Parents Evening Software

[Kyle]

We haev Sims as our MIS and are looking at introducing a parents evening software to use for online booking of appointments. Anyone recommend any that you've had good experiences?

[steveg]

https://www.parentseveningsystem.co.uk/ has been used by us for many years and has been pretty faultless. Does video meetings for an extra charge too.

[Jawloms]

https://www.parentseveningsystem.co.uk/ has been used by us for many years and has been pretty faultless. Does video meetings for an extra charge too.

 

+1 for this.

[smurfomatic]

Same, also looking at using Schoolcloud for room booking and clubs as well.

[paulkerton]

We have Parents Evening Booking built into Bromcom as an MIS. Do Capita not have a solution?

 

We use School Cloud at the moment, as we are using video for Parents Evenings and plan to continue to do so this year, as it was such a success during the lockdowns with parents and teachers. I don't think I've ever seen any technology embraced so quickly and heavily as video parents evenings! They've just added blurring backgrounds and hybrid parents evening options too.

[round2it]

schoolcloud here

[TriggerHappyUK]

School Cloud here. Fantastic piece of software

[pete]

Schoolcloud for Parents Evening Software, with the video chat add-on at one of our sites.

 

It's very popular among staff and parents, especially on dark winter evenings and just needs a recent web browser.

[ticktock]

School cloud. Staff love it. It can have it's moments at busy times though.

[FragglePete]

Another plus 1 for Schoolcloud, but with Edulink One it contains its own Parents Evening System which is more than adequate so we reluctantly dropped School Cloud about a year ago now.

 

Pete

[mohamed_ibrahim]

I have made a system for my kids' school. For details of how to set it up, you can watch this video https://youtu.be/uGdrFIwLxFs. All you need is someone that has basic knowledge of spreadsheets (Google Sheets in this case). Please note, once you set it up, it belongs to you and no other company needs to access your school details. It's simply a group of spreadsheets linked to an online form (similar idea as a google form), all saved in your google account(s). You can also see every line of code (google apps script) behind this app. All the best Edited November 4, 2021 by mohamed_ibrahim

[sjatkn]

If recommend SchoolCloud as well. Staff are happy with it. I've not had any problems reported to me on the most recent parents evenings. We bought into it when COVID prevented in person meetings. I can't say if they we will keep it up or not. That's up to the leadership.

 

I've also used it as a parent and it worked very well. I much preferred it over the was my children's school team it's evenings, involving wandering round the school to find the staff.

[AJWhite1970]

Another SchoolCloud customer here. Our HM has said we are never going back to on-site parents evenings and all the teachers agreed

[CHiLL]

I'm currently on a temporary secondment at another school providing technical support and they had a parent's evening last night. They were using SchoolCloud, which was my first experience with it. For the most part, it went without issues. We just had one pupil who couldn't see his bookings, so they were rebooked and it worked. I think if an online parent's evening system is something my head wants to look at, SchoolCloud would be near the top of the list.

[neonetman]

+1 for schoolcloud

[Chaniel]

+1 for SchoolCloud

 

The only issue we see is due to our data. For parent auth we use authentication based on parent data (so it matches based off Parent First Name & Surname and then Student Details).

This needs to match exactly, so if a parent is entering their name a certain way but on our system it's different, it won't log them in. This is fairly simply fixed but it's the only recurring issue we have. You can change auth to a login code which is then distributed to parents but we don't do that.

[jmak]

+1 for SchoolCloud

 

The only issue we see is due to our data. For parent auth we use authentication based on parent data (so it matches based off Parent First Name & Surname and then Student Details).

This needs to match exactly, so if a parent is entering their name a certain way but on our system it's different, it won't log them in. This is fairly simply fixed but it's the only recurring issue we have. You can change auth to a login code which is then distributed to parents but we don't do that.

We used it as a way of verifying email addresses held in the MIS - pretty sure we used child's name, DoB and parents email to validate. We put a notice outside every classroom saying you've been sent an email inviting you to book a parents evening appointment; if you haven't received an email, there a problem with the record. Please come to the office to rectify. It was a massive data cleansing exercise first time round, but we got much better responses to emails afterwards!

 

School cloud is a great system.

[SchoolDM]

We use Edulink One for loads of things and School Cloud just for online parents' evenings. Does Edulink's online parents' evening functionality work as well/easily as School Cloud? If so, seems daft to pay for both!

[synaesthesia]

We use Edulink One for loads of things and School Cloud just for online parents' evenings. Does Edulink's online parents' evening functionality work as well/easily as School Cloud? If so, seems daft to pay for both!

 

We've done our last 2 parents evenings with Edulink and yes, it works lovely. Backend is by Twilio so quite stable, and any issues have been parental end.

[SchoolDM]

Any idea of cost of Twilio??

[synaesthesia]

Not off hand sorry - have a chat with Overnet though, they're always happy to help

[rob_coles]

+1 for Edulink,

 

If I remember you get a credit balance when you create a twilo account, we put extra £100 credit on as we was nervous about how much it was going to cost.

 

We still haven't started using the credit we put on after 3/4 parents evenings.

 

Regards

 

Rob

[Hedgehog13]

When I was at Groupcall we partnered with Parents Booking and it was extremely well-liked by the hundreds of schools that purchased it through us. Great piece of software, very easy to use for both the school staff and also the parents too. They intriduced video last year and that has been taken up massively too - and they also allow multiple parents/carers to join the video calls from different locations etc. which makes life easier for working parents or split families...

 

I heartily recommend it and they give full access and training so that you can try it for free with your next parent evening without any commitment to purchase too!

 

https://schools.tecl.co.uk/educationcompany7lz/lz.aspx?p1=VArDA1MDUzMzM5NFM3MTgxNDQyMjo2QjY5RURGNENBM0MzRjMwRjYzN0QxQTczMDUxQ0RCOQ%3d%3d-&CC=&p=0

[FragglePete]

Any idea of cost of Twilio??

I pre-loaded our Twilio with £50 credit when we started using it. After several parents evenings the balance is still sitting at..... £50 ! You get a certain amount of free bandwidth usage with an account and it looks like we've never even hit it yet.

 

The only extra feature I would like to see Overnet put in place on Edulink One is multiple parents and/or teachers in a call. I know Schoolcloud have this functionality and I believe it's on the wish list with Overnet.

 

Pete

[EssentialRug]

+1 for Schoolcloud