Raising a help request

If something is hard, you do not have to work out the right door, the right email address, or the right person. That is the part that usually stops people asking: not the asking itself, but the guessing about where to send it. First Six removes the guessing. Open Help and the app walks you through it in a minute or two, and quietly routes what you write to the people who can act on it.

The whole flow is built so the smallest possible effort still gets you somewhere. You can stop at a self-serve resource, or you can ask for a real person. Either is a complete, valid way to use it.

Start with what fits

The help screen lists a few categories. Pick the one that matches what is weighing on you most. You are not committing to anything by choosing one, and you are not being sorted into a box that follows you around. The category just helps point you at the right resources and, if it gets that far, the right person.

For most categories you will first see a short Try these first list: practical resources that often resolve the thing on the spot. This is not a brush-off. A lot of what feels overwhelming in the first six weeks (a deadline you did not know how to extend, a service you did not know existed) genuinely is a five-minute fix once you know where to look. If one of those answers it, you are done, and you never had to wait on anyone.

Choose how much you want

If you want more than resources, you have two options, and the difference between them is simply how much contact you want back.

• Just point me to what I need keeps it self-serve. We make sure the right information reaches you, and no one needs to contact you. Choose this when you know what you need and just want the door unlocked, not a conversation.
• I'd like someone to check in with me opens a conversation with a real person. Choose this when the thing is bigger than a link, or when you would rather not carry it alone.

If you choose to talk, you can say who you would prefer to hear from (for example your tutor, a course coordinator, or the student experience team) or leave it as no preference and let the team route it. A preference is a request, not a guarantee, and leaving it open is often faster, because whoever is best placed and available can pick it up.

Write and send

1. Say what is going on, briefly

   Add a short message in your own words. You do not need to explain everything, build a case, or get the wording right. A sentence or two is plenty. "I'm behind in two subjects and starting to panic" tells the team everything it needs to respond well.

2. Send it

   Press send. There is no draft to perfect and no form to complete. The moment it leaves you, it is the team's to carry.

3. See the confirmation

   You will see a confirmation that someone from the team will reach out, usually within a day. That window is normal for non-urgent requests. If it is urgent, the app behaves differently (see below).

What the staff member sees

When you ask for a person, a staff member reads what you wrote, the category you picked, and how urgent it looks. Your weekly check-ins work differently: staff mostly read them as a cohort-level totalA view of the whole group's responses combined into totals., and the support staff for your cohort can also open your individual responses so they can follow up, with every such read logged. What staff see (and what they don't) draws that line in full.

If it is urgent

If what you are dealing with is an emergency or you feel unsafe, you should not wait for a reply. The help screen watches for that as you type and surfaces immediate support the moment it is needed, before you have even sent anything.

Common questions

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