How do you forward school emails to Cyril automatically?
You can forward a school email to Cyril one at a time, and plenty of parents do. Setting it up to happen on its own takes about two minutes and means the trip, the deadline and the kit list are in your plan before you have read the email yourself.
Below is how to do it in Gmail, Outlook and Apple Mail. Do it once per address the school writes to.
Your Cyril address
Open Cyril, go to Settings, and it is at the top under Your Cyril address.
What should the rule match?
This is the one decision worth getting right, and it is the one most people get wrong.
Match the sender's domain. If the school writes from office@stmarys.sch.uk, the rule is everything from stmarys.sch.uk. That catches the office, the head, the trips coordinator and the sports department, including the letters that never use the word school.
Do not match a word in the subject. A rule on the word school forwards a great deal that is not from the school, and misses the letter titled “Year 4 Tuesday” that you most needed.
Schools often send from more than one domain: the school itself, and a messaging service such as ParentMail, Weduc or Schoolpost. Add a rule for each as you notice them, or check the sender on the next few letters and do them all at once.
How do I set it up in Gmail?
Gmail needs a computer for this. The rule cannot be created in the phone app, though it works on your phone once it exists.
One. Open Gmail, click the gear icon, then See all settings.
Two. Open the tab called Filters and Blocked Addresses, then click Create a new filter.
Three. Put the school's domain in the From box. Typing stmarys.sch.uk is enough; you do not need the full address of one sender. Click Create filter.
Four. Tick Forward it to and choose your Cyril address from the list. If it is not in the list yet, click the link to add a forwarding address and paste it in.
Five. Gmail will not forward anywhere it has not verified, so it sends a confirmation code to the address first. That email arrives in Cyril rather than in your inbox, and Cyril shows you the code so you can type it back into Gmail. This step surprises people; nothing has gone wrong.
Leave Also apply filter to matching conversations unticked unless you want your whole school history sent at once. It works, and it is a lot of email in one go.
How do I set it up in Outlook?
Outlook on the web is the most reliable place to do this. A rule made in the desktop app only runs while that computer is open, which is a common and confusing way for this to half work.
One. Open Settings, then Mail, then Rules, and choose Add new rule.
Two. Name it something you will recognise in a year. School to Cyril does the job.
Three. Add a condition. Choose From and enter the school's domain.
Four. Add an action. Choose Forward to and enter your Cyril address. Forward to, not Redirect to: redirected mail keeps the original sender, and Cyril reads the forwarded form more reliably.
Five. Save. Outlook does not ask you to verify the address, so it starts working with the next email that arrives.
How do I set it up in Apple Mail?
Apple Mail has a catch worth knowing before you start. A rule made in Mail on a Mac runs on that Mac, and only while it is awake and Mail is open. Close the lid and the forwarding stops, silently.
If your address is iCloud, set the rule on the web instead and it runs on Apple's side whatever your Mac is doing. Go to icloud.com, open Mail, open its settings, choose Rules, then Add a Rule. Set it to: if a message is from the school's domain, forward to your Cyril address.
If your address is not iCloud, do it in the app: Mail, then Settings, then Rules, then Add Rule. Set the condition to From contains the school's domain and the action to Forward Message to your Cyril address. Then remember the lid.
How do I know it is working?
Wait for the next letter rather than testing with your own email: a message you send yourself often does not match a rule written for the school.
When it arrives, it appears in Cyril within a few minutes and anything dated in it lands in your plan. If nothing shows up, the usual cause is the domain: open the last letter the school sent and look at who it is actually from. Many schools send through ParentMail, Weduc or Schoolpost, so the address is theirs and not the school's, and a rule on the school's own domain will never match it.
