School communicating with parents

[genesis]

Hi,

 

 

We use Parentmail to communicate with parents, and they need to have the Parentmail app downloaded on their smartphones to receive messages from the school.

 

 

However, many parents either don’t have smartphones or are not tech-savvy enough to install and use the app.

 

 

I’m curious to know how your school manages communication with parents. Do you use a similar service, send hard copies , or rely on newsletters?

Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

 

Thanks!

[dhicks]

I’m curious to know how your school manages communication with parents. Do you use a similar service, send hard copies , or rely on newsletters?

 

For actually-important information regarding children (medical information, exams information, etc) we communicate via our MIS (iSAMS). We tend to use its send-parents-email feature rather than have parents use the Parent Portal app as that can be a bit clunky. Their email system works well, with good deliverability, sending emails via SendGrid's transactional email API.

 

For less-important stuff, we tend to put information in a newsletter. We were sending that newsletter out via a Mailchimp mailing list, synced with parent contact information from our MIS, with Mailchimp handling unsubscribes and so on. I think the marketing department have now stopped using that mailing list, I think they're just publishing the newsletter to a URL on the website.

[supportman]

We use bromcom and its all integrated into the MIS.

[jthompson]

My child's school uses ParentMail and as well as receiving messages in the app, we also receive copies via email (from [email protected]). I can't remember if we as parents needed to opt in to receive those or not.

 

Our school here is, in the words of a colleague, very "sender-focussed" with regards to the parent comms we send out. i.e. we have no dedicated comms role and it's a bit of a free-for-all with teaching staff able to send whatever bulk emails they feel like sending this morning/lunchtime/evening/Sunday without necessarily considering the context in which it is received or other comms parents may be in receipt of. No holistic approach. We use EduLink and so it's all sent as messages via that (predominantly this will mean parents are receiving comms as emails).

[Rob_D]

We use Bromcom for all parent communications as well. Parents either get the message through the app (if they have it) or via email.

[TheHyperTechie]

We use our MIS (Arbor) for all parent communications.

[I_just_work_here]

Another one here for MIS communication (SIMS InTouch)

[psydii]

Hi,

 

However, many parents either don’t have smartphones or are not tech-savvy enough to install and use the app.

 

 

I question the truth of this. It was a common argument for years and years here. Eventually after much anecdotal/empirical evidence showing was collected showing otherwise, we just pushed ahead with going for an app. Special steps are taken for homes where we know this doesn't work; it is a tiny tiny percentage.

 

It was vital that it was an app that 'does everything'. It shows homework, attendance, behaviour, progress etc - it has become a one-stop shop for almost all communications, except ironically, it doesn't support a 'shop' and also despite its primary function is not "show my homework". The app was rolled out via parents evenings over an 18 month period before it became the main conduit for school communications.

 

For urgent, extremely time-sensitive matters messages will be sent out through the platform, and augmented with SMS.

 

 

FWIW IMHO the move to using an App required a powerful voice on SLT who believed the assertion (that many parents couldn't/wouldn't install the app) to be true (because it was in 2009) to leave, and be replaced by someone whose opinions could still be swayed by data.

Edited November 27, 2024 by psydii

[NegativeKillDeath]

My sons school uses EduLink. Comms come through via the via the in app messages and a copy via email. I like getting both. Having a copy of messages in my email means I have a permanent record of that communication that won't go away as soon as my child is off role. Having an app is useful for things like time tables, attendance, behaviour, updating info etc.

[DavR]

We use ParentHub. The ideal implementation is that all parents have the app on their phone to receive comms, directed either to the whole school, or individual classes / groups.

 

In the event a parent does not / cannot / will not install the app, it defaults back to email. If the parent doesn't read the message in the app within 24hrs, they also get a followup by email. We also have the option to send SMS messages, but reserve that for emergencies only.

 

As for the question around families who do not have Smartphone access, we currently have 95% of children where at least one parent has the app installed. Although I acknowledge we're in a relatively well off area. I think ParentHub support said 80-85% was average.

 

 

 

When we set this up, we tried to make sure that it was our primary method of communicating with parents, to replace a whole bunch of other ad hoc methods. In the end though we ended up with a separate app for our MIS and Payments, but, we're pretty happy we got it down to two, tbh.

Edited November 27, 2024 by DavR

[dhicks]

For actually-important information regarding children (medical information, exams information, etc) we communicate via our MIS (iSAMS).

 

Ah! Forgot to add: our Sports department uses Squad In Touch. That seems to work well for them, I don't think we've had to help them set up / configure anything.