sending text messages to parents

[chrbb]

Not sure which forum to put this in - but a parent has asked school if we can send text messages to parents reminding them of events in school. Does anyone else do this and what do you use?

[GrumbleDook]

There are a variety of packages that can do this, a number of them can be tied into your MIS for easy access to student / parent details.

We are starting to use SchoolComms, but there are a few others that tie in with SIMS too. Check the Capita Partner website for details.

[srochford]

Thus do very good deals on SMS for education - can't find exact details on their web site but the contact details are 0808 2020 816 education@thus.net

Janet have recently set up an education text service which is managed by PageOne - details at http://www.pageone.co.uk/Janettxt/

I don't think either of these will link directly to SIMS but they can easily upload CSV files of details.

[bossman]

We have truancy call set up and this integrates with Sims.net so when students don't go to lessons text message is sent out automatically. Only problem, parents keep changing their mobile numbers without letting the school know.
This could be developed into messaging service with a little tweaking but most parents would not respond as they are too busy with themselves and their social lives to bother with text messages off the school.

[mattx]

We use Bulk SMS:

http://www.bulksms.co.uk/

Easy interface to use and you can pull numbers from most databases.

[Mr_Jones]

We have truancy call set up and this integrates with Sims.net so when students don't go to lessons text message is sent out automatically. Only problem, parents keep changing their mobile numbers without letting the school know.
This could be developed into messaging service with a little tweaking but most parents would not respond as they are too busy with themselves and their social lives to bother with text messages off the school.

We tried Truancy Call to send texts to parents, but it only let us send them about absence. Our new system works a lot better, in the respect that it lets us send whatever we want to whoever we want. It's called Keep Kids Safe.

[Joanne]

how much does it cost to send out all these text messages?

ie/ every time you text all the parents about a snow day for example... how much does that cost the school?

[Mr_Jones]

how much does it cost to send out all these text messages?

ie/ every time you text all the parents about a snow day for example... how much does that cost the school?

Well, it depends on your school pop. but...

*Runs off to check with Finance*

6p per text, apparently.

[Joanne]

wow... you got 1800 pupils that's like £108.... guess you don't send bulk ones that often though eh?....

[Mr_Jones]

wow... you got 1800 pupils that's like £108.... guess you don't send bulk ones that often though eh?....

Only really when it's a snow-day or floods, we don't send one to everyone very often!

IIRC, when we did phone-calls to parents (if we were snowed in, or for 1st day absence) and switched to Truancy Call we saved a lot of money, and now with Keep Kids Safe we save even more. I think it's because of the way Truancy used to charge for the phone calls.

[mac_shinobi]

I know this is nothing to do with sms / text messages - ok anyway.

Couldn't you do a shared calendar on the schools website somewhere that displays all the schools events.

[Mr_Jones]

I know this is nothing to do with sms / text messages - ok anyway.

Couldn't you do a shared calendar on the schools website somewhere that displays all the schools events.

Try getting parents to check it!

[Ben_Stanton]

We're about to start using 'ParentMail' in the summer term. I found it surprisingly cheap, very easy for the admin team to use and as well as the mail side, it does texting too.

Superduper

[marshharrier]

ParentMail is the one to choose IMHO.

Text, Email, Paper, plus they do the admin work & sort out parents changing their email/mobile without telling us!!

Now links to SIMS/net & saves us a lot of work.