Get your family set up

A pathway season asks a lot of a family: training three nights a week, a different ground most weekends, and times that can change at short notice. Clubhouse is where the club tells you all of it. Ten minutes of setup now means the schedule, the team news and the changes come to you, instead of you chasing them in group chats.

This page gets you signed in, brings in the other adults who share the driving, and switches on the two things that do the most work all season: notifications and calendar sync.

• Your mobile number is your login. The club recorded it when your child registered, and there's no password to remember. If you got a text from the club with a link, tap it: it's the same sign-in, with a welcome screen first.
• Use the app on your phone. Notifications only reach you through the Clubhouse app for iPhone or Android, not a web browser.
• Every adult needs their own mobile number. Two parents can't share one login, and neither can a parent and a child.

1. Open Clubhouse and make sure the Parent / Player tab is selected. It is by default.
2. Type your number into Mobile Number. If it's an overseas number, start with the country code (for example +44).
3. Leave Remember this device ticked on your own phone. Next time the app fills in your number and sends the code straight away.
4. Tap Continue, then enter the 6-digit code from the text message. You're in as soon as the last digit goes in.

If the code doesn't come, the screen gives you options rather than leaving you stuck. After a minute you can tap Resend code. On an Australian number you can also tap Didn't get it? Send to my number, which sends a fresh code from a different sender. If the club holds your email address, an option to email the code appears a few seconds later, or straight away on an overseas number, because some overseas networks turn away Australian texts altogether.

The first time you sign in, Clubhouse may open on a short checklist instead of Home. It only shows the jobs your family still needs, one at a time, so every family sees something slightly different. It only opens while there's still someone in your family to invite; once everyone is invited, you go straight to Home, where the notifications banner covers the rest.

The possible steps are:

• Invite your child, for a child old enough to have their own phone. You can tap the button saying they don't have a phone if they're too young, and nothing is sent.
• Invite another adult, if nobody else in the family has been invited yet.
• Get the app, if you're using Clubhouse in a web browser.
• Turn on notifications, if you're in the app and they're off.

Each step can wait. Skip — you can always do this later moves you on, and everything on the checklist is also in Settings, covered below. Either invite shows who gets the text, and what it says, before anything is sent.

Whoever does the Tuesday training run or the Saturday away trip should get the club's messages directly, not second-hand from you.

1. Tap your photo at the top of the screen, then Settings and Family Members.
2. Tap Invite Parent or Guardian (on a computer the button is Add).
3. Enter their name and mobile number, choose Parent or Guardian, and tap Add & Send Invite.
4. A check such as Invite Sarah to Clubhouse? shows who gets the text and exactly what it says. Tap Invite 1 person to send it. Not yet keeps them on your family without sending anything.

The link in their text opens a welcome page from the club with their name on it, and the way to get the app. It's worth sending them this page, Get your family set up, too.

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They get a text with a link, tap Get Started, confirm with a code and they're in with their own login and their own notifications. If a text doesn't arrive, their row shows Fix so you can correct the number and send it again. How invites work has the detail.

If any of your children plays in a senior programme, the section is called Family & Contacts, the button is Invite Family Member, and there's no Players section, because senior players manage their own login.

Your child's own login. In the Players section of the same screen, tap Invite next to your child and add their mobile number. Players need their own number before they can be invited, and the same check shows you the text before it goes. Their own login is what unlocks the parts of the app that are just for them, like daily check-ins and workouts. Inviting your child covers resending and removing access.

Their text opens the same kind of welcome page, written for them.

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Your own details. Under Settings, Personal Details holds your photo, name and suburb. Changing your number is under Mobile Number and is confirmed with a code sent to the new number, and your email is under Email Address (updating your details).

If a child is missing, or the wrong child is showing, the missing-child answer and the wrong-player answer sort out the two common causes.

With more than one child connected, everything on Home is about one child at a time, and the app tells you so the first time. A card reading Milan and Luca are both here explains where to switch: tap the child's name in the top corner on a phone, or at the bottom of the sidebar on a computer. Tap Switch to Luca to try it. The card goes once you've switched.

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Notifications. This is how you hear that training has moved, what time to arrive on Saturday, and the final score. If they're off, Home shows a banner, Turn on notifications from followed by your club's name, with a Turn on button. If your phone has blocked them, the banner says so and its Settings button takes you to the right place.

Then choose what you get under Settings, Notification preferences. There are two tabs. Match Updates is for live scores and final scores, team by team. Reminders & Alerts has a switch for each kind of reminder, such as training changes and match reminders. At the bottom is SMS for urgent changes, which also sends you a text when a match is cancelled or rescheduled within 48 hours, on top of the notification. The preferences answer explains every switch.

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Calendar sync. Your children's training, matches and club events can sit in your phone's own calendar, next to work and school. In the Calendar tab, tap Add to your calendar and pick your calendar app. Once it has synced, the card reads Up to date and it keeps itself current from then on (syncing your calendar). A calendar app can take a few hours to pick up a change, so notifications are still how you hear about a late change.

Tap your photo at the top of the screen for your account menu. It keeps to the few things you reach for from anywhere: switching between your children, Settings, Help & Support and Sign out. Help & Support opens searchable answers and this guide without leaving the app.

Settings holds everything else on this page, including Personal Details, Family Members and Calendar sync, plus two rows worth knowing before you need them: Safeguarding & member protection, where you can raise a concern confidentially, and AI assistants, if you ever connect an assistant to your account.

The bell at the top of the screen is your notifications inbox, so a message you swiped away is never gone for good. On a computer it's the bell at the bottom of the sidebar, beside your name, which lights up with a count when something is unread. Click it to see your latest notifications, and View all opens the full inbox.

The tabs along the bottom are the season itself: Home, Matches, Calendar, Health, and Plan when your child's programme runs development plans. What to do in them week to week is the next page, Your season in the app.

• You're signed in, and the child or children you expect appear on Home.
• Every adult who drives to training has their own login.
• Home shows no banner asking you to turn on notifications.
• This weekend's match appears in your phone's own calendar.