clareq Posted June 25, 2015 Posted June 25, 2015 I've been asked to investigate a school app - does anyone have any experience of myschoolapp - mySchoolApp | Improve Parental Engagement or any other recommendations?
clareq Posted June 25, 2015 Author Posted June 25, 2015 Push messages to parents, inform about events, basically to replace text messaging parents.
FN-GM Posted June 25, 2015 Posted June 25, 2015 I have used SchoolsComms in the past. Its pretty good! 1
Crumpet Posted June 25, 2015 Posted June 25, 2015 Our head decided she wanted an app/new website and it turned out to be a dreadful waste of money. I won't name the company but they really shouldn't be trading it was so bad and the school paid a good sum of money for an absolute pile of useless carp.
localzuk Posted June 25, 2015 Posted June 25, 2015 Our head forwarded something to me about doing this a while ago. I had a look and couldn't see a real reason to do it - so instead my advice was to ensure our new website was mobile friendly and responsive. You can't really replace text messaging with such an app - there are always going to be people without a smartphone, and therefore without the app. Whereas pretty much everyone has a mobile phone.
unixman_again Posted June 25, 2015 Posted June 25, 2015 Ditto what Crumpet said. In our case, I'm still convinced the person who decided to have an app was swayed by the rep's legs! 1
clareq Posted June 25, 2015 Author Posted June 25, 2015 We will be running a consultation - all our new intake will be asked what their preferred method of communication will be. With nearly 2000 students, even if we can offload half the text messages we send to an app, it's a significant cost saving.
FragglePete Posted June 25, 2015 Posted June 25, 2015 We're in the process of enrolling parents onto Schoolcomms - feedback is really good and it focuses the importance of ensuring accurate and up to date info in SIMS. Pete 1
Schoolcomms Posted June 26, 2015 Posted June 26, 2015 You can't really replace text messaging with such an app - there are always going to be people without a smartphone, and therefore without the app. Whereas pretty much everyone has a mobile phone. You are right, no school gets 100% app takeup, an app only solution is not feasible. Schoolcomms knows who has the app and who doesn't. When you want to send a message you don't need to think about that, you just compose the message and choose who you want to send it to. Schoolcomms looks at every recipient individually and if they have the app it goes as an app message (free) and if they don't it goes as SMS (and if they don't have a phone number it gives you paper lists for those that need contacting another way). So the more parents who download the app, the cheaper it gets, but you don't have to worry about who is getting the message through app vs SMS, we deal with that behind the scenes.
howartp Posted June 26, 2015 Posted June 26, 2015 ...Schoolcomms knows who has the app and who doesn't... Schoolcomms looks at every recipient individually and if they have the app it goes as an app message (free) and if they don't it goes as SMS... Can I ask about this - we use Schoolcomms already, but don't advertise the app. 1) Is it possible yet to remove a parent from the app list if they decide they don't want to use it? 2) Can you detect if the person is signed into the app yet? Our very first test of using the app was to our staff, telling them we'd be closed on 31st February. Anyone who didn't receive it had to report to us so we could check their details. My technician and my Headmaster never received it - my technician had signed up for the app for testing purposes but signed out and deleted the app because he didn't want to use it long-term, and my headmaster wasn't signed into the app. Needless to say I didn't have much praise for the system from two key people that day! Peter
jmak Posted June 26, 2015 Posted June 26, 2015 Can I ask about this - we use Schoolcomms already, but don't advertise the app. 1) Is it possible yet to remove a parent from the app list if they decide they don't want to use it? 2) Can you detect if the person is signed into the app yet? Our very first test of using the app was to our staff, telling them we'd be closed on 31st February. Anyone who didn't receive it had to report to us so we could check their details. My technician and my Headmaster never received it - my technician had signed up for the app for testing purposes but signed out and deleted the app because he didn't want to use it long-term, and my headmaster wasn't signed into the app. Needless to say I didn't have much praise for the system from two key people that day! Peter[/Quote] 1) If the parent doesn't want to receive messages through the app........ Don't install the app. If they've registered a mobile number, they'd receive it by SMS of you send an SMS message. You can choose to only send messages to contacts who have installed the app. We used this to drive uptake of the app - when the kids went on a trip we said we'd send updates to parents who installed the app - other parents would only get an SMS of the planned return time changed. 2) You can see who had installed the app, not sure if it tells you whether they're signed in at any particular time. Our next drive will be introducing payment through the app.
howartp Posted June 26, 2015 Posted June 26, 2015 1) But if they've installed the app, either to test or to try it out, but then decide they don't want to use it...? 2) I mean when sending messages - if a user signs up but isn't signed in, they don't get the message by app or SMS.
jmak Posted June 26, 2015 Posted June 26, 2015 1) But if they've installed the app, either to test or to try it out, but then decide they don't want to use it...? 2) I mean when sending messages - if a user signs up but isn't signed in, they don't get the message by app or SMS. Will have a look in the console - the reporting in Schoolcomms is excellent. Personally I wouldn't get too hung up on it. How do you know if their phone has run out of battery or they've left it at home that day? You can prove you've sent it to the address the parent provided. If they don't pick it up it's their problem, not a problem with the technology.
Schoolcomms Posted June 29, 2015 Posted June 29, 2015 We do everything on the basis of them being signed in on the app. If they download the app but don't sign in then messages go by text, if they sign in they go by app, if they sign out then messages will start going by SMS again. For every message you send there is per recipient delivery status in the sent items, you can see here whether the message went by SMS or app to each recipient, and you can see the delivery status: red - not sent, amber - in progress, green - for SMS this is delivered to the handset, for App this is actually read (app opened, message screen viewed).
howartp Posted June 29, 2015 Posted June 29, 2015 That's excellent news because it certainly wasn't the case early on when the app was released.
Schoolcomms Posted June 29, 2015 Posted June 29, 2015 Our app message handling logic has got pretty sophisticated, and the underlying push notification service provided by Apple "evolves". But just like SMS or email it is still possible to send a message that doesn't arrive under certain circumstances, so you still need to check delivery status.
howartp Posted July 5, 2015 Posted July 5, 2015 Sorry, missed this reply. We're not bothered about the odd recipient not receiving messages, so don't need to check delivery status unless I'm tracking down a complaint from a parent. I'll talk with colleagues about making use of the app again now this issue is no longer present.
jmak Posted July 5, 2015 Posted July 5, 2015 Sorry, missed this reply. We're not bothered about the odd recipient not receiving messages, so don't need to check delivery status unless I'm tracking down a complaint from a parent. I'll talk with colleagues about making use of the app again now this issue is no longer present. We use the "log to SIMS" function so that when a parent says they didn't receive a message we can easily search by child to see what messages were sent.
howartp Posted July 5, 2015 Posted July 5, 2015 We use the "log to SIMS" function so that when a parent says they didn't receive a message we can easily search by child to see what messages were sent. All that presumably does is logs what they should have been sent - which you can also see in Sent Messages in SchoolComms. It doesn't (I'm guessing) say whether the message was successfully dispatched, which is what I'm usually looking for when a parent hasn't received a message. Has it dispatched? Has it bounced? Has Schoolcomms stopped sending because it's bounced 3 times? Etc?
Schoolcomms Posted July 6, 2015 Posted July 6, 2015 Yes the facility to write back to the SIMS Communication Log is there so you can easily keep a record of important messages against the pupil's record in SIMS. It also means that if you don't give access to Schoolcomms to all members of staff (e.g. teachers) then they can still see a record of messages sent/received.
jmak Posted July 6, 2015 Posted July 6, 2015 All that presumably does is logs what they should have been sent - which you can also see in Sent Messages in SchoolComms. It doesn't (I'm guessing) say whether the message was successfully dispatched, which is what I'm usually looking for when a parent hasn't received a message. Has it dispatched? Has it bounced? Has Schoolcomms stopped sending because it's bounced 3 times? Etc? You're right - the best reports are on Schoolcomms. I just find it a quick way to check when I have moaning parents on the phone
mySchoolApp Posted August 28, 2015 Posted August 28, 2015 If you're buying an app 'off the peg' then it's best to try a few on. All we know is the potential savings by moving over to push notes can be substantial. As for the comments made about lack of take up by parents, that's not our experience.
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