External system for students and parents recommendations

[robjduk]

Hello,

I have the best shot in years of getting rid of the ever useless SIMS Learning Gateway and am looking for recommendations. I like the look of School Comms but do like the idea of students being able to sign in and checking their timetable which it does not seem to do. Can anyone else recommend a parent and student portal which has websites and apps for ease of use?

 

Thank you

[vikpaw]

TASC software, i don't know if it's Insight, PARS, check them out works like a dream with SIMS.

Schoolcomms is good for messaging, and pushing data out to students, staff, parents via email, sms and phone alert (e.g. iphone notification), this includes reports and timetable.

TASC will give you portals and the ability for staff to enter marksheet data, and parents to see info. amongst other things. There are a couple of threads on it here.

[bobsmith]

I was eyeing up TASC Insight, but then I had a demo of ConnectEd which while it does less at the moment had a very cool interface for parents and can also reduce your communication costs to parents to virtually zero using an App rather than text messages.

 

It all depends on your exact brief, what you want it to do versus what you need it to do. From looking around it really does look like there are a lot of viable alternatives.

[Banjo]

Hello,

I have the best shot in years of getting rid of the ever useless SIMS Learning Gateway and am looking for recommendations. I like the look of School Comms but do like the idea of students being able to sign in and checking their timetable which it does not seem to do. Can anyone else recommend a parent and student portal which has websites and apps for ease of use?

 

Thank you

 

Speak to Schoolcomms, what your asking can be done with their product. Timetable and also the students exam timetable can be made available via the App. If you use SIMS behaviour then the parents can get an instant notification via the app when their kids get reward in class or have been misbehaving.

 

Products - Schoolcomms

 

They are more importantly a really nice bunch of people who will bend over backwards to sort any issues out.

[vikpaw]

Products - Schoolcomms

 

They are more importantly a really nice bunch of people who will bend over backwards to sort any issues out.

+1 to that

[Schoolcomms]

Hello,

I like the look of School Comms but do like the idea of students being able to sign in and checking their timetable which it does not seem to do.

 

I'm glad you like the look of Schoolcomms

 

And I am pleased to tell you students can also sign in to check their timetable either on School Gateway or apple/android app of the same name (and even prototype for apple watch ).

 

Although some students would prefer not to know apparently: student twitter conversation - please excuse the language

[Schoolcomms]

...and can also reduce your communication costs to parents to virtually zero using an App rather than text messages.

 

Schoolcomms also replaces text messages with app messages, anyone who has the School Gateway app gets an app message (free), anyone who doesn't gets SMS, so you can be sure that everyone still gets the message. We figure it all out in the background so you just decide who you want to talk to and what to say and we find the cheapest way to send the message to them.

[robjduk]

Good to know thanks. I have the trial lined up for next week and just really hoping the higher ups go for it over SLG which is pretty awful to manage.

[SouthCoastSaint]

Does Schoolcomms now allow for emailing students their passcode instead of texting? That is a big consideration for us as we don't hold student mobile numbers.

[Schoolcomms]

They are still texted out... at the moment. We get it's a problem, we did it to provide a simple way to provide two factor authentication. So it would be a school level policy option to allow emailing.

[GREED]

There are, of course, several other providers of such parental engagement technology...

[SouthCoastSaint]

To be fair the original request was for any recommendations but we can only comment on ones we have used...

[Banjo]

They are still texted out... at the moment. We get it's a problem, we did it to provide a simple way to provide two factor authentication. So it would be a school level policy option to allow emailing.

 

True, but Schoolcomms is probably the most integrated into SIMS than the rest.

[Sean]

Sorry to bump an older thread but any ideas on pricing? for an average sized secondary of around 1000 students?

A few years ago we had migrated from SIMS Learning Gateway to Bromcom's 'My Child at School' which is nice enough but costs around £8k a year, which seems a bit excessive, especially considering only around 100 of our parental account seem to actually get used

We've apparently had a verbal quote from some people called 'ParentHub' for just £1400 but their stuff only seems half finished - it appears to be a iPhone and Android app only at the moment with a web portal listed as 'coming soon'

So is the £8000 for MCaS particularly high or is the £1400 for ParentHub particularly cheap or a bit of both?

Thanks

[robjduk]

Don't want to throw personalised quotes around on here but we just signed up to schoolcomms and believe you would be happy after a chat with them.