Questions teachers ask

No. Pupils open one class link (the square on their slip), type the 8-character code printed on it, and write. There is no pupil account, no pupil email and no password. Only you, the teacher, have an account, and you sign in with a passkey.

Only the seat number. Termcapsule never asks for a name, surname, email, birth date or photo. Your teacher sheet has a blank column where you write each child's name by hand; it stays on your paper. Pupils are asked not to write their surname, address or phone number, and text with an email address, a web address or a phone number is refused. Surnames inside a letter cannot be detected, so the page asks instead.

Not a sealed letter. Before release you see how many pupils have sealed and which seat numbers, and no teacher route shows any words. A sealed letter is never shown before release, whatever code is used. Before a pupil seals, giving their seat a new code would let that code open the draft, so the pupil's page says when their code was reissued. The download of your data holds counts only until release. After release you can read every letter.

Yes, until they press Seal my letter or the class seals. Sealing is final: after it nobody can read or change the letter until release day, the pupil and the teacher included. You can unseal the class before its close date so others can keep writing; every pupil's page then says it was unsealed, and sealed letters stay sealed.

Open the class, choose the seat and give it a new code. The old code stops working at once, the letter stays on the seat, and you can print one new slip. The pupil's page then says the code was reissued on that day. Before the class opens you can also replace every code at once. If pupils on one network typed 10 wrong codes in an hour, that network waits; if 300 wrong codes came in an hour from everywhere, the code box pauses for the class. Clear the wrong-code lock on the class page lifts both, and so does replacing the class link.

Every pupil's code opens their own letter, and nobody else's, with a print button. You can read all of them on the class page, download them, and print the pack. Pupils who did not write see that there is no letter from their seat.

Yes: the letters are released at 07:00 on the date in the class time zone, and if you confirmed an email address on your account page we send you one email that morning. You can always release with your button instead, on any day.

180 days after release. A class that is never released is kept 548 days after it was made, and never less than 180 days after its release date. Either way, at the end the class moves to your deleted classes with a notice on your classes page, you can restore it for 7 days, and then it is deleted for good with its seats and letters. A class you delete yourself can also be restored for 7 days.

Follow your school's safeguarding procedure, as you would with any piece of pupil work. Termcapsule does not read or screen letters, and nobody can read a sealed letter before release. The pupil page asks pupils who are worried about something now to tell their teacher or a grown-up they trust today, not to wait for the letter.

Yes. Every pupil can print their own letter after release. The print pack gives one page for each seat that folds into an envelope marked with the seat number and the date, plus a class cover, as A4 or US Letter.

No. Each class is one capsule with its own link and codes. Start a new class for next year's group; its codes are new, so last year's slips open nothing in it.

Elementary and middle school, about ages 5 to 14. The prompts come in three grade bands: kindergarten to grade 2, grades 3 to 5 and grades 6 to 8. Younger pupils may need an adult to type for them.

Yes. Finished? Hand the device on ends a pupil's turn, and a turn also ends after 5 minutes without typing. The next pupil sees only the code box.

The page says the words were not saved, keeps them on screen with a Copy button, and keeps a copy on the device where the browser allows it, saying whether it could. Saving again when the connection is back saves them.

Yes. On an iPhone or iPad, open the Share menu in Safari and choose Add to Home Screen. On other browsers use Install in the menu.

Termcapsule is not affiliated with any school, school district, education authority or letter-to-the-future service. You use it as a teacher, following your school's rules on pupil work.