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Discover how this primary school reached a rural population of parents in Devon with Schoolcomms.
Discover how this South Gloucestershire school got a one-stop-shop parent engagement system with Schoolcomms.
A school newsletter lies at the heart of effective communication between students, staff, and parents. The question is: how do you make the most of this invaluable communication tool?
Whitecrest Primary School wanted to an easy-to-use solution that would allow them to efficiently communicate with parents. Learn how this Sandwell school discovered that Schoolcomms was not only helping them save money on paper but also allowed them to simplify fundraising events.
From the importance of meaningful parental engagement, all the way through to how to pick the best software to aid your efforts, this is your parental engagement port of call.
Simplify your school club management with Schoolcomms. From payments and bookings to strengthening safeguarding, our Clubs module can take care of everything for you.
What goals were you hoping to achieve when you decided that an engagement system would be a good fit for your school? Our primary aim was to streamline our parent payment options. However, we quickly realised the benefits of being able to send regular pupil progress updates through a single system linked to our MIS.
With parental engagement proven to have a positive effect on academic achievement, it’s clear that investing in long-term strategies is crucial. But with ever-shrinking budgets and heavy workloads to contend with, how can schools improve parental engagement? We've compiled a list of simple and affordable parental engagement strategies for improving parental involvement in their child's learning.
What goals were you hoping to achieve when you decided that an engagement system would be a good fit for your school? We were hoping to be able to: link up to SIMS – so the integration wasn’t cumbersome; streamline communication with parents; find an online payment method for parents; and find a way of communicating urgent news – e.g. school closures.
What goals were you hoping to achieve when you decided that an engagement system would be a good fit for your school? We wanted to find an interactive communication system, so that parents felt involved and included in their child’s education. The hope was that this would increase parental engagement. It was essential that we had the ability to send both types of reports (Assessment Manager Individual Reports and Profile Reports) electronically from SIMS.
What goals were you hoping to achieve when you decided that an engagement system would be a good fit for your school? We were desperately trying to find a more effective way of reaching parents with various forms of exam information. We found sending things home with students meant that more than 50% of parents would not be receiving important documents, which was very frustrating. We especially wanted to increase the parental engagement in our school.
What goals were you hoping to achieve when you decided that an engagement system would be a good fit for your school? We wanted to: reduce the amount of cash and cheques in school; improve admin processes; give parents and carers the opportunity to pay for trips, dinner money, and after-school clubs whenever they like from wherever they are; prevent cash being lost in school; enable online permissions for trips; and establish an efficient way of managing our pre/aftercare clubs.
New Hartley First School had used other systems to engage with parents, however, the school now wanted a solution that would provide them everything — from messaging and payments to school absences — in one place. Learn how this Northumberland school simplified their school operations with Schoolcomms.
Lincewood Primary was searching for a reliable cashless and messaging system. Learn why this Essex school chose Schoolcomms as their engagement system.
ParentPay Group today announced the acquisition of GDPR In Schools Limited (“GDPRiS”), an established provider of cloud-based data protection compliance solutions for schools.
Brentry Primary wanted to restructure the school payment system to save time and money. They were looking for an intuitive, easy-to-use system and a company with efficient and comprehensive training and free refresher sessions. Discover how Brentry Primary was able to get 90% of their parents to use the app by the new school year and was able to streamline the majority of their payments to come through the app.
ParentPay Group, and its family of leading edtech products SIMS, ParentPay, Schoolcomms, Reading Cloud, Cypad and BlueRunner will be exhibiting at BETT 24-26 January 2024 on stand number SC50.
Kiwi Primary School wanted to implement a single system for parents to book school meals, trips, and more. They were looking for the best engagement app in the industry that was easy to use and was a good value-for-money solution. Learn why Kiwi Primary felt that Schoolcomms was the best fit for their goals.
Woodland Grange were looking for a system that reduced the amount of cash coming into school and was a quick and easy way of messaging parents. The school looked at several different companies offering similar systems, but Schoolcomms seemed to be the most user-friendly to them.
The school started with just the goal of giving parents the choice of being able to pay online or by card for convenience and attain the facility of sending text messages. However, further down the line, the school decided to become a cashless school and even start using a club management solution. The school considered a couple of systems, but Schoolcomms was recommended by the SIMS team who supported the school when they went live. Keresforth Primary looked at different providers but decided that Schoolcomms offered excellent value for money and parents would not need to get used to a new/second system.
Download the Ultimate Guide to Improving Your School Meal Service. Your recipe for improving efficiency, cutting costs, and increasing meal uptake through all aspects of the school meal service.
Building meaningful parental engagement requires a well-thought-out communications strategy, encompassing a range of channels with clear purposes for each. This means connecting with parents where they naturally will be, with appropriate messaging, and at the right times.
There is no secret to being able to effectively manage your own mental health and wellbeing, let alone that of your school staff. Maintaining positive mental health in schools is an ongoing process that requires constant investment. Everyone has their own individual needs and different levels of attention.
We’ve listened to the experiences of over 3,000 school staff and found that 19% of schools are planning to increase their fundraising activity in the coming year. Compare that to our previous research in 2020, which found this number to be 20%, and we can see that this is still a key focus for schools.
This ‘gap’ in academic achievement for children of low socio-economic status (SES) backgrounds is what many describe as the ‘attainment gap’, and it hasn’t shown signs of closing for 20 years. But what causes the attainment gap? And what would closing the gap mean for schools?
We know it’s not easy being a School Business Manager (SBM), especially right now. Now with the cost of living crisis, there’s more than just a strain on your time; some School Business Managers have taken on the added stress of organising fundraisers to support struggling families.
Looking to improve your parental engagement but not sure how? A parental engagement questionnaire is a great place to start. And with mountains of research supporting the link between parental involvement and student success, listening to parent opinion is key to improving learning outcomes. Despite this, according to ParentKind’s 2020 Annual Survey, only 50% of parents feel they’re able to have a say on decisions affecting their children’s education.
You are probably well aware of the many ways investing in a school app can make life easier for your school. But have you considered the advantages for parents? Getting parents on board with school apps is a critical step. If your school is planning on investing in a parent app, be sure to communicate the benefits to your parents. So, how will investing in a school app benefit the parents of your pupils?
Were you aware that meaningful parental engagement can equivalate to an additional 4 months of progression per year for children in school? It isn’t just down to teachers to ensure that children get the best education and support they can. Parents also play a key role in their children’s educational experience and, as such, it’s crucial that schools can involve them in the best ways possible.
71% of schools say that social inclusion causing limited access to the internet is their biggest barrier to adopting education technology (EdTech) solutions, according to our recent survey of 3,000 UK school staff. Although a daunting obstacle for schools to tackle, there is a lot that schools can do to support low-income and low-social-economic status (SES) families to promote social inclusion.
How has your school meal service responded to the requirements imposed by Natasha’s Law? While the purpose of Natasha’s Law is to enforce accurate labelling of potentially fatal allergens, it also represents a shift towards further inclusion and care for people living with food allergies.
Read our whitepaper to get unrivalled insights into schools’ changing attitudes towards technology, income, and efficiency - from over 3,000 school staff.
In a recent survey, we listened to over 3,000 staff working in primary schools, secondary schools, nurseries, sixth forms, local authorities, multi-academy trusts, and catering organisations.
Watch how Bodnant Community School found success with Schoolcomms. We sat down with Sian Canty, Admin Support, to discuss how Schoolcomms has helped streamline her school's processes to achieve more.
Watch how John Rankin Junior School found success with Schoolcomms. Amy Futcher, Admin Officer, tells us how Schoolcomms has impacted her school to improve parental engagement and admin processes.
What goals were you hoping to achieve when you decided that an engagement system would be a good fit for your school? Our aims were to reduce our carbon footprint by minimising the use of paper, to simplify home-school communications, and to reduce the workload of the admin team whilst giving parents more control.
What goals were you hoping to achieve when you decided that an engagement system would be a good fit for your school? To consolidate everything into one place. We also wanted to be able to monitor debts more easily, and become as cashless as possible, cutting down on paper. What made you decide to use Schoolcomms to reach these goals? Schoolcomms was recommended by another local primary school, I believe one of the first to start using it.
We know that budgets are always tight for schools. What savings (both in time and money) do you feel have made investing in Schoolcomms worthwhile? The cost of Schoolcomms (which is by no means excessive) is vastly outweighed by the saving in time and resources and also, where payments are concerned, the risk of human error.
What goals were you hoping to achieve when you decided that an engagement system would be a good fit for your school? Our online payments system was continually causing the school and parents issues so we decided to take the plunge and move to a new payments system. Why did Oathall Community College decide to use Schoolcomms to reach these goals? We had to find a system which would work well with our cashless catering system. We were advised by our till system provider (Sharps) that Schoolcomms was compatible with their system. Having looked at the systems available to us we felt that Schoolcomms would be the best solution.
What goals were you hoping to achieve when you decided that an engagement system would be a good fit for your school? We are a large primary school that takes a large amount of cash each week. so we were hoping to reduce the need for continuous banking. We also hoped to reduce the amount of time spent on administrative tasks to free up staff for other duties. For our busy parents and carers, we were looking for a system which would improve efficiency and the service we offer them.