Texting parents in the news - proof that technology in schools works.

[Schoolcomms]

You may have seen some hype in the national media on the impact of texting parents about missed homework, attendance and test results. We were the delivery partners for this project and we learnt a lot about the realities of how simple technology can help schools achieve their ultimate objective – improving outcomes for students.

 

I expect most of you already have systems in your schools to send messages to parents – we send literally millions every month. We did quite a lot of analysis before the project and the vast majority of what goes through our system is “don’t forget your wellies for the school trip”, “the buses are late” and other administrative type messages. So it was great being part of the project that proved cheap technology interventions can actually raise standards when used for more than just admin.

 

But we also discovered why schools don't normally do this. Generic "send a text" functionality was just too labour intensive for these bespoke messages, so we built a whole load of new functionality that meant all teachers had to do was record missing homework or results in SIMS and we'd automatically send out the relevant messages, so teachers didn't need to do anything extra. This made a massive difference to the takeup and was a real lesson for us on minimising "friction" in user experience.

 

If any of you are getting asked by SLT on whether you can do this, or want to bring something to them on why technology is a good investment, we're running some webinars on the detail behind the headlines and how to actually implement this successfully. It's aimed at Schoolcomms customers really, but PM me if you aren't and want to come along.

[hardtailstar]

“don’t forget your willies for the school trip”.

 

FTFY

 

I noticed the difference it had in my last school which was a primary school, Texting started to happen about homework, trips etc. The parents seemed far more happier with texts then letters home.

 

They were also more proactive about updating contact details etc so they wouldn't miss the texts.

[southhamster]

FTFY

 

I noticed the difference it had in my last school which was a primary school, Texting started to happen about homework, trips etc. The parents seemed far more happier with texts then letters home.

 

They were also more proactive about updating contact details etc so they wouldn't miss the texts.

 

Also no chance for letters home being "forgotten" in the bottom of a school bag...

[ReidyBoy]

Automated texts have proved a very powerful tool in the academies I have worked in, especially those which require no error-prone manual intervention. They get the message out much faster and cheaper than letters too.