Parental Engagement

[Seb1780]

I've been tasked with looking at our systems and procedures with the aim of streamlining them and reducing the astronomical amount of paper we generate.

 

One area I'm looking at is Parental Engagement - currently we do all communication with parents via paper, despite the fact that we have systems in place for online reporting, payments and ad hoc communication.

 

The pervading opinion here is one of "we must have complete confidence that the message has got through".

 

Two key issues that are being thrown up whenever alternatives are discussed are:-

 

1 - How do we replace the (parentally) signed slips acknowledging receipt of the latest missive?

 

2 - How do we ensure parents are able to receive the message i.e. how do we know they have internet access?

 

Even when the luddites accept that using such advanced technologies as SMS could provide improved communication there are still questions raised like "how do we know the parent has read the message"; "how can the parent print the document"; "how do we prove we told the parent?".

 

Any tips, advice or condolences gratefully received.

[penfold_99]

The questions you are being asked

 

"How do we ensure parents are able to receive the message"

"how do we know the parent has read the message";

"how do we prove we told the parent?".

 

are also applicable to printed letters even if they are posted instead of going home with kids.

 

There is a permission slip app which could help eeZeeTrip. The simple solution for effortless school trip management

 

But in answer to question 2 you can't, you can make best endeavours to do that but cant guarantee it. There are numerous reasons like no access to internet or some parents may not be able to read.

[vikpaw]

Most email systems will provide a read / deliver receipt.

 

The problem is that some recipient systems don't respond to the tracking.

 

Groupcall has a feature where you can ask for a click response I.e. Ask which day they prefer parents evening, click Monday, Tuesday etc. trackable of course.

 

You can replicate that with survey monkey type tools combined with your email system.

 

We work on the basis of we have an email for the parent then they have some sort of access. Systems, Schoolcomms for example will tell you who didn't receive the message and let you print a paper copy for distribution.

 

Systems will tell you who has invalid emails or which bounced.

 

It's part of the annual process to update these. We find parents very quickly ring up / email when they have missed an email and hear from another parent about something. Plus of course put it on Facebook and they will defo see it

 

Replicating a signature, it's down to policy when you really need one like a trip and when it's a letter about uniform or lesser issue.

[Joanne]

Sweet irony... send out a parental survey (on paper) asking questions about internet access / phones / social media. I've started putting newsletters onto facebook and it is being well received.

[sparkeh]

We use Schoolcomms for this.

 

All letters are sent via email (a list of parents who can't/won't receive emails get a paper copy). Bounced emails are reported but beyond that we can't confirm that the email has been read.

 

For trips, parents have to pay online (also via Schoolcomms) and give consent electronically. For the few parents who can't/won't pay online they can return the slip from the letter. If they can't print then they can write a letter (some pop in the office and do it verbally (but I'm not too sure about this myself)).

 

Urgent messages are sent via text, again we get a report of failed delivery but again we can't tell if they have read it.

 

However, Schoolcomms have an app which quite a lot of parents are using. If you sent a text and the parents has the app then they get an app message instead. This *does* report back when the message has been read and has proved very handy when parents claim they weren't informed about something...

[Seb1780]

Thanks for the responses.

 

A common theme seems to be that there is no way of proving a message is understood regardless of the medium, which is a point I have made before to no avail.

 

Those systems we have do report duff e-mail addresses to us, and we do an annual check-up on contact details (paper-based, of course).

 

I guess what I really want to know is how to persuade the powers that be that moving away from paper will not lead to Armageddon?

[CAM]

Messages? Not sure, but our office has noted that a lot of parents claim they haven't checked their EMails when asked if they received a message. The only way round this will be to grin and bear the bedding down period as you hammer the message home to parents how important it is they check messages. Use of alternative methods like SMS will also help.

 

As for online reports, best bet is to pull parents in then pushing the reports to them. Upload them to your portal but give parents a reason to log-in such as attendance figures or conduct reports updated on a daily basis (even live with delay). This will encourage them to visit and see their child's report sitting waiting for them.

[vikpaw]

Making facilities available at school during parents evening, or even a regular computer workshop is a great way to include those that don't have facilities at home and / or need help, with for example marking school email as Safe, so it doesn't get junked.

 

I'm sure it's just as likely that a letter home is lost en route, or damaged, as parents claiming they didn't get it. Proving they got it, isn't necessarily, what you want to aim for, just proving you sent it, and showing there is no reason why they haven't got it. You could parallel run for a while, and let them opt in to receiving electronic comms.

 

We have teachers that still refuse to receive the internal weekly newsletter electronically, and have to have it printed! So how the parents respond will vary massively, so you have to have a direction that the school is taking, and try to coax them into it, plus it will vary a bit based on your demographics.

[eeZeeTripHQ]

one thing we do with eeZeeTrip (see Penfold's post) is to allow parents to manage their own phone numbers (we have emergency and secondary numbers). So, for example, if one parent is away on business they can easily swap to another emergency phone number. Phone numbers entered by parents 'trump' those coming form the MIS - if a school manually updates a number in eeZeeTrip we display a prompt saying that the number has already been validated by a parent.

Plus parents have to register with a valid email address (if this changes we catch NDNs).

[GREED]

The technology is there with suppliers of such technology already: Read Receipts for emails and text messages, as well as the points made about the likelihood on communication coming from the true source (did the parent read it and was it actually the parent).

 

The same problems exist with the current system as well as any technical one, and it is about covering as many bases as possible. i.e. if you send it to a parent email or mobile number that is listed in your MIS, you have reasonable confidence that is correct, and so any information coming back the other was you have reasonable confidence it is true too. You can of course go one stage further by having a facility or product that parents log into (with the same potential issues of course) and make the information you want available - it is all the same really.

[jmak]

When we moved to paperless communications, I sent an email to every address we held and a paper letter on the same day with every child with a proforma that said "Today we sent you an email. If you didn't receive it, please complete your email address here and return the form to the school office. You will not receive any further paper letters from us unless you come to the school office and complete a form stating that you are unable to receive emails."