Parent Apps

[david_1152]

Just a question about what everyone uses for a parent app? Third party? Built into a MIS? Via a learning platform? I guess there's of ways of doing it, if you use a good one could you let me know?

 

Currently use SIMS, but not sure for how much longer.. Do I really want to use Sims parent app? If it's anything like the teacher app - Hell no - we don't use ipads..

 

Anyway, my site is secondary..

 

Thanks.

[fiza]

We use Edulink with SIMS. Demo site here https://www.edulinkone.com/#!/demo

We are very happy with it.

[David44]

We use SIMS and also use EduLink One. It's pretty easy for parents to sign in to, the school have very little involvement. The parents just go to http://www.edulinkone.com, click on reset password, enter their email address and they get an email that allows them to set their password. The students sign in to it too to see homework etc. The students use Google accounts to sign in in our case. Only real issue we have come across is if two parents, a Mother and a Father say, use the same email address ([email protected]) then one of them has to change so they each have a unique email address.

 

We have used SIMS Parent in the past, it's as bad as you imagine and then some. Poorly thought out 'invitation' system that means the school have to 'invite' parents individually to use the system. It would be a terrible system even if it did work but it doesn't work half the time anyway. ESS offer no support to the end user and most error messages say "Contact the school" so you will be inundated with queries that you are powerless to do anything about.

 

But don't take my word for it. Look at the reviews for it.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.co.capita.sims.mobile.parentapp

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/sims-parent/id1106452691

[jthompson]

+1 for EduLink One. Can't remember if they're a SIMS-only affair or not, though.

[gpjt]

After many years of looking for an all in one solution i believe that this one might be the one. Certainly for us it seems to be https://www.parentapps.co.uk/

 

Had a demo this morning and does everything and more that we want as a primary school. Pretty excited by it to be honest...

[David44]

I've no experience of https://www.parentapps.co.uk/ but looking at their website it sounds like the school needs to issue an invitation to each parent before they can sign up. It also sounds like the invitations expire. Think of all the unnecessary work this will create for the school and frustration it will cause parents.

 

Ideally, a parent system will allow parents to sign up when they want to, whether that be 3am on the morning of their child's first day in school or 6 months after their child first starts at school. Any system that relies on the parent signing up quickly and/or the school being open and someone being available to send a [new] invitation doesn't sound like it has been thought through properly.

 

As I say, I have no experience of this particular system but I have used SIMS Student, SIMS Parent and Pay360 which all suffer from the invitation issue (and so many other issues). I have also used EduLink One which doesn't use invitations, meaning parents can sign up 24/7 with no involvement from the school.

[gpjt]

I have no experience of Parentapps other than the demo so far. Lots of experience of the other apps and services under their company though.

 

Those admin concerns of yours are rightly valid, but I'd be willing to go through the admin hassles to ensure that we have a solution that fits both the school and parents needs. You're right it might be hassle, but to get an end product we're happy with is our main aim.

 

I too have experience in all the above products and others. This one is the closest I've seen that fits the needs and requirements for our school and potentially our Trust in the years I've been involved in Education. All the others used or being shown always had something we needed missing. I was really interested in the product after seeing it and will be doing the due diligence to make sure it's right for our needs.

 

As for signing up without the need of the school, I'd question that, but I don't know what is needed on the school's side to make that happen other than if it just relies on parent/student data matching then that would really be a concern for me.

[ITGuyNW]

My sons school use parentapps. Its ok, not the prettiest app in the world but seems to do the job I guess.

[David44]

As for signing up without the need of the school, I'd question that, but I don't know what is needed on the school's side to make that happen other than if it just relies on parent/student data matching then that would really be a concern for me.

 

I don't think there is much in it from a security point of view but an invitation system is always going to be less secure than just allowing parents to register themselves.

 

In reality, the invitation is just a unique code that identifies the parent to the system. This is usually part of the URL so it's transparent to the parent anyway. Essentially each parent gets a unique URL one way or another.

 

In the invitation scenario, the school sends out an invitation to all parents each with a unique URL/code, you now have hundreds of valid codes out there all at once which the parents may not be ready to use. Potentially, if you assume that MIS data is never 100% correct, some of those codes may have been sent to email addresses that don't belong to parents. These codes are usually valid for days, if not months.

 

In the self registration scenario, the school simply tell parents to go to a URL, enter their email address and the system will send them the unique URL. This is slightly more secure because you only have codes being sent to valid email addresses and only being sent when the parent is ready to use the system which in turn means the codes only need to be valid for a shorter time, days, if not hours or minutes.

 

In both scenarios, you'd probably want an extra layer of security anyway. The parent needing to enter one of their children's date of birth for example. I'd like to see a system that after the parent has signed in for the first time, makes them add each of their children (by entering their name and date of birth, perhaps). The school could then be alerted if a parent didn't add one of the children linked to them in the MIS. Maybe this is a sign that the parent is linked to that child in error?

 

As I say, I don't think invitation based systems are totally insecure, just ever so slightly less secure then a self registration system. I don't think there is much in it. I think the other benefits of a self registration system over an invitation system are more relevant. Less work/jumping through hoops for both the parent and the school are always going to win out for me.

Edited January 6, 2023 by David44