It opens scrolled to today, and a Today button beside the title brings you back there at any point. A coloured dot shows which school each one came from. Tap any entry to see the exact wording it came from. It only knows what you've given her, so treat it as a helpful gathering-up rather than a complete school calendar. |
| My children | See everyone registered, register a new child, or remove one. |
| My documents | Everything your family has added, with a Rename and a Remove button on each. Tap the name to read back the text Penny took out of it — the quickest way to check a photo or a scan came out readable. Renaming is worth doing whenever Penny says she had to guess a name: the title is part of what she searches on, and one that names the term (“Autumn 2026”) is what lets a weekly timetable land on real dates. Both parents see the same list. |
| ⚙️ Settings | Theme and text size, whether answers are spoken aloud, email forwarding, your family profile, and installing Penny as an app. |
| Sign out | Ends your session on this device. Your account is untouched. |
Typed commands
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
| /note some text | Save a quick note — handy for something mentioned at the gate that never arrived in writing. |
| Family admin only. Your private forwarding address for school emails, also in Settings. Forward from your own inbox, one at a time — only mail sent from your own sign-in address is accepted, so an auto-forward rule won't get through. /email rotate gets you a new address. | |
| /family | Who's on your family profile, and any outstanding invite. Also in Settings. |
| /invite their@email.com | Add a second parent. They get an email to confirm the address, and an admin approves it — so it isn't instant. You stay the admin. /invite cancel withdraws it. |
| /remove their@email.com | Take the second parent off your profile. Your children and documents stay; anything they uploaded goes with them. |
| /leave | Come off a profile you were added to. Asks you to confirm first. |
| /feedback some text | Goes straight to the person building Penny. She won't reply to it herself. |
| /help | The full list, in the chat. |
Honest limits
Better you know upfront than find out mid-panic.
Spotted a rough edge? Tell us.
At a glance
Uploads: PDF, Word (.docx), text (.txt), or a photo (.jpg/.png) — 10 MB, whether by upload or email attachment.
Privacy
The full Privacy Policy has the detail: what we collect, who we share it with, and your rights.
Getting unstuck
She only answers from what she's been given. Add it yourself: the paperclip by the chat box takes a document or a photo of a letter, and /note saves a quick written note.
Check your spam folder — it's titled "Confirm your email address for Penny" and the link lasts 24 hours. Confirming your address and being approved are two separate things, so you may have one without the other.
Expected the first time — an admin approves every account before you can chat. If you signed in without filling in the sign-up form, use the short form on the pending page to tell us who you are.
Two words with a hyphen (like apple-tiger), given to you when you were set up — check for typos. Registration locks for 15 minutes after 10 wrong attempts.
Sessions last 30 days, or 7 if you've been away a while. Sign in again with the same Google account and nothing is lost.
Your browser needs microphone permission — check the padlock or camera icon in the address bar, and that nothing else is using the mic. You can always type the question instead.
Frequently asked
Fill in the sign-up form — currently KCS and WCPS parents only. Confirm your email from the link we send, and we'll email again once an admin has approved you. Then follow Quick start.
Expected until an admin approves you. If you've filled in the sign-up form, you're in the queue and we'll email you. If you haven't, that page links straight to it.
Yes — Gmail, or a work/school address backed by Google Workspace. Outlook, Yahoo and the rest can't sign in.
No. Penny runs in your browser. You can add her to your home screen so she opens full-screen like an app, but it's optional and it's still the same website.
Penny started there and it worked well, but keeping it compliant with WhatsApp's terms for this kind of use proved genuinely hard, and in August 2026 that caught up with us. It's paused rather than removed, and we'd like to make it work again. If your family used Penny on WhatsApp, your children, documents and history are all still here — you just sign in differently now.
Telegram is under an open Ofcom investigation under the Online Safety Act, and bot messages there are never end-to-end encrypted. Signal's terms don't permit this kind of automated messaging at all. We're watching both — feedback shapes where the effort goes.
One parent — a security consultant with a PhD, who also runs Cafe Security — who wanted less time lost hunting through email chains.
Yes. If that ever changes, early beta testers get special deals for helping shape it.
She answers only from documents given to her, and dates things relative to when each was written, not today. She can still get things wrong, and a document goes stale if the school hasn't sent an update — double-check anything important with the school.
Not automatically. Penny is independent and parent-driven — see what she can't do yet.
No — everything is scoped to your own family. See Privacy.
Yes — up to 5 children, each at a different school if needed, all from My children.
History condenses automatically after about 6 months; children stay until you remove them. For full deletion, ask us — there's no self-serve button yet.
We'd love to hear it — see Feedback.
Bug, missing feature, or something that needs doing manually (like deleting your account)? Every bit of it shapes what gets built next.
Type /feedback and your message in the chat box.