Schoolcomms case study
Phase: Primary
MAT: Oak Multi Academy Trust
Unique challenge: Finding a parent-friendly, cost-effective payments solution.
What goals were you hoping to achieve when you decided that an engagement system would be a good fit for your school?
- To reduce the amount of cash and cheques in school.
- To improve admin processes.
- To give parents and carers the opportunity to pay for trips, dinner money, and after-school clubs whenever they like from wherever they are.
- To prevent cash being lost in school.
- To enable online permissions for trips.
- To establish an efficient way of managing our pre/aftercare clubs.
Why did Brookside Primary School decide to use Schoolcomms to reach these goals?
We chose Schoolcomms following a number of recommendations by other local schools and staff who had used the system before. We found Schoolcomms to be competitively priced, as well as secure and easy to use.
We were also pleased that the system provides an excellent add on for clubs.
What savings do you feel have made investing in Schoolcomms worthwhile?
Since implementing Schoolcomms, we’ve experienced savings on administrative time, as well as printing and paper costs.
We’ve also saved time when it comes to chasing parents for outstanding monies, as parents and carers can easily see what their debts are.
What’s more, we’ve even seen an increase in the number of parents paying for items.
What day-to-day challenges has using Schoolcomms helped you to overcome?
It’s helped us with regards to chasing parents for payments, as well as collecting cash. It’s also reduced the instances of children losing cash, and thus disgruntled parents complaining that the monies they’ve sent to school have gone missing.
What has parent reaction been to School Gateway?
Very positive. There was a slow uptake at first, but all parents and carers are now using it following lots of encouragement. Our parents and carers are particularly pleased as they no longer have to come to the school office to make payments, and are no longer reliant upon their children bringing monies into school securely.
What has been the impact of adopting Schoolcomms?
- Minimal cash onsite.
- Less time spent handling payments.
- Less administrative work.
- Increased parent and carer satisfaction.
- Overall increase in trip payments.
- Monies are no longer lost at school or in school grounds.
