Categories: NewsAdministration

School apps to engage parents of the new world

<h2>In an increasingly digital world&comma; schools are turning to integrated school management system to organise communications and newsletter content&comma; complete administrative tasks&comma; and manage data&period;<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>In this digitalised context&comma; not to mention a world where inefficient and wasteful use of paper is no longer tolerated&comma; technology has stepped in&period; With Australia having one of the highest percentages of smartphone users worldwide&comma; using apps to manage communications can streamline notifications and permission note protocol&comma; giving everyone a break from note chasing&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p>Modern families occupy a more complex space than ever before&period;  The work-life balance juggle combines with an over engineered schedule and&comma; in many cases&comma; a career that follows them home&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>As fewer households include a stay-at-home organisational agent &lpar;parent&rpar;&comma; notes pile up under magnets on the fridge&comma; and unless &OpenCurlyQuote;Thursday is swimming day’ is manually loaded into the calendar and an alert set&comma; it may be overlooked&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Some teachers overcome this by setting up a &OpenCurlyQuote;closed’ or &OpenCurlyQuote;secret’ group on Facebook to ping parents with 6am reminders&comma; but most teachers have their own version of organisational mayhem going on at home&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It’s really needs to be the domain of the school management team to implement school-wide comprehensive systems&comma; which operate using the same channels as the rest of our digital-dominated existence&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p>Apps with push notifications can track attendance&comma; issue reports&comma; send meeting requests and flag upcoming events for parents&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>Special announcements such as school weather disruptions or special events can also be communicated via the school app&comma; reaching anyone with access to the internet&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Government agencies and mental health organisations haven’t changed their tune about the importance of the home-school partnerships&period; Schools that have embraced technology to bring school and home into partnership report an ease and connectedness has resulted&period; Does your school use its Facebook page for alerts&quest; Do class teachers have their own closed page for parents&quest; What platforms do your parents use&quest; Can you send out a survey to see if you are a Twitter or Facebook dominated community&quest; The tech is there for the taking &&num;8211&semi; and with most parents already active-social-media-using-smart-phone-aficionados&comma; apps and social media might just make your school community &OpenCurlyQuote;come together&comma; right now’&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"box shadow aligncenter" style&equals;"width&colon;85&percnt;">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"box-inner-block">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<span class&equals;"fa tie-shortcode-boxicon"><&sol;span>&NewLine;<p><strong>School apps for convenient&comma; customisable communications<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"alignright size-medium wp-image-9380" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;school-news&period;com&period;au&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;11&sol;SNAU06-ADMIN-Active-apps-box-1-300x300&period;png" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"300" &sol;>Active School Apps general manager&comma; Leigh Kostiainen is passionate about the importance of school to parent communication&period; Her first-hand experience with wasteful paper note systems led her to &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;seek a solution that would incorporate simple&comma; easy-to-use technology”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Active School mobile apps are customisable to school branding and functional requirements&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Whether it’s to announce a rained-out sports event&comma; an upcoming mufti day&comma; or to provide the latest school newsletter&semi; our apps provide schools with an intuitive and cost-effective way of keeping parents informed&comma;” Ms Kostiainen explained&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>She says push notifications are the most widely utilised functionality&semi; they can be dispatched to the whole school or a specific group&period; These can be sent instantly or scheduled for later transmission&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;School lunches and uniform ordering&comma; as well as absentee notifications&comma; are also popular features with parents&period; Other popular features include the newsletter and calendar tabs&comma; which enable parents to consume the communications at their convenience&comma;” Ms Kostiainen noted&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Active School apps are module based and fully customisable&comma; enabling us to provide a cost-effective communication tool for schools and parents&comma;” she concluded&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&NewLine;

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Suzy Barry

Suzy Barry is a freelance education writer and the former editor of School News, Australia.

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