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The future of school payments is NOW

Stop by a cash point today and you’re likely to be confronted with a message informing you, ‘this machine charges for cash withdrawals’. The accompanying price tag can range from a minimum of 95p to an eye-watering £5; today’s high fee to access your own cash.

Pricey cash withdrawals are on the rise. According to consumer group Which?, nearly 1,700 charge machines were launched between January and March 2019. And, as free cash machines disappear from our high streets, so too, do bank branches; the UK has lost nearly two-thirds of its bank and building society branches over the past 30 years. However, in light of closures and a decline in free cash, consumers and businesses aren’t grinding to a halt. Instead, we’re welcoming a new cashless era with open arms, smartphones in hand.

The online bank

Today, 22 million people across the UK are using mobile banking apps to manage their accounts, and, by 2023, this number is expected to rise to 35 million – a huge 60% of all current account holders.

With the likes of contemporary online-only banks as Monzo entering the market, banks are placing greater emphasis on user-friendly, reliable apps and a convenient mobile banking experience. In fact, even online banking trends are changing to reflect our preference to smartphone tech; this year, mobile banking is expected to surpass internet banking as the most popular digital channel.

The bank of mum and dad

Most tech-savvy millennial parents keep a close eye on the digital purse-strings. Stopping by cash points and finding loose change for dinner money isn’t on the to-do list for the busy school drop-off.

Mobile apps provide a new level of convenience for busy mums and dads, enabling them to easily check finances while out and about. When it comes to security, too, mobile banking offers privacy settings and fingerprint logins. The dangers of ATM fraud are well known, and even inputting our pin in public can prove risky.

Today, we don’t think twice before paying for every day and extravagant items via mobile apps – holidays, travel fares, clothing and the weekly shop. As a result, parents are fast coming to expect the same level of ease and reliability for school payments and dinner money.

The solution for secondary schools

Convenience, reliability, security – these same cash-related issues spread as far as the school office. Every year, secondary schools process thousands of pounds for dinners, uniforms, clubs, trips and more, and the associated problems can be a real headache for staff; busy teams spend hours chasing, processing and banking money. Cash kept on-site results in security risks, and cash-related costs are high, particularly for schools relying on paper communications to contact parents. Lunch money debt is a regular hot topic in the media, with schools shouldering the burden of over-due dinner payments.

Fortunately, online payments are bridging the gap between home and school when it comes to finances. +Pay utilises a user-friendly platform and free mobile app to meet the needs of both schools and parents with innovative, convenient, cashless technology.

With Advance Booking functionality on its way, parents will soon be able to make selections and pay for items in advance, enabling schools to efficiently manage suppliers, reducing waste and debt. Multiple registers functionality collects payments for dinner, afterschool and breakfast clubs, with payments landing straight in the school bank account. Low-balance reminders and push notifications alert parents to payments that are due, allowing them to pay in seconds using a variety of flexible methods, including PayPal, debit/credit card and PayPoint.

+Pay delivers informative payment reports and integrates seamlessly with your school’s MIS. Our dedicated +Pay Support Team is on hand to offer help, if and when you need it. Whether you’re introducing online payments for the first time or switching provider, launching +Pay is easy; the online, automated process means no printed letters and codes.

We’ve designed the +Pay platform with secondary schools in mind; no stress, no complicated implementation process and no unhappy parents. The era of cash payments is quickly coming to a close, and for schools, the benefits are huge. Get in touch to find out more about +Pay and or book a free demo here.

Meet the brains behind our App

In today’s tech-savvy world, many of us rarely go a day without relying on handy Apps to chat with friends and family, post on social media, check our bank balance or transfer money, book a taxi and carry out all sorts of other routine tasks. It’s easy to forget the teams behind these Apps, working hard to develop new and innovative ways to enhance the user experience.

The ParentMail App is used by millions of busy parents to manage school life every day and we often hear from people that it makes receiving school communications so much easier! We want to shine a light on the brains behind our brilliant free parent App and learn a little more about the thought and work that goes into developing one of the education sector’s most popular parental engagement solutions.

Introducing ParentMail’s Front-End Developer, Richard Shergold!

How long have you worked at ParentMail and what does a front-end developer do?
I have worked at ParentMail as a Front-End Developer for nearly two years.

Front-end development generally involves working with coding languages such as JavaScript, HTML and CSS to create web applications that run on desktop and mobile browsers. My role with ParentMail is slightly different from that of a traditional front-end developer; the ParentMail application not only has to work in browsers but also as applications available to download from the Apple and Android App stores.

We have recently built a new version of the application to give us greater flexibility in delivering updates and improvements across all these platforms. This new version has been developed using the Ionic and Angular web frameworks.

What does a normal day look like for you?

I work remotely from home in West Sussex so I’m lucky that my day never begins with a commute – other than a very short walk to my office at the back of my garden! I usually try to start work at half past seven in the morning, which is also the time that most of my colleagues in the Development team arrive into the office; we are all early birds!

What I do on an average day depends on the current project we’re working on and what phase of that project we’re in. Most of the time, I am writing and testing code, but I also regularly have meetings with the Development team and other business colleagues at the ParentMail Head Office to discuss new requirements for the application.

If the initial phase of the project has finished and requirements have been signed off then I will be busy making the required changes to the App, sometimes working with other members of the Development team. After the testing process, the changes are released to our testing team. The ParentMail application needs to work across multiple platforms – all the major desktop and mobile browsers, as well as the range of iOS and Android devices – so both the development and testing processes can be quite challenging!

How does the development roadmap for the App take form?

We listen very carefully to feedback from parents and schools and also keep an eye on the market to see what innovations and developments are taking place. All feedback, whether positive or negative, is very useful to us. To ensure quality, we prioritise certain areas of development at a time. For example, currently, we are working on delivering Advanced Bookings functionality into the App which will allow parents to book and pay for their children’s dinners and club attendances in advance. This development will include a number of system enhancements to support schools and parents, and the release is fast approaching, so keep an eye out for it!

What do you enjoy most about your job?

Everything changes so fast in Information Technology, particularly the skills and technologies required for App development. As developers, we have to keep learning, otherwise, the industry speeds ahead and it’s so easy to fall behind. I love this aspect of the job, the fact that I am probably learning more now than I have ever learned in my life! Every day is a school day (which is quite appropriate for a ParentMail employee)!

This results in the other part of the job I love, the challenge of developing and enhancing the ParentMail App to be even more useful for parents and schools.

Can you tell us an example of a challenge you’ll (regularly) encounter as ParentMail’s Front-End Developer?

The biggest challenge for me is making sure that the code I write is going to work across all of the platforms that we support. As I say, that’s several desktop browsers and a large number of mobile devices. It’s very frustrating when something will work for 99% of users but could prove problematic for the remaining 1%!

What does the future look like for the App?

The challenge over the last year has been to get the new version of the application built so that we are in a position to better deliver regular updates. We have achieved this now and I am looking forward to our team being able to deliver some fantastic enhancements and updates to the application for all our parents to enjoy!

ParentMail is bridging the home/school gap with industry-leading technology! If you’re a school looking to improve parental engagement, we’re sure to have the solution for you – get in touch to find out more.

How important is parents’ evening?

A new study published in the European Economic Review (volume 111) has revealed the real impact of parent-teacher meetings.

Asad Islam reported on a randomised experiment in rural Bangladeshi schools, communities which usually see little engagement between parents and educators. With the introduction of regular parent-teacher meetings, student attainment dramatically increased, suggesting the very real benefits of parental engagement. During the two-year intervention, children in years 4 and 5 learned roughly double across all subjects, including English, Maths and Science.

The experiment also changed teaching methods, with teachers utilising visual aids and real-world examples to teach concepts, rather than sticking to textbook learning. At home, parents and siblings became more involved in the homework process and students were more likely to receive private tutoring in areas requiring a little more attention. Students were motivated to spend increased time studying – confidence around exams grew and so, too, did their ambitions.

Breaking home/school barriers

While parent-teacher meetings are a long-term tradition in the UK, rising student populations and teacher-workload can make planning and preparing for evenings difficult. For this reason (and many others) monthly or very regular meetings are impractical for UK schools and parents. Both teachers and office staff are balancing their own heavy workloads, making it difficult to squeeze in time to plan appropriately, and today’s busy parents find it hard to fit appointments into their already booked-up calendars. In fact, even encouraging some mums and dads to commit to occasional appointments and respond to invitations can prove difficult! As in Islam’s investigation, a lack of confidence in approaching schools is often prevalent in ‘unengaged’ parents. Unfortunately, often this can be misinterpreted by schools as disinterest on the parents’ part. However, as proven in the study, once a parent is involved in their child’s education, their confidence around the school environment grows – so, too, does home/school engagement and students benefit as a result.

On the rare occasions in which parents and teachers do get the chance to discuss student progress, it’s important that both parties get the most out of the meeting and parents feel encouraged to come back next term. Parent-teacher conferences are a great opportunity to break down barriers and improve relationships with the parent community. For this reason, it is very important to make the experience a positive one. This means preparing staff and parents with all the information they need to ensure the evening is beneficial. For some parents, even finding their way to the right classroom can be a daunting experience. The devil is in the detail and utilising all the tools at your disposal can support your team in preparing a successful evening from start to finish.

Building parent/teacher partnerships

Parents’ Evening Manager makes booking appointments easy for parents, resulting in a great response for schools. Cutting out pupil post with the free ParentMail app and push notifications enables busy parents to respond to invitations on-the-go and at a time convenient for them. The flexible platform gives schools the option to allow parents to include notes when booking, enabling teachers to plan in advance. Schools can also provide parents with extra detail and information, such as instructions on where to go upon arrival and guidance on what to expect on the night. As such, parents feel prepared and confident to meet with teachers and appointments run smoothly.

In the office, staff are organised and able to report on timetables with ease. The platform syncs with SIMS and other MIS, enabling easy class and subject selection; appointments can be easily amended and deleted, and reminders can be re-sent to parents yet to respond.

Parents’ Evening Manager is supporting thousands of primary and secondary schools to plan smooth and seamless parents’ meetings. Get in touch to find out more and to book a free demo!

Saving your teachers from endless email onslaught and white bears

Parents are invested in their children’s education, and they’re going to ask teachers questions. That’s something that can’t and shouldn’t be avoided. However, when teachers are flooded by emails and messages from enthusiastic parents, this can lead to unhealthy out-of-work practices and a poor work-life balance.

Prior to outlining his new EdTech strategy at the Schools and Academies show, Education Secretary Damian Hinds argued for the need to ditch email culture to cut school workload. Educators need a solution to the issue of email overload, and the DfE is aware of this, but the problem isn’t always easy to diagnose. Technology isn’t the cause of the problem — the problem is that teachers’ email inbox is a white bear.

Your Email Inbox is a White Bear

Modern technology is capable of fantastic things, but it also forces you to be connected at all times. Switching off your phone or email inbox is a big no-no — besides, the second your phone buzzes or your computer pings, you just have to check it. In fact, just by trying to tune out an overenthusiastic parent, teachers cause themselves to think about them more often.

So why can’t teachers switch off and escape from school once they leave the classroom?

Try to pose for yourself this task: not to think of a polar bear, and you will see that the cursed thing will come to mind every minute.
Fyodor Dostoevsky

This is known as the white bear problem, or “ironic rebound”. The more you try to suppress a thought, the harder your subconscious works to make you think of it. If you try not to think of a white bear, for instance, it’s impossible not to.

This can give your email inbox an irresistible lure, and it’s a major cause of stress and anxiety. You don’t know if that message that just pinged into your inbox is important, and it’s gnawing away at your mind, much like the white bear that you shouldn’t have been thinking of. The more you try to resist thinking about it, the more present and threatening it becomes.

Solutions to Always-On Availability

Teachers already have enough stressors in their life, but email anxiety doesn’t have to be one of them. Rather than bringing their work home with them overnight, teachers should leave it at the school gate (marking excluded).

So how do we scare away the white bears?

The Usual “Solution”

Rather than replying to incoming emails as soon as they arrive, teachers can instead drop them into one of several different inbox folders. If emails are marked as urgent, they can be replied to as soon as possible — but not necessarily straight away.

This is a great way to stay on top of the flood of emails, but it doesn’t solve the white bear problem — it just delays it.

Social Media

Your social media accounts are a great point of contact for parents. Not only can you answer their questions directly, but you may find that the school community and other parents will help each other. This makes it optional for staff to join in the conversation, and their inboxes remain clean — not a white bear in sight.

A healthy school community has trickle-down benefits through every level of the school. It’s proven that strong home-school links and parental engagement have a direct positive influence on student attainment.

However, despite its benefits, you can’t rely on social media messaging to contact parents. What happens if they don’t see an important post in time?

Anti-White-Bear Technology

If you provide parents with all the information they need when they need it using anti-white-bear technology, parents won’t have as many queries for your teachers.

ParentMail is a white bear killer. It’s a one-way home-school communication app designed to prevent teachers from being bombarded with messages from parents. It makes it easy to provide parents with all the information they need, so there shouldn’t be a need to contact teachers for information.

Rather than sending home letters en masse, staff can send personalised messages to individual parents, so the information is fully relevant to them and instantly delivered where they need it most — their mobile phones and devices. Your school can even save money by sending push notifications instead of text messages, and you can cut down on the stacks of letters that would ordinarily need to be printed.

One-Way Communication

When teachers need instant responses from parents, they can gather information using ParentMail forms — again, without sacrificing anybody’s inbox. Capture exactly the information you need without having to read through endless emails, saving everybody time.

The forms module works within ParentMail, so all the important information you need is kept in a single easily accessible location.

Parents’ Evenings

You can even avoid the inevitable avalanche of parents’ evening questions with ParentMail’s Parents’ Evening Manager. Parents’ evening appointments are short-lived, and it’s important that both parent and teacher discuss everything that needs to be said in this time. By leaving questions for teachers ahead of time directly on the app, parents will get all the information they need from the meeting and will be much less likely to contact the school further down the line.

Schools have found great timesaving and organisational benefits to Parents’ Evening Manager, as it removes the student from the process — parents are contacted directly to book a slot.

If you’re interested in saving your teaching staff from email overload and improving your home-school communication, you can visit our website to find out more about ParentMail’s anti-white-bear technology:
https://www.parentmail.co.uk/services/messaging/

Picture this! Our EdTech school-leader infographic

We recently conducted a survey to investigate current trends, attitudes and behaviours in school communications technology and parental engagement. Over 450 school leaders from primary, secondary schools and academies across the country took part to share their thoughts and feedback on EdTech solutions (not just ParentMail!), making the results particularly interesting.

With schools of all shapes and sizes facing their own challenges, from increasing student populations to tightening budgets and rising workloads, it is clear that parental engagement is more important today than ever before. We’re excited to see how schools are utilising EdTech to help tackle daily tasks and support staff, students and parents. Read part one and part two of the results and download our handy infographic to find out how your school compares.

To find out more about our innovative EdTech solutions, from parent communications to cashless payments, get in touch.

‘Parents as Partners’ for nurseries

It’s no surprise that engaged parents who feel well informed and involved are likely to develop a stronger bond with their childcare provider. For example, private nurseries with excellent communication will benefit from enthusiastic testimonials and word of mouth referrals.  This, in turn, will help influence the reputation that nurseries can develop locally. This is known as ‘Parents as Partners’.

Satisfied, happy parents are more likely to raise issues sooner and come directly into the setting rather than tell others, which means nurseries have the opportunity to put things right as soon as possible. Professional, effective communication between parents and the setting can play a significant role in the overall performance of the setting and a child’s development.

Opportunities to enhance communication with parents

There are many ways that a setting can engage and involve parents through communication. It is important to remember that some parents are less well represented than others in early years settings.

These include fathers, parents who live apart from their children, and working parents. This may mean that different strategies are needed for involving them and that consultation is necessary to find out what works best. So, it is important that information should be provided in ways that are accessible to parents with basic skills, specific needs or for those where English is an additional language, for example.

Embracing Technology

Face-to-face communication is always a good way to interact, particularly with parents of young children, as this builds rapport and reassurance through simple meetings –  this may include talking and sharing worries, news and day to day titbits with their child’s key person. Real 1-2-1 meetings and low key ‘keeping in touch events’ will always be important to the communication process for parents of young children.

This personal touch will go a long way in easing transitions and smoothing the process. Parents of young children may not be used to ‘letting them go’ and this may be a major milestone for them, so they will really want to get to know, on a personal level, the people responsible for their children’s wellbeing and learning; it builds trust. Communication builds bridges, not walls, between home and their child’s setting, and should never be underestimated.

Running informal coffee mornings, meet and greet drop-ins and having informal workshops in child development all help to build rapport and parental engagement in a relaxed and convivial way.

Written communication such as letters home and newsletters have always been popular and the standard way of communicating between home to help to keep parents informed and involved. However, letters consistently get lost in bags or discarded very easily by young children and so embracing a digital platform to engage, in real-time, during and after school hours is a great way of keeping parents engaged and informed.

In recent years, nursery websites have become the ‘go to’ place for reliable information. Embracing alternative electronic forms of communication is a really easy and flexible way of keeping in contact with parents, as this allows more frequent and flexible interaction and communication. This level of communication can only strengthen the relationship between parents and staff.

The new generation of Apps and technology enables information to be captured and monitored quickly and closely, allowing parents to access information about their children’s progress and development when and where they want, either online or via their mobile.

This not only cuts down on time and administration for everyone involved but allows contact to be much more frequent, relevant, current and instant.

Streamlining communication has become easier and more mobile. Creating digital communities, working together for the benefit of each child, elevates Early Years settings to a new level of communication previously unobtainable, enhancing the learning and experience for parents, teachers and children.

To find out how ParentMail can support your nursery with innovative online communications, get in touch or click here to find out more.

Five reasons to go cashless

If your school is seeking a faster, more reliable method of collecting payments, a commitment to cashless is the solution for you. Still unsure? Here are the top five reasons why thousands of UK schools are choosing online platforms for efficient, parent-friendly school payments.

1. School budget

With dinner money debt and parent arrears raising concerns in schools across the country, a cashless catering and payment system is increasingly becoming a ‘need to have’ rather than a ‘nice to have’ to protect school budgets.

Whether it’s dinner money top ups, payments for school trips, uniform, after-school clubs or more, online payments keep things super convenient for parents – and when payments are simple for parents, schools feel the benefit! +Pay provides automatic low-balance and payment-due reminders, helping to keep parent arrears in check. The platform also offers multiple registers for after-school and breakfast clubs, and weekly settlement reports make managing budgets and reconciliation easy.

With some of the lowest transaction and subscription costs on the market, +Pay helps schools of all sizes achieve substantial savings.

2. Supporting the millennial parent

From managing finances with personal banking to ordering the weekly shop from the comfort of home, the modern-day parent is making the most of modern technology to save time on daily admin tasks and chores – and who can blame them? Between balancing childcare, work and errands, parents are eager to take advantage of handy shortcuts to keep life simple. As a result of busy routines, relying on parents for cash payments is impractical. A recent survey by Merchant Machine evidences the dramatic rise of card payments over cash; to guarantee an improved response to payments, it’s up to your school to give parents the right tools for the job!

With +Pay, parents can manage payments with the free ParentMail App while out and about and on the go. For extra convenience, +Pay saves payment details, enabling easy payments in seconds. Again, push notifications serve as handy reminders to pay during their busy day.It’s clear why cashless payments are a favourite with parents; in fact, market research suggests that the vast majority of parents prefer to pay for school items via a secure online platform, with a huge 89% stating they prefer cashless systems!

3. Social inclusivity

Unfortunately, the stigma associated with free school meals and other costly school items can prove difficult for some students. However, taking the cash out of payments can support a reduction in bullying and extortion on school grounds.

+Pay provides parents with a variety of payment options, including credit and debit cards, Amex, cash via PayPoint and PayPal; in fact, +Pay are the only online payments provider to offer PayPal as an option – a proven favourite with parents! Advancements in technology mean that children can now pay for their school dinners with ID Cards, fobs and even their fingerprint, so the need to bring cash in to school is completely abolished, and parents can be confident money is being spent on the right items.

With +Pay, parents can manage payments for all their children, across different schools, through their ParentMail account.  Plus, the ability to access their account on the App, a tablet or web browser helps ParentMail fit into the lives of parents

4. Efficiency

With rising student populations and increasing pressure to evidence efficiency, administrative tasks can take up vital time for office teams. Collecting, managing and banking cash payments can take hours, not to mention the tricky and time-consuming tasks of tracking parent arrears and chasing overdue money.

Technology is supporting schools like never before, automating administrative tasks, improving security and reducing room for human error. +Pay was designed with the needs of schools in mind; the system syncs seamlessly with SIMS and other MIS, allowing you the flexibility to manage registers with ease.

5. Secure and reliable

This last one is simple; reducing cash on school grounds is the safest way to operate and an online system stores student and parent data far more securely than paper records. It also cannot be denied that students often aren’t the most reliable carriers of cash!

2018 saw over 99% uptime for +Pay, providing parents with a reliable service, whenever they needed it. And, should you ever need us, our dedicated and friendly +Pay Support Team are on hand to provide any help you might need!

Hundreds of schools made the change to +Pay last year and haven’t looked back, with many switching from the market leader in search of reliable and professional service. It’s time to join the cashless revolution! Get in touch to find out more

Technology beyond the classroom: ParentMail and the DfE EdTech strategy

Education Secretary, Damian Hinds, took to the stage at the London Schools and Academies Show earlier this month to reveal details of a new strategy for education technology.

The Department’s continued focus on the vital role of technology in schools demonstrates their recognition of the pressures increasing across the sector. Speaking of the variety of educational institutions across our country, Damian Hinds acknowledged such versatility as one of the education system’s ‘greatest strengths’. From local authority-maintained schools to faith schools and grammars, “all make an invaluable contribution to their communities and to young people.”

However, today, UK schools of all shapes and sizes face a range of unique challenges. While the Secretary spoke of the power of the MAT model (directly referencing the recent successes of a few, evidenced by improvements in Ofsted results) all schools continue to struggle under the weight of increasing student populations, budget cuts and poor staff retention. As such, the Education Secretary’s speech quickly progressed from praising school leaders for their successes, to discussing how the government intend to support these same leaders in tackling challenges on the front-line.

As other sectors continue to embrace the benefits of technology, schools often struggle in making the most of EdTech to truly support their staff and student populations. In fact, as stated by the Secretary, some school leaders refer to instances in which technology served only to cause more complications than the product promised to confront. Rather than be deterred, Mr Hinds spoke of the importance of not being ‘left behind’, stating, “(..) we owe it to all our young people to grasp the technology nettle.”

While technology plays a truly impressive role in the classroom, transforming learning experiences and inspiring young minds, EdTech is seeping beyond the classroom walls with tailor-made solutions for the office team. There are a number of areas of improvement for which technology can play a vital role in school administration. In his speech, the Secretary discussed behaviour management, referring to the number of valuable hours invested in tricky, manual processes, from information collection, data input to parent communications.

Fortunately, technology is streamlining processes and supporting staff like never before. For example, while workload remains a primary reason for the revolving door of teachers abandoning the profession at an unprecedented rate, online tools seek to lift the burden of parent communications from teacher’s shoulders. At ParentMail, our technology is designed and developed with the unique needs of schools in mind. And, as schools consider the challenges awaiting them in the future, we look for ways to support you in meeting these head-on.

Administration, parental engagement, workforce flexibility – just a few of the areas acknowledged by Damian Hinds in which our technology is serving to support thousands of schools across the country. Digital communications platforms such as our Online Forms, Messaging and Parents’ Evening Manager modules are bridging the home/school gap and supporting school staff with huge time and cost savings.

It is hard to believe that, only a few years ago, we still relied on pupil post to keep parents up to date with the latest school news. Our online platform and free parent App not only encourage parents to actively engage with their child’s education but serves to improve efficiency in the school office, reduce paper, print and postage costs, as well as improving data security. With thousands of schools realising the benefits of paperless and cashless processes, our online payments platform, +Pay, is paving the way for simple, parent-friendly payments for dinner money, school trips, club fees and more.

We realise the importance of unified, consolidated systems, enabling office staff to manage everything from day-to-day communications to school trips to payments from just one platform, reducing supplier costs and improving security. Social inclusivity remains at the heart of our technology, enabling schools to engage with hard to reach, busy parents at a time, and in a way, that suits them. When systems are simplified in school, so, too, are processes easier for parents. Our mobile App enables mums and dads to manage communications for multiple children, across different schools, from just one account, improving responses when it matters most.

Rather than ‘grasping the technology nettle’, we support schools to embrace pain-free and powerful EdTech to support staff, students and parents. To find out how ParentMail can help your school to streamline processes and protect the school budget whilst improving parental engagement, get in touch today.

Early Years – communicating with parents is the key to success

Excellent communication with parents in Early Years is key to the success of any nursery business and there have never been more ways to keep parents in the loop.

The importance of communication with parents in the EYFS strives to provide a good working ‘partnership’ between practitioners and parents. It states that key workers should build ‘relationships’ with parents, keep them up-to-date with their child’s progress, respond to observations that they share, involve them in assessments and support them to guide their child’s development at home.

Children attending nursery used to be commonly associated with parents being able to go to work. In more recent years it has become more about children developing social skills, preparing for school and growing and flourishing in a nurturing environment. This has meant that communication with parents is not only necessary, but essential.

Effective, regular, transparent communication is at the heart of any personal or professional relationship. In fact, it will make all the difference to a parent of a child in an Early Years setting. It will reassure, inform and build long term parental engagement.

Considering your communications strategy

Parents need to be made aware of general policies, quality standards, general updates, news and announcements and the philosophy that underpins the setting. As well as the bigger picture of policies, procedures and child protection, however, parents also need to know the day to day organisation of their child’s day and what happens if there is an accident or if their child becomes ill.

Being transparent, open, specific, clear and quick to respond pre-empts misunderstandings, dissatisfaction and complaints from parents. It’s also important to consider that one size doesn’t always fit all and this needs to be factored into a setting’s communication strategy, as working parents have very busy different schedules and commitments.

It’s also about being sensitive and recognising and working to overcome potential barriers to communication such as language differences, low literacy levels or lack of parental confidence, and becoming familiar with the needs of each individual family.

Early Year’s parental engagement

During these vital early years, it is crucial that nurseries are able to break down any boundaries between parents early on – the relationship benefits children in many ways:

• Parents know their child best
• Parents can be encouraged to discuss issues, talk about any concerns and get advice from Key Workers/Support Staff that have a broad & deep knowledge of child development as well as professional experience.
• Parents can be engaged in the learning process. Evidence suggests that joint working benefits children, who learn and develop better, by having the support of both their child care provider as well as their carer or parent.
• Effective communication makes transitions throughout the setting smoother.
• It paves the way for open feedback where parents feel comfortable raising concerns with their childcare provider, knowing it will be heard and addressed in a comfortable & safe environment.
• It can help keep children safe. Open communication helps with safeguarding and child protection as parents and carers feel safe enough to talk about any problems they may have especially at home.

As more nurseries recognise the importance of parental engagement, many are turning to technology to help them keep in regular contact with parents at a low cost, reaching working parents in a way that suits them, improving their relationships and reputation as a result. If you work in an Early Years setting and would like to know how a system like ParentMail could help, get in touch today or call us on 01733 595959.

School leaders talk school communications! Part 2

We recently posted part one of our findings from our survey, which investigated current trends, attitudes and behaviours in school communications technology and parental engagement. Below we continue to share our findings with you so that you can see how your school compares!

We asked respondents to tell us about all the software they use, from all suppliers, so the results aren’t only about ParentMail, providing valuable insight into all parental engagement platforms and ed-tech in general.

Implementing new systems

What is key to the success of the implementation of a new software system? According to your responses, there are a number of equally important factors when it comes to a successful launch! The four most important things were: strong and positive parent adoptions; good preparation; a detailed launch plan and clear and easy to follow training, as chosen by 78% of respondents. Service provider support and staff engagement followed closely behind these.

What do you look for in a new parental engagement system?

This is a very important question for the ParentMail team; we want to know what is important to your school when it comes to introducing a new system. Coming top were good customer service, at 84%, and low price, at 78%. Understandably, company reputation was also important to our respondents, with 45% stating reputation is important and 44% agreeing that other schools using the service is key.

What does this mean?

Following the October 2018 budget announcement, there has been much criticism from school leaders regarding the government’s promise to provide an additional £10,000 per primary school and £50,000 per secondary school, to “buy the little extras they need.”

Primary schools, secondary schools and academies across the country are struggling with understaffing, rising student populations and increased workload, and we recognise that the pressure on schools cannot be underestimated.

Responses to our survey speak overwhelmingly of the role of technology in supporting schools in a number of areas. Not only does technology in the school office serve to encourage parental engagement for the benefit of staff and students, but it is also key in enabling schools to go cashless and paperless, improving security, protecting school reputation and supporting staff in the school office.

ParentMail solutions are supporting thousands of primary, secondary schools, academies and Multi-Academy Trusts to engage with parents, reliably and professionally, every day. From collecting payments and permissions to circulating the school newsletter and managing parents’ evening, our modular system meets individual challenges head-on, all from a single user-friendly platform. Whilst strong parental engagement remains a top priority in the development of our solutions, school staff also benefit from streamlined, simplified processes, as well as huge time and cost savings. Our technology is designed with both schools and parents in mind – we make things easy for parents so that schools receive a great response.

If you are already using ParentMail and would like to find out more about the other services which could benefit your school, or if you’re looking to implement a brand-new parental engagement system, get in touch with the ParentMail team and start to improve efficiency, reduce costs and work smarter within your school. Call 01733 595959 to speak to our specialist team or email info@parentmail.co.uk

Communications at the click of a button

In this day and age, a reliable, compatible mobile App is fast becoming a ‘need to have’ rather than just a ‘nice to have’ for primary and secondary schools!

With technology reducing our reliance on paper and pupil post, thousands of schools are making the most of free mobile Apps to stay in touch with busy parents. Whether it’s invitations to events and parents’ meetings, handy reminders for upcoming payments or circulating the school newsletter, sharing information on student education has never been easier and parents have never been more engaged!

In our latest video, Sue Atkins discusses how simple but innovative technology is paving the way for stress-free paperless communications for schools and parents.

Are you ready to take the leap to next-level online communications? Contact us today to find out more about ParentMail and our free mobile App for parents!

A journey to school trip success

So, you’re planning the next school trip. Teachers have confirmed the destination and now it’s up to your capable and highly organised office team to manage all the details, from staff to students to parents. When done right, school trips run (fairly!) smoothly, especially once all of the tricky planning is out of the way. However, that part is easier said than done – fortunately, we have the tools to take the stress out of school trips!

Tripping over paper?

Usually, the first priority is to confirm the number of students attending. Once you know this, you can move onto planning other aspects of the trip, such as costs, food and transport. Finalising this number can be tricky, especially when relying on pupil post to communicate with parents.

Enter school trip solution number one! Our Online Forms platform is a speedy and convenient way of gathering parent consent and permissions. This should be your first port of call for an initial communication with parents. Setting up forms is super quick and easy, allowing you to share all the details of the trip (date, time, location etc.) whilst providing parents with a convenient way of responding within deadline. Once the form is set up, click ‘send’ and watch your parent permissions roll in!

The versatile system enables you to request more than just trip consents; in advance of longer trips or holidays abroad, many schools utilise digital forms to confirm parent contact details, dietary and medical information. Push notifications encourage parents to respond quickly and, for those who don’t, you can send a helpful nudge to prompt them when needed. With no more paper floating around between home, the classroom and school office, student data is safe, secure and easily analysed at a moment’s notice. A real benefit here is that parents receive the form through our free mobile App, which means it’s delivered straight to their hand, allowing them to read and respond in minutes.

“We usually see 50% of parents responding to a form within the first hour and this goes up to 100% within 24 hours – probably because it’s delivered to them instantly and they can complete it in just a few taps!” Brookside Primary School

Fielding parent payments

Now you know who’s coming, it’s time to request and collect payments. It’s no secret – cash payments are clunky, inconvenient and time-consuming. Encouraging parents to get money into school on time can be difficult, and once cash is on school grounds, it doesn’t necessarily reach the office. But, there’s a solution to keep things simple for parents, students and your office team; enter field trip solution number two; you’re already paperless, so keep it cashless, too, with online payments!

+Pay is the fastest-growing online payments system in the UK. Thousands of primary and secondary schools are collecting online payments for school dinners, after school clubs, uniform and other school items every day, making it the perfect solution for managing money for your next school trip. +Pay is designed with parents in mind, making it easy for them to pay on the go with PayPal, credit and debit card, Amex and PayPoint. They can pay in instalments, spread out over time (ideal for more expensive trips abroad), and receive reminders when payments are due. The flexible system integrates seamlessly with year, form and teaching groups for easy pupil selection, making admin and trip management stress-free and easy. What’s more, with all finances collected in one system, maintaining your school budget is straightforward and accurate!

“Parents receive an alert when the money is due and payments come through quickly as a result, meaning we don’t have to chase students for overdue payments.” Casterton College

Information shared with parents – check!

Payments, permissions and data collected – check!

Staff feeling cool, calm and collected – check!

With ParentMail, planning school trips doesn’t have to be a time-consuming, complicated task. Feel the freedom of paperless, cashless solutions for your next venture out of the classroom! Get in touch to find out more and book a demo.

Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School lead the way with +Pay!

It’s not just staff at Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School in Coventry who are feeling the benefits of +Pay; parents are thrilled to be making easy, cashless payments, too! Part of Romero Catholic Academy, the eight-school Multi Academy Company set out on a mission to go cashless to reduce school debt and support parents with easy online payments and are thrilled with the results.

The challenge

“Before +Pay, we struggled with dinner money debt” Says Lisa Harding, Office Manager at Sacred Heart. “When they were in arrears, we would remind parents to send children with a packed lunch, but pupils would still turn up without and we would always provide a meal for them. The school is responsible for dinner money debt, at the end of the day, and it was only increasing. We had a lot of foot-fall in the school office, too, with parents queuing out the door waiting to pay, particularly at the end of term. Dealing with cash payments and parents could take up hours of staff time every day, time that we could ill-afford! Admin tasks were stressful and time-consuming, numbers were often wrong in the kitchen, resulting in waste – cashless really was the only way forward!”

Working with parents

“We were already using ParentMail for home/school communications, so we were excited to try +Pay.” Says Marie Taggart, Administrator at the school. “With parents already using the ParentMail App to manage Parents’ Evening, messaging and Online Forms, most parents were pleased to be able to manage payments through the App, too.”

School staff worked very hard to support parents during the introduction of +Pay: “We communicated with parents, providing information, answers and guidance early on; we focused on sharing the benefits of the system with them and the uptake was great! We had an iPad set up to provide support in the school office. A small number were understandably wary of a new payments platform and some had concerns around security. However, the system is so flexible, we could work with these parents and provide barcodes, so all payments still went through ParentMail.”

Reaping the rewards

“Now the system is fully embedded in school, the benefits have been numerous.” Says Lisa. “With students preselecting their dinner choices, the kitchen can plan ahead, reducing waste and related costs. We don’t spend hours every day processing, counting or chasing parents for cash. It has hugely improved our productivity in the office. For parents, low balance reminders are really helpful. They can top up in the ParentMail App on the go and at a moment’s notice.”

“We were really pleased with the training and onboarding process. The ParentMail Support Team are always happy to help and our Account Manager has supported us every step of the way. It’s been great being able to support and rely on other schools in our Academy too. When we need help from ParentMail, Live Chat is very helpful – practically any queries are solved very quickly.

“We measure the success of +Pay by parent uptake and feedback, which has been fantastic. What’s more, when we log into the system every day, we can see how much money we are saving. We delivered the support parents needed at the beginning and are reaping the rewards now!”

“+Pay is a lot safer than banking lots of cash and we now have very few cash collections across all of our schools. The platform is reliable and secure and the implementation has been plain sailing – we would never go back. Would we recommend +Pay to other schools? Absolutely! It may seem like a big change and appear be a huge challenge initially, but don’t be put off; going cashless with ParentMail is absolutely worth it and parents love it, too!”

Join Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School and thousands of schools across the country enjoying the endless benefits of +Pay! Get in touch to find out more and to book a free a demo

What’s more convenient than cashless?

Very few of us have cash to hand these days; whether we’re paying for our morning coffee or costly train tickets, contactless debit and credit cards make things so much easier! These days, most of us now expect to be able to pay for things without having to dig through our purse and find loose change!

That’s why schools who are going cashless, and allowing parents to pay for school items such as school dinners, trips and uniform on a mobile app, are seeing the benefits!

Making quick, cashless payments through your phone makes life so much easier for all involved. Parents can make payments instantly and receive automatic reminders when their dinner money balance is running low.

Parenting expert, Sue Atkins, knows all about the frustrations of scratching around for loose change and cash on busy school mornings. In her latest video (see below!) Sue discusses why cashless payments are so much easier for busy parents on the go.

For parents, +Pay is convenient, easy to use and reliable; parents can access and top up their accounts when they need to most, even at the busiest times. Our socially-inclusive platform allows parents to top-up with credit/debit card, PayPal, PayPoint and AMEX, offering a solution for everybody.

Are you ready to go cashless? Contact us today to find out more about +Pay and our free mobile app for parents!

What role does technology play in the school office? Part 1

We recently conducted a survey to investigate current trends, attitudes and behaviours in school communications technology and parental engagement.

We received a great response, with over 450 schools taking part and telling us about their school communications. As leaders in the ed-tech industry, it’s important that we stay up to date on the latest trends in technology and parental engagement, and we wanted to share our findings so that you can see how your school compares to others!

Of the 457 school leaders who responded, 57% worked in primary schools, 20% for an academy trust and 15% in secondary schools. We also heard from staff working for nurseries and clubs.

We asked respondents to tell us about all the software they use, from different suppliers, so the results aren’t only about ParentMail. This provides a valuable insight into all parental engagement platforms and ed-tech in general.

Technology in the school office

It is evident that email and text platforms are a priority for most schools, with 82% of respondents utilising an email and text system to communicate with parents every day. Also on the up are online payments systems, with 60% using a cashless platform to collect parent payments for school dinners and other school items.

Almost 90% of respondents stated they are satisfied with their communications system and almost 80% were satisfied with their online payments system, which means these systems are meeting the needs of both schools and parents.

Schools are clearly prioritising parental engagement, which is great news! Experience tells us that when schools prioritise a strong school/parent relationship, students benefit in the long run, and communication is key!

How does technology support schools?

We know the priority for most schools utilising an online communications system is to improve parental engagement, and almost 90% of respondents stated they use online systems to improve communications with parents; 67% referred to getting more parents engaged. Modern technology supports social inclusivity, with online platforms enabling schools to keep in touch with hard-to-reach parents like never before.

However, with increasing demands on schools to demonstrate efficiency and savings, we recognise the important role of technology in streamlining processes and saving time in the office. Technology is clearly supporting schools to be more efficient, with 69% of schools benefiting from reduced workload as a result of parental engagement systems, and 75% utilising software to improve efficiency in school. 60% of respondents stated they look to online systems to save money.

What technology are schools using?

Technology can play lots of different roles in schools, whether that’s collecting payments, sending important news straight to parent’s hands, gathering online forms and permissions or arranging parents’ meetings. With so many different systems, we asked you how many suppliers you use to perform different tasks; 56% of respondents use just one system, 27% use two and 18% use three systems or more.

With multiple suppliers providing different systems in the school, parents are using the same number of systems to stay on top of school information at home. 62% of respondents believe using multiple systems would reduce the effectiveness of school communications. Experience also tells us that streamlining processes in the school office can protect the school budget, too.

Over 70% of respondents stated they regularly look into new methods of communication for their parents. 40% of schools who don’t invest time into looking at alternative systems refer to a lack of resource in implementing new methods.

Interesting stuff – thank you to everyone who took the time to take part! If you’d like to discuss how your school could use technology to improve your parental engagement, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Are mobile apps the future of school communications?

The humble mobile app has transformed numerous aspects of our daily lives. From booking a flight to transferring money, booking an Uber, to the freedom to chat with people from all over the world in seconds, to gaming apps that keep us entertained ‘on the go’ on trains, tubes and in waiting rooms.

We live in a busy world that never sleeps, switches off or stops, and habits and expectations have changed drastically in the last 5-10 years, so to harness this phone-friendly lifestyle, schools need to adapt to be able to harness the way in which we all communicate.

By embracing these changes towards the ‘24/7 always-connected’ and ‘on-the-go’ world in which we now live, schools can connect with parents in ways they could only have dreamed about 20 years ago.

Technology has already impacted education and learning in remarkable ways. Children have the world literally at their fingertips. Not only is endless information available to download, stream or interact with at the click of a button, but the ways in which children and young people are able to learn is changing all the time. From games that teach kids how to touch-type, to videos that teach phonics, the internet and advances in computer software, they’ve all enabled a new generation to embrace and explore interactive learning.

The next step for schools is to embrace mobile apps as a way to engage parents in the way that they like to be engaged with. Mobile school apps provide schools with simple streamlined ways to communicate with parents via interactive tools that they are comfortable & familiar with – and it’s a cheaper option than traditional paper methods and restrictive SMS!

The need to juggle the commitments of so many different aspects of family life is an ongoing struggle for parents and with often a lack of time for conversations at the school gate, and a host of forgotten or missed events throughout the school term, schools need to engage with parents in a way that works. By shrinking all of these aspects down into an easy-to-use school mobile app, not only is the communication process with parents simplified, but it can actually improve parent/student engagement with the school and build community and trust. Schools can even have the app set up so it reflects the school’s branding and ethos making everyone feel part of a team..

Increasingly Popular

School apps are becoming increasingly popular from early years through to primary and secondary schools as a way of encouraging parents to invest their time into their child’s school life when it is most convenient for them. It feels like a more personalised, intimate and individual connection and better communication with parents means better support for the child and better outcomes.

School mobile apps can bring together weekly calendar updates, new school uniform lists, important school news and current school policies to the latest Ofsted Report, for example, in a fast and simple single place, which is useful for busy parents.

In the past, admin staff have spent considerable time checking and updating parent email addresses and mobile numbers, but when parents use the school app, if mobile numbers or email addresses are changed, the app keeps parents connected making life easier for everyone. What’s more, it’s very easy for parents to update their own details within their account.

So, whether it’s last minute panic about the dates of the upcoming Teddy Bear’s Picnic, or an early morning worry about whether parents’ evening starts at 6.30 or 7pm, it means children will stop getting told off for forgetting important messages from school, less clutter on the fridge and a more relaxed atmosphere all round.

For more information on the ParentMail App, call us on 01733 595959 or simply fill in an enquiry form and we’ll be in touch.

Are we becoming tired of the text?

It’s strange to think that, only 10 years ago, we still relied on the occasional paper newsletter to communicate with parents. Today, there are numerous methods of sharing important news and information with mums and dads; for schools, new technology is bridging the gap between school and home like never before!

Over the years, ParentMail has observed the world of EdTech expand and evolve; we’ve seen habits change both at home and in the school office. One particular platform which has seen a dramatic transition is SMS. In 2012, over 160 billion text messages were sent in the UK; year on year, this number has steadily declined, with almost half the number sent in 2017, at just over 80 billion. In the wake of the SMS decline, in-App notifications are fast taking the place of the humble text message, and it’s easy to see why.

Information overload

How many text messages are too many? When it comes to school messages, we think there should be a limit. Push notifications offer flexibility unrivalled by the outdated SMS. Text messages can be intrusive, causing parents to feel the need to respond instantly. On the other hand, smartphone users are accustomed to push-notifications appearing on their screen; in App notifications don’t require an immediate reaction, serving as a handy reminder to new information, instead.

For most school communications, not all messages are considered critical or require an instant response. Often, messages are alerting parents to news, payments due, bookings to be made etc. Whilst these messages are important, they are rarely categorised as urgent and, for this reason, push notifications are ideal, helping to build a reliable and constructive relationship between parents and school. For those messages that are considered urgent, parents are still notified and can react accordingly.

Apps allow the user to amend notifications to suit their own preferences. Text message notifications are either switched on or off, which simply isn’t practical. With an App custom-built for school communications, parents can make the most of flexible notifications and set them as appropriate.

Reached your limit?

With an average 160-character limit (including spaces!), SMS rarely offers the flexibility to share truly informative messages with parents. Text messaging is also a poor platform for sending additional media, such as pictures, forms or invitations. As a result, school messages are often short and impersonal and can fail to build a sense of confidence in parents. Add to this the huge cost of sending hundreds, if not thousands, of text messages every term, schools simply aren’t getting enough for their money.

School communications should be professional, helpful and, importantly, represent your school’s brand and values. When parents use just one App to manage all school communications, they immediately associate those notifications with your school and know they can trust the information they receive. This means parents are more likely to pick up messages quickly and respond as required. Without character limitations, schools can provide parents with all the necessary information for the subject at hand, from sharing photos from recent school trips, requesting consent, permissions and feedback with forms, or supporting parents to make online payments, quickly and easily. This level of flexibility builds a stronger relationship between home and school, ensuring parents feel informed about important news and information regarding their child.

School communications shouldn’t put your school budget on the back foot. ParentMail is designed with school’s needs in mind! Our flexible subscriptions allow you to plan your finances accordingly, with no unwelcome surprises in the form of extra costs. Make the most of the latest technology to improve parental engagement and impress your parents – you’ll never look back! Find out more and book a free demo today.

Staff retention and school reputation

Schools across the country are feeling the strain of the teacher retention crisis. In London,  more than four out of ten teachers are quitting the profession within five years of qualifying. This is a major concern for secondary schools, with pupil numbers set to increase by a huge 540,000 (19%) by 2025, as the swell of primary school students since 2010 make their way up to secondary education. Secondary schools now have a shortfall of 30,000 classroom teachers, and 20% of teacher training vacancies remain unfilled.

Educators are entering and leaving the teaching profession at a fast rate, enforcing a ‘just passing through’ culture. According to the DfE, there are three spikes in every academic year in which teachers leave schools; during the spring term in March, the end of the school year in August and, just passed us, the close of the Autumn term in December. With the pressure of budget cuts, rating tables and demands for efficiency, teacher retention is an additional unwelcome issue for schools already feeling the strain.

Many teachers make no secret of their reasons for leaving the profession behind, voicing major issues concerning work/life balance. However, it is also clear that a positive and supportive working culture can play an important role in a school’s retention. In fact, many teachers refer to a lack of support from school leaders as a primary reason for their seeking teaching roles else-where. Most teachers, when asked why they entered the profession in the first place, are likely to refer to educating and supporting young people – this doesn’t mean they don’t need the support of their peers, too!

There is a clear link between school reputation and staff retention; when a school is supported by their community and parents, staff feel encouraged and supported in their roles as a result. We know that parental engagement goes a long way in a students’ education, and parents can support teachers every day by staying up to date with the latest school news, attending parents’ evening, events or responding to forms. When parents and schools have a strong relationship, teachers experience the positive effects in the classroom and are empowered to support their students.

Experience tells us that most parents want to be involved in their child’s education; it’s up to the school to provide the tools they need to do so!

A strong parent communication system goes a long way in building that important link between school and home. If you are already using ParentMail and would like to find out more about the other services which could benefit your school, or if you’re looking to implement a brand-new parental engagement system, get in touch with the ParentMail team and start to improve efficiency, reduce costs and work smarter within your school. Call 01733 595959 to speak to our specialist team or email info@parentmail.co.uk.

Take control of your nursery finances

Professional and passionate staff, happy children and fantastic facilities – your front of house is under control, but how about those time-consuming finances?

When it comes to managing nursery finance, there’s a lot to take into account. Chances are, your nursery collects a wide variety of payments, from attendance fees, breakfast and lunch costs, additional money for trips and even late payment fees. For busy parents, remembering to withdraw cash for ad-hoc payments can be tricky, leading to arrears and potentially debts for your nursery, too.

On average, a nursery could collect hundreds of pounds in cash from parents every week. Keeping large amounts of money on site isn’t ideal, not only due to the security risks. It can take hours to collect, count, process and bank cash and cheques, time that could be better spent doing what you do best – looking after children!

Thousands of nurseries are making the most of paperless communications to engage with parents every day. Digital communication platforms are a fantastic way of saving time and money for your business, and parents love being kept up to date with the latest news from their nursery with a convenient mobile App. With technology proving to be an invaluable parental engagement tool for nursery communications, why should payments be any different?

+Pay provides a sustainable and reliable finance solution for small, large and multi-site nurseries. With online payments, parents no longer need to remember to withdraw cash. Instead, thanks to handy notifications and reminders, they simply log in and pay through the free ParentMail App – the same App they use to manage your nursery communications! Completely socially inclusive, parents can pay via PayPal, credit and debit card, AMEX and PayPoint. More than one parent can access the same account for one child, as well as managing multiple children from one account.

Setting up payment items in the office is quick and simple. With so many different payments to collect, the versatile, user-friendly platform offers daily, weekly and monthly settlement reports, making it easy to manage accounts and keep parent arrears in check. Childcare vouchers can be manually added into the system, effectively managing subscriptions and ensuring accounts are consistent and in balance. +Pay puts the tools into parent’s hands to stay on top of their payments, reducing arrears and debt and cash on nursery grounds – it’s a winner for everyone!

Our flexible platform comes with flexible pricing, too! ParentMail offer subscriptions to suit your nursery’s needs, whether you’re running a small set-up or operating across multiple sites. Our +Pay team will work with you to understand your needs and offer a solution to suit you. Set-up is quick, easy and won’t interfere with the day-to-day running of your nursery and our expert Support Team are on hand to offer help when you need it most.

More nurseries than ever are making the most of ParentMail to share news, request data, collect payments and more, every day. Providing parents with a convenient, free mobile App to stay on top of payments adds that extra special touch to your business to make you stand out against the crowd. Take control of your payments with ParentMail! Get in touch today!

You’ve got homework: Communicating with parents

A hot topic amongst parents and teachers is homework. It can often be a divisive issue, especially if there is a lot coming home but little communication about it sent to parents. Across social media, many parents often complain about the amount of homework coming home, with many suggesting they think it’s unnecessary.

Successful schools recognise that it’s important to keep a dialogue open so that everyone understands that homework is part of the larger picture – of an independent lifelong learner. For this reason, communicating with parents is vital to ensure they are on side and checking work is completed.

Here are some ideas to keep in mind around communicating with parents about homework:

• Set expectations early. As much as possible, keep parents in the loop about how much homework their children can generally expect, per week. Obviously, this is going to vary from child to child – not to mention throughout the year – but even rough guidelines can be helpful to reduce misunderstandings and supports busy parents to plan their weekly schedules.
• Explain why homework is necessary. It is helpful for parents to understand how much homework is expected of their children and why. As educators, schools understand that sometimes the learning process has to extend beyond the school day. This isn’t always as clear to students or parents, so it is worth taking the time to point this aspect out to caregivers.
• Help parents help with homework. Some parents look back on their school days with dread and unhappy experiences. Many experience daily battles with their children to ‘get homework done.’ So, it is helpful to explain that children need a quiet, dedicated space at home to get on with their work, with good lighting, and minimal distractions (from younger brothers and sisters, mobiles phones etc), and that leaving everything until the last minute is often a recipe for disaster. It’s important that parents try their hardest to provide the right environment for homework to get done.
• Tell parents (politely) to not get overinvolved. We’ve all seen parents get too involved in homework, sometimes to the extent of doing entire projects all by themselves! This is often a rather keen parent whose good intentions have gone overboard. It’s helpful to clearly explain to parents the difference between facilitating their child’s homework which is a good thing, and doing it for them!
• Use technology to help parents keep track of homework. Sending details of homework to parents digitally means they can keep track of what’s being worked on and allows them to refer back to it, should they need to.

Using school communication software is perfect for keeping parents up to date with homework as it makes it simple, quick and easy to keep them in the loop and reaches parents instantly. What’s more, with a mobile app, it means parents can store all their important school information in one place, helping them keep on top of everything!

Whether it’s a message in the weekly newsletter or a specific message dedicated to homework, many schools are using ParentMail to keep in regular contact with parents about the work coming home and the importance of it. If you’d like to discuss how your school or academy could use ParentMail to keep in touch with parents, contact us today by emailing info@parentmail.co.uk or give us a call on 01733 595959.

Parents’ Evening directors, we salute you

Snowed under with the daily tasks of keeping a busy school running, you know better than we do how hard it can be squeezing in plans for Parents’ Evening. But where some teams are chasing down appointment slips, printing out letters and updating schedules, others simply click a button and watch the appointments fly in – this could be you!

If the mention of your next Parents’ Evening fills you with dread, set aside the spreadsheets and print outs and dare to dream of completely paperless parents’ meetings…

Your office isn’t buried under piles of appointment slips and printed letters. The team behind these vital plans aren’t rushed off their feet making last minute plans or squeezing in extra appointments. Instead, thanks to Parents’ Evening Manager, invitations were circulated to parents via the free ParentMail App weeks ago. You’ve avoided the frustrations of double-booked appointments, cancellations and confusion by pre-setting appointment durations using the flexible scheduling system. Parents are free to book meetings that fit their busy schedules, quickly and efficiently. With just a few clicks, your team can view an up-to-date report of meetings for every teacher – and appointments are coming in fast!

Planning the evening was easy and stress-free and, thanks to your attention to detail, the night itself is sure to run smoothly, too. Parents arrive on the night prepared with the information they need to find teachers and classrooms, and they could even include notes when booking appointments. As a result, teachers are equipped with the detail they need to discuss important subjects and answer questions for every student.

Following one of the most successful Parents’ Evenings your school has enjoyed in a long time, feedback from both staff and parents is positive. In the past, despite your best efforts and communications, parents often failed to book appointments and teachers missed the opportunity to discuss student’s progress. This time, attendance was at an all-time high!

Parents’ Evening is by far one of the most important, busiest events in the school calendar, and some may say you made it look easy; the truth is, thanks to your fantastic organisation skills and the decision to make the most of Parents’ Evening Manager, it was!

If the prospect of a pain-free, paperless Parents’ Evening appeals to your busy office team, get in touch to find out more about Parents’ Evening Manager by ParentMail.

Ed-technically superior software

Education Secretary, Damien Hinds, has challenged school leaders to take advantage of modern technology in and outside of the classroom to reduce teacher’s responsibilities.

Acknowledging workload as a common reason for teachers leaving the profession, Mr Hinds stated that innovative technology in the classroom has resulted in both challenges and opportunities: “Education is one of the few sectors where technology has been associated with an increase in workload rather than the reverse.”

On the one hand, technology is making it easier for parents and schools to stay in touch, which is great news! However, common tech-platforms such as email, text and direct messaging Apps are resulting in more pressure on teachers who find themselves spending hours replying to parent responses, questions and queries; time that could be better spent on what they do best – teaching!

At ParentMail, we believe that rather than interfering with routine, parent communications should support schools. With nearly 20 years’ experience, our technology is developed to save schools time and money, whilst improving parental engagement for the benefit of students, staff and parents.

Our system is designed specifically for the school office, providing tailor-made solutions to deliver communications for every occasion. From straight-forward messaging to digital forms, office staff are completely in control of parent communications, managing responses from one platform and alleviating pressure and supporting teachers in the classroom.

The free ParentMail App supports parents to stay up-to-date with all the latest school news, without labouring your school with hundreds of responses and questions in return. For trip consents, dinner selections or any communications requiring a reply, our flexible Online Forms solution allows staff to build forms to enable easy management of responses.

Streamlining communications in the school office means staff can work efficiently, cutting out paper (and paper related costs!) while saving hours of time on admin tasks. Organised parent communications support teachers, too, particularly when it comes to Parents’ Evening. Rather than giving the responsibility of appointment booking to students, who are liable to either lose or purposely avoid certain meetings, Parents’ Evening Manager puts the power into parent’s hands, allowing them to book convenient appointments to fit their busy schedule, saving hours of time and confusion in the school office. The flexible platform also allows parents to include notes, enabling teachers to plan for each meeting accordingly.

Don’t let technology be a hindrance for your school. Make the most of tailor-made software specifically designed for the education sector and take control of your parent communications. Whatever your needs, ParentMail offers a solution for you, whether that’s simple messaging, cashless payments, data and consent collection or event planning. Get in touch to arrange a free demonstration today.

App-solutely brilliant – our mobile app has been updated!

The free ParentMail mobile App is used by over 2.5 million parents to stay in touch with schools every day, from the comfort of home, at work or while out and about!

Over the years, it’s been through some major changes, as our Development team have stayed ahead of the latest EdTech innovations in order to bridge the home/school gap.

We caught up with Richard Shergold, Front-End Developer at ParentMail, to talk about the latest App developments.

“Our recent update is really important as it allows us to deliver fixes and make improvements to the mobile App more regularly. The team are always looking at feedback from users and have recently made several improvements to the App to make it even easier to use.”

“For example, one of the latest updates is the ability to mark items, such as messages, in bulk, rather than one at a time. We’ve also updated the way the App handles attachments and made a few handy changes to the App appearance, making it easier to navigate and manage school communications.”

“Our roadmap for 2019 holds even more exciting new developments, including Amex card payments and several other handy updates.”

Are you making the most of the ParentMail App?

Our free mobile App is by far the most convenient way to stay in touch with your school, supporting parents to make cashless payments, book appointments, respond to forms and more:

• Dependable dinner money – Online cashless payments make topping up dinner money quick and easy, with just a few taps, thanks to handy low-balance reminders
• Online Forms – Paper letters and forms are easily lost or forgotten at the bottom of school bags; digital forms are super convenient, making it easy to respond instantly
• Online Payments – Trips, uniforms, clubs and more – pay for them all via the handy App, via credit/debit card, PayPal, PayPoint, PayCash or Amex (via desktop)
• Parents’ Evening Manager – Booking convenient meetings to fit around busy schedules is quick and easy via the App

Feedback from parents is really valuable to us! Here are a few reviews that made our day…

“I think its brilliant how we can stay in touch with school so regularly and know what’s happening straight away instead of having to wait for school letters at the end of the day or week.” – Becky Hawkins – 5 stars

“The app is really easy to access and up to date, good layout and easy to navigate through the app.” – Ranj K – 5 stars

“Straightforward way to keep up with school communication and respond to forms without the hassle of them being misplaced. I enjoy using this app.” – Parent – 4 stars

“I love ParentMail! Makes school life much easier! Our school is new to it and it’s already much more useful!” – Parent – 5 stars

“It is great for keeping up with what is happening at my daughter’s school, when I am out & about & not by the laptop.” – Sarah Young – 5 stars

Share your feedback about the ParentMail App, – we’d love to hear from you!

Have you downloaded the ParentMail App yet? If not, visit the Google Play Store or Apple App Store today and search “ParentMail”.

If you’re a school looking to streamline communications and improve parental engagement, get in touch to find out how ParentMail can support you!

Easy, dependable dinner payments with +Pay

A number of schools have recently hit the headlines as outraged parents complain their children have gone without a hot meal due to a lack of credit on their cashless dinner accounts. In Wales, school councils have argued in defence, stating they have a ‘zero tolerance’ policy towards dinner money debt in order to protect school budgets when parents fail to pay.

For many busy parents, topping up dinner money is just one small task, easily forgotten, on a long to-do list. However, when it’s schools hitting the press for turning children away without lunch, it falls on school leaders to seek out a solution. Low-balance reminders give parents a handy nudge to top up dinner accounts before lunch time, ensuring their child enjoys a hot meal and schools avoid unnecessary dinner debt.

More and more schools are choosing online payments systems in a bid to go cashless, for good reason! No money on school grounds results in less time spent handling and banking cash. However, finding the right platform for your school is important, so before you make any decisions or renew your contract, read on to find out more about the fastest growing cashless payment system in the UK…

Introducing +Pay!

+Pay, by ParentMail, offers some of the lowest transaction costs on the market, proven to save primary and secondary schools thousands of pounds every year. Our flexible platform manages not only dinner accounts but offers multiple registers for breakfast and after-school clubs, too!

For parents, +Pay is convenient, easy to use and reliable; parents can access and top up their accounts when they need to most, even at the busiest times. The socially-inclusive platform allows parents to top-up with credit/debit card, PayPal, PayPoint and AMEX, offering a solution for everybody.

Alternative cashless payment systems lack the flexibility offered by +Pay. Our top-up reminders are free for parents, informing them instantly when their balance goes below a pre-set amount. Parents can simply log in to the handy mobile app and top-up – they can even manage accounts for more than one child and view what has been purchased. Schools can also send out handy reminders to parents yet to top-up, protecting the school budget and ensuring accounts are ready for lunchtime!

It’s not just the +Pay platform that offers flexibility; ParentMail offers subscription costs to suit any school’s needs and budget, from primary and secondary schools to multi-academy trusts and colleges. Set-up is quick, easy and won’t interfere with the day-to-day running of your school. The system integrates with all major cashless catering systems and our team of +Pay experts are on hand to offer support when you need it most.

Last year, more than 700 schools chose +Pay as their online payments platform; of these, more than 300 left the market-leading provider in search of more features and a parent-friendly service – make the move to +Pay and never look back! Get in touch to have a chat about your cashless catering needs on 01733 595961.

Breaking down parental engagement barriers with EdTech

For many families, the prospect of crossing the school threshold is a terrifying one. Though many schools may spend a lot of time and energy on events or activities for parents, the reality is that every school has those “hard to reach” parents and there are many barriers in the way that stop parents feeling connected with what is going on in school.

One key area that I feel can begin the process of breaking down barriers and building bridges to communication and community, is through the school office, as it can be instrumental in fostering a positive connection among families and educators. It can be a consistent source of engagement providing current, reliable, and useful information.

Many school offices across the country now use technology to communicate home various things to parents, realising that the more they engage parents with what’s going on, the better the outcome for students. Online communication has really helped bridge this relationship and many schools now send home messages, online forms, allow parents to book parents’ evening appointments and even request payments – allowing parents to pay with ease on their mobile phone or computer.

Previously, having to come into the school office to make payments, for example, would add stress to parents and administrative staff’s already busy day, so the beauty of using technology is that parents no longer have to cope with scrambling around looking for cash or cheques, or worry about coming into the school office to make payments for lunch, uniforms or trips, as  an online  system helps parents and admin staff communicate quickly, easily & more efficiently.

A system like ParentMail helps parents build a better relationship with the school office, without having to worry about physically coming into the building. For those parents who don’t feel comfortable coming into the office, or don’t have the time to do so, which is often the case, technology has broken down the barriers and allowed regular communication, helping these parents feel more connected with what is going on in school.

Watch Sue discuss this further in the video below…

To find out more about ParentMail and the range of applications that can help you improve parental engagement, simply visit the website, email info@parentmail.co.uk or call 01733 595959.

Five ways to change up your parental engagement usage

Parental engagement solutions make everyday office tasks quick, simple and cost-effective. Thousands of schools across the UK now collect dinner money, permission forms and share information about school events online, saving both time and money and improving relationships with parents as a result.

We regularly receive feedback from schools who use ParentMail in a variety of ways to keep parents engaged with what’s going on in school, to help further enhance pupils’ education journey. Below we’ve shared with you some of the ways primary schools are utilising ParentMail:

Share homework tips with parents

Homework is important in a child’s education and good habits can help throughout their school journey. Parents play a big part in encouraging this in their children, but some see it as more of a “pain” than a useful tool to help further improve their child’s understanding of the subject. Why not use ParentMail to get them on side, sending tips such as setting up a specific homework-friendly space and being available to offer help and support. These tips on the BBC website are great to share with parents.

Organise paper-free parents’ evenings

Lost forms, double-booked appointments and long waiting times lead to a parents’ evening headache for school teachers, office staff and parents. If parents have more than one child at a school, or more than one teacher to see, it can be a challenge to arrange appointment times accordingly. Parents’ Evening Manager puts parents in charge of booking appointments and removes the need for children to be involved in the process.

Use forms to keep pupil information up to date

Keeping data for children’s health requirements, next-of-kin information or anything else the school might need to know is essential for happy pupils and parents. ParentMail can make this easy in 2019, with Online Forms. Rather than chasing paper forms that can get lost between the classroom and home, online forms allow parents to respond quickly and with the ease of doing so from their smartphone! Plus, it won’t cost your school anything in printing costs, so you can request information updates as often as you see fit!

Remind parents about the importance of reading at home

Extensive research supports the claim that children who read regularly at home achieve more than those who don’t. We know that parents are busy, juggling work and family life. However, reminding them of the importance of reading with their child is crucial. Book Trust has some great tips here; why not use ParentMail to share these tips with parents?

Share information about key dates  

You may talk to pupils regularly about school open days, open days to secondary schools and school fetes. Now, ParentMail makes it easy to share this information with parents, and subsequently can help their children organise their time and arrange their own diaries, too.

How have you been using ParentMail to stay in touch with parents ? We’d love to hear about them via Twitter!

If you’re looking to adopt a parental engagement system that handles online payments, forms, parents’ evening and more, get in touch here or book a free demo.

St Thomas of Canterbury RC Primary School enjoy paperless Parents’ Evening

When it comes to planning Parents’ Evening, staff at St Thomas of Canterbury RC Primary School were used to all the usual stresses and strains; piles of paper cluttering the school office, lost or missing appointment slips, chasing up parent responses – the list goes on!

With 250 students, the school office would typically send home two letters per student in the run-up to parents’ evening – that’s 500 sheets of paper for one event! In their mission to go paperless this year, the school turned to Parents’ Evening Manager to take the paper out of parents’ evening.

“Like all schools, we’d try and give parents plenty of time to book appointments,” says Admin Support, Bethany Schofield. “We’d send out a form asking parents to pick an hour that that would suit them for their appointments, before trying to put together a schedule that suited everyone. There was a lot of back and forth between parents, staff and teachers. We’re a busy school and our parents are busy people; we wanted a system that would save us all time, whilst reducing our reliance on paper.”

A teacher at the school recently used Parents’ Evening Manager to book an appointment for their own child and realised the huge potential for St Thomas of Canterbury Primary School.

“When I looked into the system, I realised it offered all the flexibility we needed and would make the process easier for everyone involved – so we decided to give it a go! Setting up the evening was really easy. We prefer to keep the slots short and were able to pre-set the appointment lengths and block out times for particular teachers if needed. We particularly like how quick and easy it is to print out lists of appointments so that we can see at a glance how the evening is looking.”

“Parents love being able to book slots to fit around their busy schedules. We haven’t had any negative feedback and bookings came in really quickly! Recently, I was talking to a parent on the phone and she asked me to stay on the line while she booked her appointment, expecting it to be a tricky process – but she booked a slot in seconds, without any help from me!”

“In the office, we’re trying to go digital as much as possible; we know that online processes make things easier, faster and cheaper. We’re no longer sending home paper letters and use a cashless dinner payments system. The response from parents has been very positive. I would definitely recommend Parents’ Evening Manager to other schools. It’s a simple, smooth, time-saving process for staff and parents. We’re looking forward to using it for our next Parents’ Evening already!”

Get in touch today to find out more about Parents’ Evening Manager or to book a free online demo.

Strong communication could be your nursery’s greatest asset

You know better than we do that running a nursery is a busy and time-consuming business! Whilst chatting to parents during the morning drop-off might seem the most convenient way of sharing the latest nursery news, it isn’t the most efficient or organised method of parental engagement.

For many reasons, a strong partnership between your nursery and parents is vital. We all know nursery is a key stage in a child’s development and, understandably, parents expect to be kept up to date on the time their child spends in your care. Whether that’s what they ate for lunch, what time they took their nap or the activities they enjoyed that day, it is up to you to keep parents updated on this all-important information – and there’s a lot of it to share!

Word of mouth and reputation go a long way when it comes to parents choosing their child’s nursery. Strong communications could be key to impressing new parents – in fact, a focus on parental engagement could be your greatest asset! Fantastic facilities and staff paired with regular, reliable and helpful communications are sure to make you stand out against your competitors.

Take your nursery online

The thought of adding newsletters, updates and parents’ meetings onto your already long to-do list may be enough to make you give up before you’ve even started, but don’t worry! In today’s technology-driven world, placing more emphasis on communication doesn’t necessarily mean more hard work or extra cost.

Ask most parents and they are likely to choose digital communications over piles of paper letters, and when it comes to data security, digital documents are the safer choice. You collect such a huge amount of data, from health and safety information, contact details, dinner selections and parent feedback that storing this information in a secure online database will greatly improve the way you use information – from making accessing and updating information easy for staff to reducing your reliance on paper in the office.

Alongside communications, how much time do you spend managing payments? Cash and cheques take up a lot of time to collect, bank and process. Online payments reduce the amount of cash on nursery grounds, improving security where it’s needed most. Cashless payments are also far more convenient for parents, ensuring your nursery receives payments on time, every time. For nurseries operating over multiple sites, a central system from which all payments and data is collected, and all news, forms and emails are sent can save time, improve efficiency and ensure consistency.

Happy parents, happy nursery, happy children!

More nurseries than ever are making the most of ParentMail to share news, request data, collect payments, plan meetings and more, every day. Providing parents with a convenient, free mobile App to stay in touch with their child’s nursery adds that extra special touch to your business to make you stand out against the crowd.

Take control of your parent communications with ParentMail! Get in touch today to arrange a free demo to see how our flexible, modular system can meet your needs today.

Parent / School Communications – 22 Years On

As we have previously touched on, the 1997 White Paper ‘Excellence in Schools’ highlighted the importance of parent / school relationships and acknowledged that – “Parents play a crucial role in helping their children learn. Family learning is a powerful tool for reaching some of the most disadvantaged in our society, helping build strong local communities and widening participation in learning.”

In January 2010, BECTA published a report which stated “The support and involvement of families can make a crucial difference to learners’ success. Technology offers practical, effective ways to engage families, keeping them in touch with a learner’s progress and encouraging learning beyond the classroom.!

It touched on some key facts and figures relating to social grades and access to internet at home, but the key findings we will look at today relate to the section ‘Communicate better with online reporting.’

‘Every school in England is now expected to offer online access to information for parents to support their children’s progress: all secondary schools by September 2010, and primary schools by 2012.’

Here are some key facts and figures from this report:

• 80% of parents say they see the benefit of regular parent-school contact
• 60% of teachers think that parents believe their job stops at the school gate
• 58% of school leaders believe ICT has improved the school’s ability to involve parents in their children’s attendance.
• 48% of teaching staff say ‘invisible’ parents lack the confidence to approach them to discuss their child
• 67% of parents would like schools to use technologies such as text messaging and the internet to communicate with them more often
• 8% of parents surveyed in 2008 were kept informed through online reporting

So, 22 years on, how has parent / school communications evolved?

There is a wide range of school communication software on the market, and there is no doubt that it can support school-home engagements with the wide range of features they offer. Access to software can be via a website or in some cases, via a mobile App, providing more flexibility for the parent to stay in touch.

We know that parental engagement is a powerful factor in driving pupil progress right from early years education through to post-16 study. However, research shows that the nature of engagement changes over the course of a child’s school journey, which is why schools need a clearly defined strategy to determine how parental engagement will be led and carried out.

ParentMail bringing schools and parents closer together

Many schools encounter barriers to parental engagement, so by using a system that puts information directly into the hands of parents and tailoring their communications to meet the needs of their communities, schools are finding ways to break down these barriers and help parents support their child.

There will always be parents who are harder to reach, and technology has a part to play in engaging this group. Some schools are focusing on sending out positive messages about pupils to their parents which helps to counter negativity and builds fruitful dialogues – building bridges not walls between home and school.

Today, schools are embracing technology to communicate with parents, and email, text messages and mobile apps are all part of the toolkit. Schools need to ensure they get the most from these tools so that messages can be sent out quickly without adding to staff workload.

Parental engagement has moved on from the days when the annual report and parents’ evening were the only point of reference. The time has come for schools to reach out to parents using the technology they live with every day, so they can build up a positive working relationship to support pupils through the school years.

ParentMail provides schools with the technology they need to communicate with parents, all through one platform. If you’d like to discuss further, please don’t hesitate to get in touch by reaching us on 01733 595959 or email info@parentmail.co.uk

Introducing our new and improved School Help Site

We’re excited to announce the launch of our new School Help Site, now live and ready to answer any questions you may have about using ParentMail! The new site includes lots of improvements which make finding guidance and instructions easier than ever before.

Finding answers has never been easier

Powered by Google, the new search function instantly finds the answer to your question! You can search for an answer by typing in a keyword or question to quickly find the information you need to complete the task at hand.

In addition to step-by-step instructions, our new range of videos provide easy-to-follow guidance for completing a variety of tasks, from registering parents and creating invoices to downloading reports and editing user permissions.

Keep an eye out for system updates

We include news and details of our latest system updates on the school help site so that you can make the most of new enhancements and functionality. Notes on our latest update (our biggest release yet!) are available on the help site now, including details on updates to Online Forms, improved payment functionality and lots of handy fixes! We always take feedback and requests from schools into account when updating the ParentMail system and our latest release includes many updates that you specifically asked for – take a look at the notes to find out more!

What do you think?

We want to hear what you think of our new help site. Click the ‘We need your feedback’ button at the bottom of the homepage to let us know of any additional improvements we can make or FAQs you’d like us to add.

A look back at the year just gone…

As we welcome in the New Year, we’re taking the opportunity to look back over the year just gone, our biggest and best year yet!

2018 saw us welcome hundreds of new primary, secondary schools, nurseries and Academies to the ParentMail fold; we sent more messages, emails and online forms than ever before, supporting schools across the country to improve parental engagement and save time and money.

During 2018, we supported schools to send over:

• 18 million texts
• 285 million emails
• 5 million Online Forms
• We also processed over 4 million orders for trips, events and other School Shop items!

The past 12 months also saw schools planning almost 9,000 parents’ evenings; you were also busy arranging almost 3,600 events!

2018 saw us celebrate 2.5 million App downloads; that’s 2.5 million parents using the free ParentMail App to stay up to date with school news, book appointments, respond to forms and make payments, all from one account!

As we continue to support schools to go paperless with the very best in EdTech, we know how important it is to stay ahead with the latest innovations in software and technology, which is why we’re working hard on new functionality to help make life easier for schools and parents. Last year saw us update the free ParentMail App for both Android and iOS, making lots of handy improvements to make it even easier for parents to keep on top of school communications. We also released our biggest system update yet, which was jam-packed with improvements, new functionality and handy fixes, many of which were specifically requested by our schools.

Following our biggest and best year yet, our New Year’s Resolution for 2019 is the same as always – to continue supporting schools to improve parental engagement with innovative software and exciting new developments. What’s yours?

IRIS Software Group acquires BioStore

IRIS Software Group, the UK’s business critical software provider has announced the acquisition of BioStore LTD, a principle provider of identity management and cashless catering solutions to UK schools and businesses.

BioStore’s identity management and cashless catering solutions are used by over 3,000 UK schools and sixth form colleges to improve and streamline access control and how catering services are delivered. The acquisition further extends the IRIS education software portfolio and its ability to deliver a step-change in school efficiency – a prime objective of many Academy and Academy Trusts.

BioStore will sit within the IRIS Education Division which includes PS Financials financial management; Results Squared asset management and communications; ParentMail online payment and parent engagement, and The Contact Group which includes the prominent messaging apps, Looked After Call and Truancy Call.

Over 11,000 education organisations use IRIS solutions, which provide essential software to 60% of UK academies and 82% of large multi-academy Trusts. IRIS also connects schools with over four million parents and guardians and sends over 300 million messages each year from schools to parents and guardians, helping to keep them informed and process payments for dinner money and other school items.

Kevin Dady, CEO of IRIS Software Group says, “BioStore has developed some game-changing technology for the education sector and I’m delighted to welcome the business to IRIS. Our mission is to help all education establishments become more efficient and productive by reducing administration and delivering services that benefit schools, colleges, students and parents. This acquisition is yet another step in helping us achieve this goal.”

Nigel Walker, managing director of BioStore says, “BioStore is a leader in providing innovative identity management and cashless catering solutions to schools and businesses for many years. We’re delighted to be part of IRIS Software Group where we can create even tighter integrations between our respective award-winning portfolios and innovate further. Together with IRIS we can offer schools and businesses an end to end solution, which creates value by making budgets go further.”

Less paper, less waste, less expense

Tighter budgets see a call for efficiency and an ‘all hands-on-deck’ approach to searching out cost-cutting opportunities. In the hunt for financial savings, however, it’s important to remember that, often, it’s the small changes that deliver big results.

It is estimated that the average secondary school pupil produces 22kg of waste a year, with primary school pupils more than doubling that at 45kg. Much of this waste is paper and card; today, one million sheets of paper are being used per school, per year; on average, schools can spend up to £60,000 on photocopying annually! With pupils still relying on books and pens in the classroom, school leaders are questioning: what are the true costs and implications of paper in schools?

Taking a step back from paper can be tricky! A wide-spread movement towards modern technology in the classroom appears far off. Children still complete exams on paper and handwriting remains an important step in every child’s education. While it may be difficult to reduce reliance on traditional methods in the classroom, a move towards paperless-office environments may be easier (and more beneficial!) than you think.

An online system such as ParentMail supports your team to take the easy step towards a paperless environment – and it’s a step well worth taking! A commitment to going paperless results in both time and financial savings; your school could save up to £65,000 a year on print alone, not to mention the additional paper and postage costs.

Without paper letters, forms and registers to manage, manual admin tasks are replaced by efficient, reliable and simple online processes. Paperless-school staff don’t need to invest valuable time in chasing trip and dinner payments; instead, parents can make timely, cashless payments through our mobile App, reducing dinner debt and eliminating any need for cash on school grounds. From the same online account, parents receive notifications about parents’ evening, school trips and clubs, and can complete and return school forms at a time convenient for them. Paperless schools also enjoy the benefits of having important information at their fingertips, with access to customisable reports and data to support student learning.

By removing paper-based obstacles from daily tasks, your school can streamline processes, protect important data and achieve amazing cost savings. Equally, empower parents to engage with your school with a convenient, socially inclusive platform and watch home/school partnerships go from strength to strength!

Paperless schools never look back! Get in touch to find out how ParentMail can support your school to save time and money this new year. Call the team on 01733 595959 or email info@parentmail.co.uk.

WhatsApp – Pros, cons and managing it for your school

Instant messaging service, WhatsApp, has become an integral part of staying in touch with friends and family for adults across the UK. Many parents also use WhatsApp groups to share information about their child’s school with other parents.

Earlier this year, we wrote an article on our blog, What’s up with WhatsApp? after a Mumsnet thread hit the headlines when a post referring to the different types of mum found in ‘every’ school WhatsApp group struck a chord with parents across the country.

Parents were quick to state that the WhatsApp group created at the beginning of the school year is a handy way of staying up to date with the latest classroom news. However, the sheer quantity of messages sent by the 20+ parents all part of the same group can be quite overwhelming and ‘fear of missing out’ often warrants us incapable of turning notifications to silent.

Sometimes WhatsApp groups for parents may not share accurate information, and details about children may be shared with little thought for privacy. In this video, Sue Atkins – parenting expert and ex- deputy head – gives her views on how parental engagement software can keep communication between school and parent clear, whilst keeping all data safe.

If you want to find our more about ParentMail’s communication applications, and what else it can do to help your office staff save time and money, get in touch on info@parentmail.co.uk or give the team a call on 01733 595959.

Christmas is hectic, but technology can make life easier!

Christmas can be a very busy time for parents, particularly with all the extra events going on in school! The run up to the school nativity or end of year performance can include lots of rehearsals, not to mention booking and paying for tickets, choosing seats and making sure they know the correct dates and times for everything that is going on!

Technology can help make life just that bit easier!

With the ParentMail mobile app, for example, parents can receive messages instantly straight to their phone, including last minute changes or reminders. What’s more, they can manage events, make online payments and even complete forms all from one account, making a hectic time of year easier for parents to manage.

Watch  our video below to see why parenting expert Sue Atkins recommends using technology in school to help make life just a little bit easier for parents.

The benefits of breakfast clubs – ParentMail’s top picks!

Last month, Children and Families Minister, Nadhim Zahawi announced that thousands more children across the country were receiving a healthy and nutritious breakfast at school breakfast clubs. In part, this is thanks to a government-funded programme worth nearly £26 million.

Here are some of our favourite ways breakfast clubs can benefit children, parents and schools.

Breakfast clubs improve school performance

Research shows that a good breakfast can help improve children’s reading, writing and maths performance. KidsHealth.org reports that breakfasts high in protein and fibre, and low in sugar, helps to boost children’s attention span, concentration and memory, essential for good performance at school.

Affordable and safe pre-school childcare

Parents are increasingly busy juggling childcare with working, often having to opt for pre- and post-school care. Breakfast clubs offer them some respite, both financially, and from the chaos of the morning school run. On average, breakfast clubs in England cost just £1.68 per day to attend. Moreover, about a quarter of breakfast clubs are completely free for all children to attend!

Time to socialise, or get active

Many schools use their breakfast club to get children moving. The Daily Mile is a relatively new initiative to get children running or jogging one mile every day. Who knows, the next Mo Farah might be hidden amongst your breakfast club! For other schools, children can play board games, draw or colour, or use computers to research and complete their homework.

Better attendance and behaviour

By reducing the stress of the morning routine for families and children, breakfast clubs can help improve behaviour and attendance. Children have up to an hour before school starts so they can relax, play, eat, exercise and socialise, all without the rush of getting to school. In this article from the Guardian, Sam Bailey, Headteacher of the Forest Academy in Barnsley, said “Pupil behaviour has improved dramatically and attitudes to learning are the best they have ever been.”

ParentMail helps schools successfully run breakfast clubs

Thanks to our brand-new multiple registers feature, schools with our +Pay (online payments) package can now easily set up additional registers. This lets them track registrations and payments for breakfast clubs, alongside other registers, such as school dinners and after-school clubs. Therefore, administrative work is reduced, too. The feature also allows for multiple running balances, which helps reduce arrears with low-balance reminders for parents.

This is one of our most-requested improvements!

For existing online payments users, you can add new registers from the Registers tab in ParentMail. If you’re not a ParentMail user, but want to know more about Multiple Registers and other applications that can help improve parental engagement and online payments management, give the team a call on 01733 595959 or email info@parentmail.co.uk.

Meet Abbey Catholic Primary School’s ‘ParentMail King’!

Since September, Abbey Catholic Primary School have been on a campaign to register parents to ParentMail and their efforts have received a fantastic response!

As ParentMail Co-ordinator, Deputy Headteacher, Joe McTernan, has worked closely with the staff team to make the most of their complete ParentMail package to improve parental engagement.

In a recent survey, 87% of our customers agreed that the key to the success of a new communications system is strong parent uptake. Since the launch of ParentMail a few months ago, Abbey Catholic Primary School saw parent registration increase slowly; following a campaign to get all parents registered, today 99% of parents are signed up and 80% are using the App!

The school is committed to adopting a paperless environment and ParentMail has been key to achieving this. They now send out all newsletters, competition and club communications via ParentMail, making it very important for parents to register. Although ‘playground chatter’ has been key, the team made the most of a recent parents’ evening to help parents make the most of the ParentMail App.

“We had our first parents’ evening since the introduction of ParentMail and it seemed like the perfect opportunity to answer any questions parents had about using their accounts.” Says Deputy Headteacher, Joe. “So, I was coronated with the title of ‘ParentMail King’ for the evening, complete with paper crown! I was on hand to answer questions and have a chat. Most parents who stopped by to ask questions just needed some support to get used to using their account. I mainly dealt with teething problems, but I also sat with two of the three families yet to register with ParentMail and helped them to set up their accounts there and then! It was a great idea and a huge success.”

The primary school also have a great social media presence and tweeted about their ‘ParentMail king’ during the evening to let parents know that support was available if they needed it – another brilliant way of sharing news and improving parental engagement!

“Although we’re at the end of our ParentMail roll-up now, we’ve worked hard to get to this point and made it a priority since September to get parents registered on the system.” Says Joe. “We have played hardball with a few parents who weren’t signing up. For example, we chose not to send paper copies of communications home with students. Instead, we sent a message to parents to let them know that there was a letter in the school office for them to collect. This worked really well, as our office staff took the opportunity to encourage parents to download the App and many families registered with ParentMail as a result. It’s far more convenient for them – sometimes people just need that extra push to give something new a go!”

Parents at Abbey Catholic Primary School can now manage communications with ease and stay up to date with school news, events, competitions and payments, which supports school staff as a result! In particular, organising PE and after-school clubs has been far smoother and easier for everyone involved, with all parents responding to forms and event information quickly and efficiently online. And, should parents ever have a question about using their account, they know help is at hand at the school!

Deputy Headteacher and ‘ParentMail King’, Joe McTernan, ready to answer questions and give advice on parents’ evening!

If you’re a school looking to improve parental engagement get in touch today! Call us on 01733 595959 or email enquire@parentmail.co.uk.

Top Tips for productive parents’ evening appointments!

Parents’ evening is a very important part of the relationship that parents develop with the school and their child’s teacher, whether it is their first experience, or they have attended before.

Here are a few pointers to how parents may be feeling and how you can ensure that the meeting is productive, for the child, for parents and also for the school.

• Children can be rather uncommunicative about their life at school, which can be frustrating for parents, so for them, this is a great chance to get to know their child’s teacher and learn more about how their time is spent in class, what they are studying, how they are progressing and if they need any extra support at home.
• There can be a lot that parents want to cover in their ten-minute slot and some will come prepared with all of the questions that they want to ask, whereas others will wait to be led by the teacher, but there is no doubt that they are expecting a ‘full picture’ of the progress their child is making and also any challenges they are facing.
• Remember also that parents want to be reassured that their child is important and is being cared for and engaged with during lessons. There is nothing worse than being a parent sitting with a teacher and wondering if this teacher has spent time in getting to know your child. A good pointer is to have some of the child’s work to hand for the parents to review and some prepared notes on what they have achieved – i.e. a celebration, and then where needed, to discuss the focus on where their child needs more support and how they can help.
• Parents generally want to be involved in their child’s education, to ensure that they have the best chances and to be ‘part of the process’ and to develop a positive relationship with their child’s teacher or teachers.
• Depending on the parent’s own experience with school, they may feel intimidated and it is the teacher’s role to put them at ease and start to build on the foundations of the relationship between school and home. They will be looking for guidance and how they can support their child, so although time is limited, a top tip is to have a prepared plan that they can take away, highlighting the areas of focus where they can support; not only will this help them to become involved in their child’s schooling but will also provide a point of reference for the next meeting, so progress can be charted and further plans can be developed.
• It is also essential to remember that this is a two-way conversation and that parents may have their own concerns about the child’s school life that they want to share with you, whether this is related to the actual school work or other aspects, such as their relationships with other children and staff, this is important to them, so ensure that facts are established if they have concerns and actions are agreed and followed up.

Parents’ Evening Manager allows school to manage parents’ evening with ease, and even has the functionality to allow parents to leave notes in advance of their appointment. With this, teachers can run off their appointments the day before and quickly see what each parent would like to discuss, ensuring both parties feel organised ahead of the appointment.

For more information on Parents’ Evening Manager, email info@parentmail.co.uk or call us on 01733 595959.

School dinner money debt is on the rise

The BBC recently reported on the astonishing debts accumulated by Welsh schools as a result of unpaid school dinner money. It’s a common problem for thousands of primary and secondary schools across the country, and figures show dinner money related debts are on the rise.

The BBC found that at the end of last year parents in Wales owed more than £400,000* in unpaid school dinner debts; in seven Welsh authorities, the debt has increased by a staggering 90% in just five years.

What do parents say about dinner money debt?

We took to social media to see what parents had to say about increasing school dinner money debts and the feedback was very interesting –

“Often the debt is over £1000 owed and considering the younger years get free school meals I think it’s outrageous.”

“Our school displays the debt in the weekly newsletter/website. It’s low at the minute, about £600, but it is creeping up…”

“It’s not a case of “can’t pay, won’t pay” just an easy mistake of not drawing cash out on Sunday night, how many people actually carry cash these days…”

“Maybe if all schools could accept standing orders or online payments it would make parents lives easier and less stress on school chasing dinner money debt.”

“Ours is done through ParentMail; so, so easy and you can see exactly what they chosen and what time.”

What’s the solution?

The cause of dinner money debt is different for all schools and parents. A number of parents on social media argued of the inconvenience of having to find cash and coins every week, stating that they rarely have cause to withdraw cash these days. For this reason, many parents spoke in favour of online systems, stating cashless school payments are far more convenient for everyone involved.

However, even with online payment systems, with busy lives, parents can still occasionally forget to top up their child’s dinner account because many online payment providers do not provide the functionality to send automatic alerts to parents when it’s time to top up – some systems even require parents to pay extra for this service!

Not only does +Pay support schools to become cashless, our Online Payments system also allows schools to input a low dinner money balance limit; when a student’s dinner money reaches the pre-selected amount, their parent automatically receives a handy alert to top up, even if that’s just half an hour before dinner time!

+Pay works for schools with or without cashless catering systems and saves hours of time in the school office; no more clunky cash payments to process or reminders to be sent out to parents! The socially inclusive platform allows parents to pay via whichever method suits them, be that credit or debit card, PayPoint or PayCash.

Thousands of schools are using +Pay every day to collect cashless dinner money payments and are enjoying reduced dinner money debt as a result. With 97%** of adults now accessing the internet on-the-go from their mobile phone, online payments are the way to go!

To find out more about +Pay, call 01733 59599 or email info@parentmail.co.uk.

Useful Links

https://www.parentmail.co.uk/services/online-payments/dinner-money

*https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-45895567

**
https://bit.ly/2nw9rcy

Budget 2018 – What you need to know

This week, the chancellor delivered his 2018 Budget in which he announced an extra £400 million capital funding for schools this year, effective immediately.

This money will amount to a pay out of roughly £10,000 per primary school, and £50,000 per secondary school.

However, the extra cash injection cannot be used for revenue outlay, such as staff salaries, and can only be spent on capital projects, for example purchasing sports and technology equipment, or building maintenance.

Every year, the Budget sparks conversations and debates across industries, and this year has been no different. Whilst many in the education sector argue that this capital investment is not enough, Jonathan Simons, Education policy commentator and former government adviser, suggests that any extra funding into schools is a ‘good announcement’.

Funding of UK schools and education continues to be a hot topic, both across the teaching profession and in Whitehall.

Limited staff numbers, both in classrooms and the office, puts pressure on school operations. With increasing regulations and more reporting and paperwork to complete, along with increased pupil numbers, teachers’ to-do lists are continually increasing.

Many schools are looking to technology to help ease staff workload, improve efficiency and maximise return on investment, choosing ParentMail to increase parental engagement. ParentMail allows schools to send messages, collect forms, collect payments, organise events and organise parents’ evening digitally. This saves staff time printing and distributing forms to pupils, eliminates the risk of lost communications, and can save schools thousands of pounds per year on resources like paper, postage and printing toner and make school budgets go further.

If you are already using ParentMail and would like to find out more about the other services which could benefit your school, or if you’re looking to implement a brand-new parental engagement system, get in touch with the ParentMail team and start to improve efficiency, reduce costs and work smarter within your school. Call 01733 595959 to speak to our specialist team or email info@parentmail.co.uk

The challenges of organising Parents’ Evening

With school now in full swing, routines are established, children are settled in their new classes – and so the next big milestone is Parents’ Evening and organising it successfully is no mean feat!

Parents’ Evenings are an extremely important event in the school calendar, as they provide the opportunity for parents to speak with teachers to get an insight into how their child/children are progressing, whilst for the teachers it is an opportunity to strengthen the parental relationship with the school and to develop their support in a child’s learning.

For the school staff, it is a huge task to ensure that all the parents are informed of the date(s), which provides them with the opportunity for booking a convenient slot with their child’s teacher. We all live in a busy, hectic world so juggling diaries can be complicated and stressful.

Then there are the logistics to consider; is it best for the meetings to take place in the child’s classroom or in a larger space such as the school hall or gym? All of this can be further complicated when parents have more than one child at the school, as appointments will need to be coordinated; further complications can arise when the parents are separated, and both parents want separate appointments.

Further support is needed from the office staff in supporting the teachers in collating reports, records and other documentation that they need for each meeting.

With regular communications with parents, they should all be aware of the date, and hopefully, have organised their personal diaries to attend. However, inevitably there will always be a case where this information has been overlooked by the parents, they have prior commitments or may have just forgotten! This then falls to the school staff to assist with organising alternative dates/times for the important meeting.

Traditionally, letters inviting parents to make appointments were sent home with the pupils which were then (hopefully) returned to the school via the same channel with the parent’s availability to attend to be processed and an appointment allocated. In some schools this is still the case, but as school communications evolve, online methods and booking systems are being introduced to ease the burden.

Whichever method your school uses, there is no doubt that the organisation and logistics still mainly fall under the School Administrators to ensure that everything is in order, all the small details are considered and that the event runs smoothly.

Are you making plans for Parents’ Evening? Parents’ Evening Manager could save your school hours of time, as well as ensuring a smooth and organised event! Email enquire@parentmail.co.uk or call us on 01733 595959 to find out more.

Casterton College switch to +Pay and are thrilled with the results!

Casterton College in Rutland is in the top 100 schools of the UK. With a growing student population, the academy places great emphasis on not only academic achievement but the care and support of every student throughout their school journey.

As such, the staff team recognise the importance of parental engagement. With the introduction of ParentMail at the start of the new school year, staff are pleased to have a huge 92% of families already signed up and using ParentMail to manage school communications and payments. They are also thrilled with the valuable time and cost savings the system is helping the team to achieve!

Until this year, the school had been using an alternative online payments solution which, five years after its introduction, was unable to deliver the extra demands and functionality required to support the school. With the aim of being completely cashless, the team found that the service offered to parents was quite poor in terms of functionality; there was no parent application or payment reminders available and the website was difficult to use from a mobile device, causing a bad experience for parents trying to top up dinner money.

Parents also needed to pay extra to receive automated low dinner money reminders. In the office, staff also found the service hard to use. What should have made daily tasks easier actually caused more issues. The reports were unclear, resulting in staff investing extra time reformatting data. Overall, the school required a more professional service for both internal use and parents.

Director of Finance, Tina Green, was a great supporter of ParentMail before it was introduced to the school office. She has been using ParentMail as a parent to manage school communications for a number of years and knows firsthand the benefits ParentMail can have for parents, students and schools.

“We needed a more robust, reliable system; looking into alternatives, ParentMail stood out for its suite of applications. We use +Pay, Online Forms, Email and messaging; utilising multiple systems from one provider has resulted in great cost savings. We’re a small and very busy team so managing payments and parent communications through one system is incredibly efficient. We want to be a paperless, cashless school and ParentMail enables us to achieve this.”

“We are thrilled with the amount of time we’re saving on a daily basis and we’ve only been using the system for a few months. We can already see how ParentMail will support us over the next year. Almost all the parents are paying for school dinners with +Pay; we’ve set up payments for locker rentals, trips and revision guides, and all have been a huge success. Setting up payment items is user-friendly and fast; parents receive an alert when a payment is due and payments come through quickly as a result, meaning we don’t have to chase students for overdue payments. We particularly like the payment reports we receive; they’re clear, reliable and easy to analyse.”

“This year we welcomed a large year seven group to the school. Many parents were already using ParentMail from primary school so onboarding them to our ParentMail system was straight-forward for both staff and parents. And for those parents new to the system, the SIMS auto-link made it quick and easy! The system was set up before the start of term, so parents were able to purchase items in advance of their child’s first day. We were used to a manual onboarding system before ParentMail and it took days – with ParentMail, it was easy!”

“Feedback from parents has been great. Once they’re registered, they’re pleased with how easy it is to perform all the tasks required from them; from topping up dinner money, purchasing study guides to filling in and returning forms, parent communications have never been stronger.”

If you’re a school looking for a way to simplify and streamline your communications or introduce Online Payments, ParentMail could be the answer. Get in touch today through email (enquire@parentmail.co.uk) or call us on 01733 595959 and we’ll be more than happy to discuss further!

Top tips for parental engagement success!

It’s the start of a new school year, meaning there’s a lot of information to send out and share with parents. How you decide you will be communicating with the pupil’s families is a matter of preference. Traditionally, letters were sent home with the pupil with the expectation that these would be passed on by the pupil to the parent. However, this method has been seen as a weak link and often leads to many parents discovering out of date letters shoved at the bottom of school bags.

With the development of technology, we have seen the introduction of social media groups such as closed Facebook groups, WhatsApp chat groups etc, for information to be shared between schools and parents. This method is fine for general information, but not ideal for specific information regarding a child or for a parent to communicate any questions or concerns about their child.

So what is the solution?

Here are a few of my top hints and tips for managing school communications, sure to support your staff team, parents and students in the long run!

1. Starting out from the beginning: Establish with the parent how they would like to receive information about their child, school events, news and updates. Not all parents are ‘tech-savvy’ so you may still have to resort to posting out direct mailers to some of them.
2. Explain what you will be sending: Be clear on the types of communications parents can expect and the frequency – i.e. if there is a parent’s evening coming up, how they can book an appointment with their child’s teacher/teachers to discuss their progress.
3. Gathering information: You are required to hold an increasing amount of information on a child aside from their academic progress – i.e. medical information, details of home life that may affect their performance in school, who are the regular carers and if communications need to be sent separately in the case of divorced parents. Ensure that you clearly explain that this information is required to support the child and who it will be shared with, that parents have the right to view what is being held in their child’s records and how they can apply to see this and the process.
4. Provide information: Ensure that you provide details of how the parents can contact the school, who they can speak to, the times that this person is available and how they can make appointments with the various staff who look after their child etc.
5. Child’s schoolwork: Are you able to provide regular updates to parents on their children’s studies? For example, what are the subjects their children are studying, how parents can help and become involved in supporting these? Evidence supports that children are more engaged and successful in their studies with strong parental partnerships between the school and home.
6. Progress reports: Can you provide regular progress reports – i.e. homework handed in or outstanding, spelling test results, feedback from the child’s key teacher/worker so that parents are fully informed of their child’s progress and can celebrate successes or address areas of concern rather than wait for a Parents’ Evening to be provided with this information.
7. School events: Send out timely information on school events, term dates, inset days and regular reminders so that the parents are fully aware of everything that is happening in school.
8. Celebrating success: Does your school have a scheme where children are given awards for good work, behaviour or attendance? It could be an idea to include these ‘Rolls of Excellence’ report in any communications, but if sending photographs, please ensure that you have consent from the parent if their child is featured.

Parenting expert, author and TV presenter, Sue Atkins, has 22 years experience in the teaching profession making her an expert on all things parental engagement! We are thrilled to join forces with Sue to share best practice on school/parent communications.

Getting it right from the start for schools and parents

Parenting expert, author and TV presenter, Sue Atkins, has 22 years experience in the teaching profession making her an expert on all things parental engagement! In this blog, Sue discusses the importance of starting the year off right in terms of school communications and building a relationship between the school and parents from day one of the new school term…

Well that’s it – the long hot Summer holidays are officially over and September has seen thousands of young children stepping through the school gates, many for the first time, in their pristine shiny new shoes, slightly oversized new school uniforms and clutching their brand-new pencil cases.

It is an exciting day for some children, looking forward to seeing their old friends after a long summer and starting the new academic year with all it’s exciting new possibilities and experiences.

For parents, it can be a time of mixed emotions and concerns; these cover a wide range, for example, wondering how their child will cope in their new environment if they are starting a new school, will their child make friends, how they will get on with the school work, who are their new teachers, how will they find out how their child is progressing etc. Establishing an open and informative line of communication between the school and home is essential at this stage and it will be the foundation of a strong relationship for the rest of the year.

Evidence supports that the more involved parents are in their child’s education, the better the pupil performs at school. Parents are the first teachers and role models that a child has and there have been many papers written by academics about the way a child’s classroom performance and academic achievements are significantly influenced by the extent to which parents become involved in school life and the interest they take in their child’s education.

So right from the start of the academic year, it is the role of the office staff to establish a regular and reliable stream of communication and sharing of information. It is a busy time in the office, as all of the personal data of the pupils, their families and also staff must be collated accurately to form the confidential records that will support the essential and varied administrative tasks throughout the year. With the introduction of GDPR in May 2018, there is also the added pressures that the collection and storing of this data is compliant and only available to those who need access in order to carry out their role.

Strategies and Policies

The Government first set out a strategy for securing parental engagement in a White Paper, ‘Excellence in Schools’ which was published in 1997. This paper suggested that there are three key aspects to improving a school-home relationship:

• Providing parents with information
• Giving parents a voice
• Encouraging parental partnerships with schools

The publication of the annual Ofsted Report in 2016 saw a great deal of importance placed on effective communication between the school and home, with examples of poor and good communication, and while the following excerpt may not relate to the age group in your school, the keyword is partnerships – it is a clear implication that the best schools communicate regularly with parents…

 “Highly effective partnerships with parents mean that the parents are clear about their child’s strengths, next steps and progress towards being ready for school.”

There have been a number of strategies and policies devised over the years since the publishing of ‘Excellence in Schools’ to bridge the gap between schools and pupil’s families to create an inclusive community to share information, but there is no doubt that the real success of any relationship is down to regular communications and updates.

What type of communication?

It would be easy to fall into the trap of sending out information on school initiatives, up and coming dates and events, but in order to engage with families, it is essential that clear and concise information is provided in relation to how and who to communicate with in regard to the individual child; parents want to know that their child is important to the school and they are therefore more interested in news relating to specific individuals, accompanied by the more general notices.

Start of the school year

At the start of the school year, it is essential that the first communications layout in detail how the school will be communicating with the parent throughout the year – i.e. how often this will be, what form it will take and stressing that information and questions from the parents to the school will be valued.

Many parents, especially as a child moves into secondary education, have real concerns that they will not be aware of what is happening in the school and what their child is encountering; according to a recent claim by Scottish Tory Leader, Ruth Davidson that only seven per cent of schools provide parents with the required information and parents are being left ‘in the dark’ about what happens inside their children’s schools

If you can get it right from the start, plan your communications to the parents and the form that they will take, then you are on the right road to building the essential bridge and supporting the teachers, staff, pupils and families within your school.

[Source: TES 13 September 2018: https://www.tes.com/news/parents-dark-about-what-happens-school]

Parental engagement – a strategy for success

We talk about the importance of parental engagement a lot. The term has become a ‘buzzword’ in our offices and in schools across the country. When ParentMail first came into being over 15 years ago, parental engagement was the priority, sitting at the heart of our technology and ambitions. To this day, the subject remains the driving force behind our brand and a hot topic of discussion in the education sector.

Just a few weeks ago, Education Secretary Damien Hinds called for an “educational revolution” [1], in part to reduce the burden of, and time spent on, ‘non-teaching’ tasks. Those daily tasks carried out in the school office, from data collection and management to parent payment processing, take up hours of time every day as well as having a direct impact on the school budget.

Under pressure 

Pressure on schools, be it primary, secondary or Multi-Academy Trust, increases every year. Under scrutiny to evidence and improve efficiencies, maintain a good reputation and Ofsted rating, as well as staying ahead in the league tables with student academic success takes time, planning and prioritisation. These key aspects of every educational organisation often rely heavily on resource in terms of time, people and budget. Pressure in the education sector shows no sign of slowing; forecasts indicate that by the year 2027, secondary school pupil numbers are expected to rise by almost 15% [2]. That means there will be over 400,000 more pupils in England’s state schools than today. Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers states the figures present a challenge, stating that schools are being asked to do so much more now than they were a decade ago. As pupil numbers increase, so too does the daily pressure on school management.

With such pressure we can become distracted from the topic of parental engagement. Attention strays to other issues; the upcoming Ofsted inspection, the ever-busier school calendar, GDPR, staffing and recruitment, suppliers and upcoming exams, to name a few. Every school holds their student’s academic achievement as their highest priority and school staff invest their days in supporting pupils to succeed; parental engagement, then, needs to remain a persistent topic of discussion. Rather than a time-consuming hindrance, engaging parents in their child’s schooling should be considered a beacon of support for teachers, staff and students

All parents as partners

A 2011 government review [3] investigated best practice in parental engagement. Research evidenced that not only do children perform better when parents are involved in their schooling, but also placed emphasis on the fact that schools that ‘improve and sustain improvement engage the community and build strong links with parents. Where schools build positive relationships with parents (…) evidence of sustained school improvement can be found.’ The benefits go beyond GCSE and A Level grades.

When it comes to parental engagement, the subject of social inclusivity is never far behind. Even for those schools with an effective and successful communications plan in place, there will be a segment of the parent community who it is almost impossible to engage with. Whether their responses to letters and forms are scarce or they fail to make an appearance on parents’ evening, engaging with these parents is an ongoing and difficult task. However, they cannot be allowed to fall by the wayside; evidence from Ofsted suggests that a critical element of learning and teaching is the relationship between the teacher, parent and student. Every parent deserves the right to be involved in their child’s learning, regardless of boundaries, be it availability, language barriers or more. As such, schools are tasked with thinking outside the box to identify the best methods of engaging with all parents.

Communications methods should be scrutinised to ensure they don’t contribute to the difficulty in building parent/school relationships. Traditional methods of school communications need to be reconsidered. Whether it’s print, paper and postage costs, missing pupil-post, data protection or environmental concerns, the number of schools fast realising the countless problems associated with paper communications is on the rise. In its place, where do we turn?

The tech revolution

According to the ‘Review of best practice in parental engagement’, ‘Information and communication technology ICT can contribute to improved parental engagement by providing a convenient means for parents to access up-to-date information about their child’s learning.’ The paper school newsletter which occasionally finds its way into the hands of parents can be out of date within days. Technology offers a reliable, timely alternative and supports a more flexible arrangement for busy staff and modern parents.

Becta 2008 [4] identified a number of ways in which ICT can improve parental engagement by enabling new channels of communication between parents and schools. Benefits included allowing parents to be more involved, better methods of capturing information and supporting flexible working methods for staff. However, at the time of this study, the Office of National Statistics reported that only 73% of households in the UK had internet access. Back to the subject of social inclusivity, almost 10 years ago ICT and technology in the school raised as many questions at it answered.

Fast forward to 2018 and the numbers speak for themselves. According to the Office of National Statistics statistical bulletin on Internet Access: 2018 [5], 9 out of 10 households now have internet access. Daily internet use in adults has increased from 25% in 2006 to 86% today. Mobile phones and smartphones remain the most popular device to access the internet with 97% of adults aged between 24 to 34 accessing the internet ‘on the go’. With parents performing most tasks from the device in their hands (internet banking, booking train tickets, arranging grocery deliveries etc) why would they expect any different when it comes to school communications?

Evidence tells us that adults want to use familiar technology (i.e. their smartphones) to perform daily tasks; it is convenient, easy and reliable. Our years of experience tells us that when parents are provided with a user-friendly and convenient method of managing school communications, schools receive a better response; before you know it, parental engagement is on the up, parent responses increase and student academic success is improving as a result.

These technology-driven successes aren’t only restricted to the classroom. With GDPR now in place, schools have a greater responsibility for protecting data. Loose-leaf filing systems and paper forms propose risk, as well as headaches when trying to keep information updated. A digital system from which multiple staff can manage data collection, consent forms, school dinner money and payments reduces the time spent on manual tasks and implements consistency – not to mention the comfort of knowing data is safe and secure.

The start of a new school year is the perfect opportunity to reflect on your school communications, parental engagement and objectives for the year ahead. With pressure on the education sector increasing, technology should no longer be considered an unnecessary or inconvenient expense. Instead, consider the opportunities tech in the office offers and the successes it can bring for your staff, parents and students.

Our modular range of applications is being utilised by thousands of schools across the country who are enjoying the benefits of improved parental engagement alongside welcome time and cost savings. We are proud leaders in the EdTech community and the provider of the UK’s favourite parental engagement system. We want to support more schools to make the most of modern technology – find out how we can help you.

To find out more about how ParentMail can support parental engagement at your school, enquire on our website, call us on 01733 595959 or email enquire@parentmail.co.uk for more information.

[1] – https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/aug/07/uk-schools-silicon-valley-tech-industry-urged-foster-education-revolution

[2] – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-44809258

[3] – https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/182508/DFE-RR156.pdf

[4] – http://dera.ioe.ac.uk/1549/1/becta_2008_htssanalysis_report.pdf

[5] – https://bit.ly/2nw9rcy

What’s up with WhatsApp?

Last month a Mumsnet thread hit the headlines when a post referring to the different types of mum found in ‘every’ school WhatsApp group struck a chord with parents across the country.

Ranging from ‘the wind-up merchant’ to ‘the informer’ to ‘the school can do no wrong brigade’, the mum invited others to add their own characters that she may have missed; and other mums were quick to follow up with their own suggestions!

It seems the school WhatsApp group is a source of information and frustration in equal measure for many parents. Parents are quick to state that the WhatsApp group created at the beginning of the school year is a handy way of staying up to date with the latest classroom news. However, the sheer quantity of messages sent by the 20+ parents all part of the same group can be quite overwhelming and ‘fear of missing out’ often warrants us incapable of turning notifications to silent.

For schools, the parent WhatsApp group can result in inaccurate information circulated quickly to a large number of parents. Classroom politics leak through the school gates and into the digital world where staff have little to no control over the content shared. For those teachers who use WhatsApp to communicate with parents, there can be serious privacy issues (i.e. messages intended for one parent mistakenly sent to another or to a group).

Of course, WhatsApp groups are a particularly handy source of news and information for those parents unable to socialise with fellow mums and dads in the school playground. However, it is easy to forget those parents without access to new technology. These are the parents who miss out on the news and information that many parents take for granted.

Social inclusivity has been at the heart of ParentMail’s technology since we started up over 17 years ago. We recognise the benefits of modern technology for schools, however, we ensure those parents who prefer a traditional method of communication have the same access to school news and information as those parents using our free App. No parent is forgotten or left out because we believe every parent deserves to be kept up to date with their child’s education.

With ParentMail, schools can send news and information without fear of privacy breaches, knowing their data is up to date and protected. Digital communications warrant loose pieces of paper and hardcopy consent forms redundant; online forms and responses are easily received, analysed, managed and stored.

And, of course, schools have total control over the information circulated. No fear of Chinese whispers interfering or editing important school-related messages. Whether it’s term dates, school closures, after-school-club cancellations or trip payments, the information is wholly in the hands of school staff, ensuring parents receive only accurate information and can respond appropriately.

When it comes to parental engagement, ParentMail ensures quality, consistent and reliable school communications that both schools and parents can rely on. Let’s keep WhatsApp groups for birthday parties and leave school communications to the experts!

To find out more about how ParentMail can improve parental engagement at your school, call us on 01733 595959 or email enquire@parentmail.co.uk for more information.

The EdTech revolution happening outside of the classroom

Last month Education Secretary, Damien Hinds, challenged the tech industry to launch an edtech revolution for schools, colleges and universities across the UK.

EdTech has an increasingly valuable place in the classroom; 3D technology is quite literally bringing lessons to life and coding is becoming a prevalent lesson for students of all ages, whilst encouraging inclusion and opening eyes to the possibilities of the industry. With only a minority of schools able to fully embrace these technologies today, however, it may take some time before the opportunity to embed state-of-the-art EdTech in the classroom is available to the majority of schools across the UK.

But tech doesn’t only deliver benefits to students inside the classroom. One of the five opportunities discussed by the Education Secretary was the important role of technology in reducing time spent on non-teaching related tasks and teacher workload.

Since the earliest days of ParentMail, we have recognised and evidenced the important role that EdTech plays outside of the classroom. Investment in technology in the school office serves to encourage parental engagement and improve student academic outcomes as a result.

While technology continues to evolve outside of the school gates, parent habits are changing. Alongside the evolution of technology, schools are under increasing pressure to demonstrate efficiencies and save money at every turn. Protecting the school budget remains a priority for schools across the country this September, so how does cost efficiency and investment in EdTech fit together?

With the new school year nearly upon us, now begins the task of onboarding new students, communicating term dates, planning parents’ evening and updating student, parent and teacher data. Gone are the days when these tasks took hours of time to plan, implement and manage. Thousands of schools are making the most of modern technology with ParentMail, saving time and money whilst performing day-to-day admin tasks and enjoying the huge benefits of improved parent responses as a result. Whether circulating the school newsletter, requesting updated parent contact details, collecting school dinner payments or arranging parents meetings – Multi-Academy Trusts, Primary and Secondary schools across the country are saving time and money with digital communications and managing important data safely and efficiently like never before!

Last month we released our innovative and improved Android App to the Google Play Store. With the help of feedback from parent testers, we have improved the user experience to ensure schools continue to receive a great response to their communications. We’ve also very recently completed our annual Customer Satisfaction Survey, gathering feedback from schools to continue the improvement of our software and services for your benefit. We’re proud to be the UK’s leading parental engagement system; our commitment to staying on top of the latest EdTech trends whilst listening to customer feedback ensures our product will continue to support schools in building fantastic parent/school relationships for years to come.

Since 2001, ParentMail have been investing in technology for the benefit of thousands of schools across the UK. To find out more about how our software could support parental engagement in your school, email enquire@parentmail.co.uk or call us on 01733 595959.

Forms, forms and more forms…

With September upon us, schools are now busy collecting and managing all new starter data – from students, to staff, to parents! With paper-based communications, the cost of print, paper and sometimes postage can be surprisingly high, not to mention time-consuming and cumbersome to manage when letters and forms are returned.

So why not manage it electronically with our Online Form collection App?

Building your online form is easy with ParentMail. Whether you’re collecting trip consents, meal selections, parent surveys, data, student medical information or more, you can create your own from scratch or choose from our collection of ready-built forms. Our Forms App provides total flexibility in terms of formatting and managing responses; you can set an expiry date for your form and even set automatic reminders to encourage parents to complete and return it by the deadline.

Once you’ve created your form, simply click send… and watch the responses arrive!

Parents receive a notification and can complete the form via the free ParentMail App on a mobile, tablet or desktop. For parents who prefer a traditional option, a paper copy can be generated.

Monitoring responses is easy – you can download reports and CSV files, send out messages to all respondents, as well as those who haven’t responded, and more.

Our Online Forms App is proven to improve parent responses for our customers. Since introducing the App, Hemingbrough Community Primary have gone from receiving a trickle of responses to more than 60% of parents now completing and responding the very same day. Many of the forms now receive a 100% response rate within 48 hours!

Business Manager, Sarah Read, said, “We send dinner menus each week, permissions for photographs or walking home, club forms and more, and usually within minutes of them being sent we see the responses coming back in. Now that we’ve allowed parents to complete forms on their smartphone, the turnaround time is quicker than ever before!”

With GDPR now in force, our Online Forms App provides peace of mind that parent data is safe and secure, for both your school and your parents.

Streamline your communications in time for September! To find out more about how ParentMail can improve parental engagement at your school, call us on 01733 595959 or email enquire@parentmail.co.uk for more information.

Introducing our innovated Android App

We are delighted to announce our new and improved Android App!

Experience tells us that when parents are happy with their ParentMail experience, Primary and Secondary schools, and MATS, receive a great response to their communications. So over the past few months, we have been working hard to improve our Android App!

We invited parents to download and try out our Beta app and to feedback to us about their experiences. Thank you to all the parents who took part in our Beta test! Over 2000 parents downloaded the app and sent their feedback to us, and our developers took all the comments and suggestions into account in order to innovate and enhance the application for your benefit!

We’re very excited to announce that our new and improved Android App is now available to download in the Google Play Store! To download the App, go to the Google Play Store and search ‘ParentMail’ and click ‘Install’ or ‘Update’ to start using the new and improved App!

What’s new?

Our new and improved app includes many enhancements sure to improve a parent’s experience on Android devices –

• Login details will now be saved, allowing easy access to the account with just a few taps
• Improved notifications
• A ‘Select all’ button has been added for the email, SMS and Online Forms folders, allowing the user to easily mark all items as read/unread with just one action
• There’s a new ‘Unread’ folder, where the user can find all your unread items in one place
• Email attachments will open in an appropriate application available on the device
• When entering a pin, the numbers are no longer visible, ensuring better security and privacy
• We’ve made a number of improvements to our Online Payments application, enabling parents to make quick and easy payments with just a few taps.

…and much more! For full details of the improvements made to our Android App, please visit the School Help Site.

Schools, encourage your parents to download the new and improved Android App! Simply visit the Google Play Store, search ‘ParentMail’ and select to either install or download the App!

We hope you’re as pleased with the new App as we are!

ParentMail makes the most of modern technology, supporting thousands of schools to save time and money, and ensuring students benefit from improved parental engagement. To find out more or to book a free demonstration of ParentMail, simply email info@parentmail.co.uk

Leading the way in GDPR compliance

We understand the importance of protecting the data of your parents, students and staff. That’s why the ParentMail team have been working hard to lead the way in GDPR compliance!

Over the past few months, we have implemented a number of system updates and enhanced our services where necessary so that your school can be confident in our compliance with the new regulations.

Although your school were already legally obliged to keep data safe and secure (whether that’s staff and student information, paper files or an electronic database) the GDPR mean your school now has even greater responsibility for protecting data.

The enhancements and updates we have put in place supports you in this task, protecting your organisational reputation and helping you to comply with the new regulations. Schools and businesses who are not GDPR compliant could see fines of up to 4% of their turnover or €20 million imposed from the Information Commissioners Office, not to mention the impact on Ofsted ratings.

So, what have we been doing? Visit our School Help Site, System Updates page (accessed through your ParentMail account, ‘Help’ > ‘School Help’ menu option) to learn all about the system updates and enhancements we have released to support your school in complying with the GDPR.

ParentMail GDPR documentation

ParentMail’s GDPR statement is available on our retail site – www.parentmail.co.uk/gdpr

This page includes a library of resources to support ParentMail’s GDPR compliance:

• IRIS Software group Security policy
• ParentMail Data protection statement
• ParentMail GDPR and Data protection overview
• ParentMail Data Processing Agreement

Instant messaging is fast replacing the humble text message

Just over 25 years ago, 1992 marked an era which saw the world of internet technology boom! Just one year after the Internet Browser was created, and two years after the World Wide Web put a face to the internet we recognise today, 1992 saw the rise of another communication technology which we are all familiar with; the text message!

New technology is hot on the heels of the humble text with the growing market of instant messaging services such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. In fact, in 2015, WhatsApp founder Jan Kroum reported that the application handled more than 30 billion messages a day – that’s a huge 10.95 trillion a year! As instant messaging rates increase, the number of text messages sent is rapidly decreasing; in the UK, text messaging declined by almost 5% from 2012-2013.

Habits are changing at home and in work

Instant messaging apps allow us to send messages and media for free, without character limitations. Such flexibility has resulted in lots of people opting to use these applications over text messaging every day. When you need to send school or club information out to hundreds of parents, text messaging can also be very expensive. Print and paper costs are also a costly alternative, and pupil post is often unreliable.

Our Messaging App gives schools the best combination of flexibility and functionality. ParentMail offer a modular range of services, allowing you to add applications as and when your needs change. Our system links with your school’s MIS, keeping data in sync and, unlike many other school communication systems, we offer a free parent app, ensuring your messages reach parents instantly and reliably, even if their contact details change.

Smart and safe

Research finds that four out of five UK adults have a smart phone. More than 2.5 million parents in the UK are benefiting from the ParentMail app every day, receiving important school messages instantly and engaging with their school like never before. With recent cyber-crime and phishing scandals impacting schools across the UK, the security benefits offered by ParentMail for both your school and parents are huge, too. When parents receive communications through the ParentMail App, they know to ignore any suspicious emails appearing in their inbox purporting to be from your school.

You can do more with our messaging app than you think –

• Email your school newsletter in seconds
• Send a text to tell parents an after-school club is cancelled
• Quickly inform parents about school closures
• Create templates for messages used regularly, saving admin time
• Send messages to individuals, a group or all parents
• View a history of messages sent and received and analyse the results of who has opened your messages with our handy reporting suite
• Print paper copies of communications for unregistered parents – ParentMail value social inclusivity and believe every parent has the right to stay up to date with their school, whether they have online access or not!

ParentMail make the most of modern technology, supporting thousands of schools to save time and money, and ensuring students benefit from improved parental engagement. To find out more or to book a free demonstration of ParentMail, simply email info@parentmail.co.uk

Sell more with your own Online School Shop

Pens, pencils, uniform and backpacks; items that support student learning and strengthen your school brand!

All of these items are available to buy from your school shop, but do you sell as much as you would like?

Our Online School Shop is the perfect solution for selling your school products! Parents can browse and buy all the traditional school items available at the click of a button; total flexibility allows parents to order from the comfort of their own home or while out and about, thanks to the free ParentMail app!

When an order is processed, your staff team are automatically alerted, allowing you to gather the items to pass onto the student or parent. Our handy reporting suite allows you to track orders and keep an eye on stock levels, and fulfilment tracking provides a complete electronic trail for easier record keeping.

The flexible service makes it easy to import your shop items and allows you to assign size options and stock quantities to limit the number that any one parent can order of a particular item.

No more time-consuming paperwork or clunky cash payments!

We all recognise the issues caused by cash in schools; everything from bullying and extortion, to lost change or money misspent. So cut out the cash with an online shop; parents can pay for items online by card, PayPal or PayPoint, reducing the amount of cash in school and saving your team hours of time usually spent collecting, counting and banking money.

Introduce your own Online Shop in advance of summer and make it easy for parents to order all the school items students need for the school year ahead!

The School Shop is free to use with our Online Payments package. It’s no surprise that more and more school are switching to ParentMail when it comes to improving parental engagement and going cashless!

Would you like to know about our Online Payments application? Get in touch today by calling 01733 595959 or email enquire@parentmail.co.uk and we’ll get a free demonstration booked in!

GDPR – Are you ready?

Whether your school is a primary or secondary school, nursery, academy or part of a multi-academy trust, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will apply to you from 25 May 2018.

This means that the way you manage data and information within your school will likely need to change. Although your school is already legally obliged to keep data safe and secure (whether that’s staff and student information, paper files or an electronic database) the GDPR will mean your school has greater responsibility for protecting data.

GDPR replaces the current Data Protection Act and ensuring a good understanding of these regulations across school staff is very important for ongoing compliance. Schools and businesses who are not GDPR compliant could see fines of up to 4% of their turnover or €20 million imposed from the Information Commissioners Office, not to mention the impact on Ofsted ratings.

Here are a few things to consider when it comes to GDPR and your school –

• You must be able to evidence that your Data Processors hold the minimum competencies and accreditations; for more information on these, click here
• Ensure the appropriate people in your team understand GDPR and the implications the new legislation has. Consider introducing a Data Protection Officer, someone who is responsible for data protection compliance and communicating information about GDPR
• Conduct an audit of the information you currently hold in school; document the information held for both staff and students, detail where it is held, who has access to it and where it came from
• Develop and communicate procedures on how to respond appropriately to a data breach; these procedures should include processes for detecting, reporting and investigating a data breach
• Review your current privacy policy and make any necessary changes in line with the GDPR
• Review and document policies for gathering, maintaining, communicating (electronically) and deleting student data
• Consider how you will gain and maintain parental/guardian consent for any changes made to current policies as a result of implementing GDPR
• Consider when to start implementing Privacy Impact Assessments in your school
• Implement an e-safety policy to ensure your staff understand what needs to be done to be compliant with GDPR, as well as keeping your school safe against phishing attacks,

More information for preparing for the GDPR can be found here.

Preparing for the new GDPR is key; it’s always better to be safe than sorry! By considering the implications of the new regulations in advance of 25^th May, you can be confident that your school are safe from any nasty fines or reputational damage.

If you would like to know more about ParentMail, contact us today on 01733 595959 or email enquire@parentmail.co.uk.

IRIS Software Group acquires Contact Group

IRIS Software Group, the UK’s business critical software provider is today announcing the acquisition of Contact Group, a leading provider of parental engagement and truancy management software to UK schools. The acquisition extends IRIS’ education portfolio providing solutions to manage all aspects of school finance, including income, assets and communications.

Contact Group’s multi-award-winning parent engagement software is used by 2,000 UK schools, nurseries and sixth form colleges to help improve school-home communications.

The acquisition further extends the IRIS education software portfolio and its ability to deliver a step-change in school efficiency – a prime objective of many Academy and Academy Trusts. The Contact Group will be integrated into IRIS’ Education Division which includes PS Financials financial management, Results Squared asset management and communications, and ParentMail online payment and parent engagement.

The IRIS Education Division now provides solutions for nearly 11,000 schools, over 60% of UK Academies and 82% of large Multi-Academy Trusts.

Kevin Dady, CEO of IRIS Software Group says, “I’m delighted to welcome such a successful business to IRIS Software Group and extend the breadth and depth of software services we offer schools. Our mission is to become the leading partner in school management, helping deliver the best possible outcomes for children by maximising value from facilities. This acquisition is another key step in helping us achieve this goal.”

James Harrison, managing director of Contact Group, says, “IRIS Software Group has brought together best-in-breed school software providers and Contact Group is delighted to be part of its Education Division. Schools are under increasing financial pressure and as more become academies or join Trusts, they need to ensure they make the most out of all budgets. IRIS’ Education Division is extremely well placed to deliver exceptional, high value services.”

Helping you to increase parent uptake with ParentMail

Feel the benefits of 100% parent uptake with ParentMail!

Just a few months ago, we released an update to your ParentMail dashboard which included lots of handy new information and functionality – but are you making the most of it?

We’re here to help!

The more parents registered with ParentMail, the more your school will benefit from reduced admin time, print costs and more. It can seem like quite a daunting task to get all of your parents registered but we are here to help make the process easier.

Your ParentMail dashboard includes lots of handy information and functionality to help encourage parents to register so you can start feeling the benefits of improved parental engagement. If you haven’t explored this area of your dashboard, read on to learn more!

Your Stats

The ‘Your Stats’ section of your dashboard shows a breakdown of your parent uptake with ParentMail, including how many families have a ParentMail account, how many families are using the ParentMail app and how many families are receiving email and SMS communications.

You should aim to see all green bars here – this would mean that you are highly engaged with your parents! But if not, don’t worry, there’s help available so you can identify and target unregistered parents; just click ‘Improve your Stats’ to get started!

Letters to parents

Although you may have already sent letters home to encourage parents to register with ParentMail, we all know what can happen to pupil post! It doesn’t hurt to resend these letters if you are struggling with parent uptake – remember you can also use the content of the letters to send emails if you would prefer.

You can download letter templates from the ‘Boost Registration’ section of your dashboard. Simply select the letter and click ‘Download Letter’.

Check your data

Did you know that the Rejected Records Report will list the information which has not been imported into your ParentMail account? For guidance on how to run this report, download the Rejected Records Guide.

Reports

There are three reports available to help with data maintenance and parent recruitment –

• Parents with Missing Contact Information – This report shows all parents, which child they are linked to and whether or not you have a mobile number or email address for them – this report is particularly useful if you are looking to fill gaps in contact information!
• Parent Connection Status Report – This report will show all parents and their account status. This can be used to identify a list of parents who would benefit from another registration invitation.
• Paper Copy Families – This is as simple as it sounds! The report will show all students who will receive paper copy communications rather than emails, and the reason why.

Resend Verification Messages

This is a really easy way to resend verification messages, either by email or text, to prompt your parents to register.

Remember, the ParentMail School Help Site includes step-by-step guidance on the parent registration process which you can send to your parents for extra help.

Making the most of ParentMail

These tools are available to help increase the uptake of your parents with ParentMail. When your parents are registered with ParentMail, you can truly make the most of your applications and benefit from improved parental engagement!

If you are a school looking to improve parental engagement, get in touch to learn how ParentMail can help you. To find out more or to book a free demonstration of ParentMail, simply email info@parentmail.co.uk!

Introducing Rob Brown, Operations Manager at ParentMail

A huge 90% of our customers say they are happy with their customer support experience, but we’re sure a few wonder who they are talking to when they seek the help of our agents. Introducing ParentMail’s Operations Manager, Rob Brown – a name we’re sure many of you are familiar with!

We sat down with Rob to chat about his role as Operations Manager…

How long have you been with ParentMail?

“I joined ParentMail just over 3 years ago as a telephone trainer and quickly moved into a Team Leader role, in which I was responsible for managing a project moving schools from our legacy systems on to the current ParentMail service. Today, I am Operations Manager, managing the ParentMail Support Team. I am responsible for all post-sale customer engagement; I love my role because I’m passionate about helping schools develop a strong relationship with their parent community by using ParentMail.”

Tell us a little about what you do?

“My day to day workload varies hugely, as I am not only responsible for customer support. I also work closely with our Development Team to prioritise system enhancements based on the knowledge I have gained speaking to customers; we always aim to ensure the services we deliver are consistent with what customers need. In addition, I am the company’s Data Protection Officer meaning I am the first point of contact for all things data protection. I am currently highly involved in the new GDPR scheduled for May 2018. Being a Manager at ParentMail doesn’t mean that you don’t get your hands dirty! I am very much on the front lines when it comes to our customers’ needs – building strong relationships with customers is very important to me.”

What values do you prioritise and encourage in your team?

“I train my team to seek first to understand the customers’ needs before attempting to provide a solution. It might be that there is a simple way we can provide support to what initially seems like a very complex issue. My team are also keen to seek out any opportunities to develop their own skillsets and add further value to the business.”

What do you enjoy most about your role?

“The people I work with at ParentMail are the most passionate, hard-working team I have ever had the pleasure of working with. They adapt to change without argument and thrive off of challenging situations, viewing them as a chance to learn something new and expand their comfort zone.”

Outside of work, what do you get up to?

“I have recently become a new dad and I am quickly beginning to understand the challenges (but also the joy!) of being a parent. Between ParentMail and my new family there’s not much time left for me, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I am a keen foodie fan and have in the past been known for my gaming skills (reaching number 1 in the UK on Halo some years ago!)”

Thank you, Rob, for taking the time from your busy role to chat with us!

Should you require any support, our team are waiting to help!

Live Chat can be accessed from your ParentMail account. Simply click the ‘Help’ button, located on the right-hand side of the top navigation bar, followed by ‘Live Chat’, and you are just a few moments away from talking to a friendly Support Advisor!

Should you experience any issues accessing Live Chat, please visit click here.

If you would like to know more about ParentMail, contact us today on 01733 595959 or email enquire@parentmail.co.uk.

Do your school communications reflect the changing habits of parents?

Parent habits are changing.  No longer are parents digging through school bags to discover out of date, crumpled newsletters; receiving a poor response to your school communications is a thing of the past, too!

The death of text messages

Before the era of smartphones, text messaging allowed schools to send important messages directly into the hands of parents. However, with the introduction of smarter mobile technology schools are realising there are limitations with text messaging; texts are limited by character restrictions meaning often one isn’t enough! Not to mention that texts can’t include attachments, resulting in print and paper costs.

Times are changing and ParentMail are leading the way with innovative services to improve parental engagement.

With three times as many smartphones in the world than computers, it isn’t surprising that the majority of parents use their mobile phones to receive and respond to school communications. In fact, more than 1.2 million parents use ParentMail’s app to engage with their school every day!

In place of limited and expensive text messaging, digital communications such as instant messaging, email, online payments and forms are fast becoming the method of choice for improving parental engagement for thousands of schools across the UK.

Parents are still receiving school messages directly to their phones but without the limitations. Emails can be accompanied by attachments, reducing the need for print-outs, and instant messages are not limited by the number of characters. Receiving school messages through the ParentMail app is easy and convenient for parents, allowing them to stay up to date with school messages anytime, anywhere.

“The biggest benefit to ParentMail is being able to reach, and receive responses, from busy working parents, who pick it all up on their smartphones.”
Linda Flynn from Copthill Independent School

We make things easier for parents so schools get a better response

“Because parents can complete forms and surveys on their mobile phones or tablets, it’s much easier for them to respond.”
Alison Tanner from Halterworth Primary School

Whether parents are booking parents’ evening appointments, paying for trips, choosing school dinners or reading the school newsletter, managing school life easily on their smartphones means schools can expect a better response from parents.

ParentMail make the most of modern technology, helping schools to save time and money and ensuring students benefit from improved parental engagement. To find out more or to book a free demonstration of ParentMail, simply email info@parentmail.co.uk

ParentMail ensures 100% parental engagement at Wistow CE Primary School

Emails and Texts, Parents’ Evening Manager and Online Form Collection ensure 100% parental engagement at Wistow CE Primary School!

Wistow Primary School have introduced three of ParentMail’s services into their school over the past two years, initially launching Emails and Texts, followed by Online Forms and Parents’ Evening Manager. With each new app, they have seen parental engagement improve; and they love sharing their ParentMail experience with other schools!

“Once we had experienced the benefits of texts and emails with ParentMail, we were very eager to give the online forms a go – and what a huge time saver they are!” says School Business Manager, Angela Dethridge. “I particularly like knowing that our communications have reached 100% of our parents and carers, most of whom love using the ParentMail App to respond and communicate with us. However, we appreciate there are a number of parents and carers who prefer traditional methods of communication, and ParentMail make it incredibly easy to produce paper copies of all newsletters and forms to be sent out by hand. It’s a completely socially inclusive service, allowing us to communicate with everybody!”

With Online Forms a huge success amongst school staff and parents, Parents’ Evening Manager was the next application to be introduced at the school.

“We set up a Parents’ Evening, press ‘send’, and sit back and watch the responses come in!” says Angela. “ParentMail has changed the way we work, day to day. We save so much admin time in the office. I would recommend ParentMail to any school that are looking to improve parental engagement, whether at particular times of the year, with Parents’ Evening Manager, or all year round. It’s fantastic being able to guarantee 100% engagement with all school communications!”

If you’re a school looking to improve parental engagement get in touch today! Call us on 01733 595959 or email enquire@parentmail.co.uk

Help is at hand in under 60 seconds with our Live Chat support service

The days of waiting on the phone for a customer service advisor to take your call are long gone at ParentMail. Help is at hand almost instantly with our fantastic and friendly Live Chat service!

In a recent survey of ParentMail customers, a huge 90% said they were happy with their customer support experience; of these, 34% felt their support experience had improved and 55% said support has been consistently good – that’s a thumbs up for Live Chat!

With ParentMail’s Live Chat service, schools wait no longer than sixty seconds on average for assistance. Our Customer Support team receives regular training, ensuring fantastic product knowledge and friendly service; no matter how big or small the query, they are happy to help, delivering in-depth training and on-going support for all ParentMail schools.

On the rare occasions that an issue cannot be resolved over Live Chat, the team will arrange for a call to be made within 24-48 hours. All calls are made in the order they are received, ensuring queries aren’t lost amongst others and support is provided in a timely manner.

Feedback gathered from Live Chat sessions allows us to tailor the future development of ParentMail services, ensuring they always meet your needs.

Our School Help Site is regularly updated and holds a wealth of information, including tips for getting started and helping parents, as well as information regarding our services, marketing items and details of system updates.

Live Chat can be accessed from your ParentMail account. Simply click the ‘Help’ button, located on the right hand side of the top navigation bar, followed by ‘Live Chat’, and you are just a few moments away from talking to a friendly Support Advisor!

Should you experience any issues accessing Live Chat, please visit click here.

If you would like to know more about ParentMail, contact us today on 01733 595959 or email enquire@parentmail.co.uk.

More schools are choosing to go cashless with an Online Payments system

With thousands of nurseries, primary and secondary schools now using our cashless Online Payment System to receive and process payments, experience tells us that parents are only too happy to make payments online!

Cash in schools can cause a variety of issues. Consider the time school administration invests into collecting and managing cash from students! Alongside swallowed-up time, there’s also the issue of lost money, money spent where it is not intended to be spent, hunting high and low for spare change or the cheque book on busy mornings and the potential of bullying or extortion – there must be a better solution!

There is – and ParentMail has it!

In today’s cashless world, online payment collection is the safest method for processing school payments for all involved.

In a recent survey of over 6000 parents, a huge 70% think a mobile app makes it easier to pay; 82% said they were very satisfied with ParentMail’s Online Payments service!

Safe, secure and efficient

ParentMail complies with Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards and PCI DSS Level 1. We do not store credit or debit card details, ensuring parents can pay online for school trips, dinners and more with the security of knowing their payment is safe.

Our Online Payment service includes a full reporting suite, allowing schools to see the full picture of incoming payments; whether you want to view outstanding payments, monitor payment instalments or keep up to date on payments as they are made – you can do all of this and more at the click of a button.

Parents keep up to date with payments due (reducing school debt) and they can even top up and monitor dinner money. Payments can be made instantly from a mobile, tablet or desktop, eliminating the need for cash and cheques.

Everyone is a winner with a cashless system – what are you waiting for?

If you’re a school looking to consolidate all your systems into one, or if you’d like to use a reliable Online Payments system which allows your parents to top up on a mobile app, get in touch today! Call us on 01733 595959 or email enquire@parentmail.co.uk

Internet safety – top tips for young people

The internet is a fantastic tool and one which many of us couldn’t live without – particularly younger generations!

We are no longer naïve to the threats posed by the online world. However, they are becoming increasingly sophisticated and unfortunately those who are most at risk are young people.

Although a brilliant resource for education, creativity and communications, it is increasingly important that we teach young people how to use the internet safely and responsibly.

With Safer Internet Day 2018 just around the corner, celebrated globally on Tuesday 6^th February, this is a fantastic opportunity to talk about and better understand the dangers posed by the internet, in order to learn how to help our young people stay safe online.

Here are our checklists for safer internet use!

Younger children (ages 5-13) –

• Be safe – set parental controls on any devices your child has access to (mobile, tablet, games console or computer); settings are often trickier to change once the device is in use, so remember to set these controls on any new devices before your child has access to them.
• Be open – discuss what is safe and appropriate to share online, such as photos and videos.
• Be honest – talk with your child about what they are looking at or using online, and encourage them to share their activities with you.
• Be aware – remember that social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter have minimum age limits of 13. These age restrictions exist for a reason, no matter how much pressure you receive from your child to allow them to have a profile; consider discussing social media with your school and parents.
• Be smart – approach the tricky subject of online stranger-danger openly but carefully. The intention isn’t to frighten a child into fearing the internet, but to make sure they know never to share photos/videos of themselves with people online, or to agree to meet up with them.

Teenagers (ages 13-18) –

• Be involved – stay interested in your teenager’s online activities and keep discussing it with them.
• Be responsible – communicating online and communicating face to face often feel like very different things for teenagers. Ensure they understand the repercussions of their internet activity in terms of what they say and send to others online.
• Be open – discuss what is and isn’t okay to share online and don’t be afraid of approaching tricky subjects such as cyberbullying.
• Be safe – most public places now offer open-access WiFi, and while this can be very handy when out and about, it also poses a security threat. Many public WiFi services do not include filters to block inappropriate content; keep an eye out for family friendly WiFi schemes including Mumsnet Family Friendly WiFi and RDI Friendly WiFi.
• Be firm – consider adjusting parental controls on their devices to match your teenager’s level of maturity.

For more information, visit www.saferinternet.org.uk.

How important is security in your school?

Cyber security has never been more important than in today’s digital world. Only a few weeks ago, The Telegraph reported a huge number of cyber hackers targeting UK private schools with poor online security, leaving many schools questioning, ‘How safe are we?’

For those private schools with unsecure IT systems, cyber-crime is becoming an increasingly likely occurrence. Cyber criminals are able to access the school’s IT system and launch phishing campaigns, some aimed at parents.

What is a phishing campaign?

Phishing is the practice of sending fraudulent emails with the intent of persuading the recipient into revealing personal information, such as credit card details or passwords. To the untrained eye, these communications are difficult to identify, resulting in victims being tricked into providing personal information without a second thought.

Typically, phishing attacks will impersonate a school and target parents, requesting payment details to update their system. Although many parents will reply to the email, requesting more information, they are of course only replying to the cyber-criminal who will reassure them that the email is legitimate. Therefore it is important for organisations, including private schools, to recognise the dangers of, and become more discerning on the topic of cyber-crime.

Fortunately there are a number of controls that schools can put in place to protect their organisation against phishing attacks –

• Educate your staff and parents! Tell your parents that if in doubt, they should always call your organisation directly to avoid being tricked by emails supposedly signed off from your school.
• Install a spam filter to identify any suspicious emails or viruses before they hit accounts.
• Ensure all systems are current with the latest security updates and patches.
• Implement a security policy which improves password security, expiration and complexity.
• Encrypt all sensitive organisational information.

Protecting parents from phishing attacks is vitally important for your school’s reputation. By utilising ParentMail’s communications services, parents are far more vigilant and wary of suspicious emails which appear in their email inbox purporting to be from your school. If parents understand they will only receive communications and make payments through ParentMail, they are far less likely to be tricked into providing financial and personal information in response to a phishing campaign.

ParentMail’s messaging and online payments systems are entirely safe and secure; we already have an outstanding reputation with parents! Improve your organisation’s security today – call 01733 595959 or email enquire@parentmail.co.uk and we’ll arrange for a free demonstration to be booked in.

Parents’ Evening Manager saves time for schools and parents

Parents’ Evening – it’s a stressful event for any school, big or small.

Staff at Wadhurst Primary School were all too familiar with the issues surrounding parents’ evening. Staff and teachers set aside hours to sift through paper forms, organise teacher diaries, rebook and assign appointments – time that neither admin staff or teachers could afford to give up.

Fortunately, Parents’ Evening Manager by ParentMail provides an ideal solution, making booking appointments easy for both schools and parents. Wadhurst Primary School was eager to give it a go!

With 96% of their parents already registered to ParentMail, staff were delighted to receive a fantastic response from parents. Less than a week left before Parents’ Evening, two thirds of parents had already responded!

Not only were parents responding in time, their feedback to the school was extremely positive; one father stopped by the school to express how thrilled he was at being able to book all of his appointments in less than five minutes!

With Parents’ Evening Manager, set-up is incredibly quick, easy and flexible, allowing schools to invite particular year and registration groups, the option to include a location, parent comments, subject tutors and booking windows, and the ability to set reminders.

For parents, the process is short and simple – after receiving the notification from their school, they select the teachers they wish to see and an available slot to meet with them, all from their ParentMail account.

With Parents’ Evening just around the corner, now is the time to introduce Parents’ Evening Manager!

Invest in saving time at your school and enjoy a smooth and organised Parents’ Evening this year. Email enquire@parentmail.co.uk and we’ll be in touch.

The future is now!

We are living in a world driven by technology. Our lives are operated from a mobile device permanently held in hand, and many of us have welcomed new house guests named Alexa and Siri into our homes.

The past 20 years have seen technology advance at a startling rate, driven by a population wanting more. Thanks to the internet, everything is at our finger tips; if you need to order shopping, there’s no need to leave the house; if you want to speak to a friend on the other side of the world, you can do so instantly, and for free; if you need to check your bank statement or make a transfer, simply log onto your online banking app, and you’re away!

We are all connected – and communications have never been stronger. The question is, how does your school utilise these new technologies to strengthen school/parent engagement?

Paper communications are a thing of the past. No longer do parents need to search through school bags to find out of date letters. Instead, they can receive electronic newsletters, forms and messages directly to their phones, saving schools time and money – not to mention the fantastic environmental factors!

In return, schools are receiving a better response from parents than ever before. Whether it’s returned forms, booked appointments or payments made on time for dinner money, uniform or trips, parents are more engaged in their children’s schooling than ever before, and they can do it all from our free app.

Designed with parents and schools in mind

ParentMail services are designed to make every process easy for parents to complete, ensuring a truly positive user experience. As a result, schools receive a great response from their parents, reducing the time spent fielding phone calls or responding to individual emails into school. Parents love ParentMail because it makes managing school life easier – and when parents are happy, so too are schools and students.

Our services have already improved parental engagement for 5,000 nurseries, clubs, primary and secondary schools across the country. Unlike other school communication services, our systems are designed with both schools and parents in mind. We prioritise the development of our products for the benefit of all and as a result, we are proud of our fantastic reputation.

As technologies continue to improve and evolve, so too will our services. Put your faith in ParentMail and watch parental engagement improve for the benefit of your staff and students!

If you’d like to know more about ParentMail and how we can help with any of the above, get in touch today on 01733 595959 or email enquire@parentmail.co.uk and we’ll be happy to discuss!

Kesgrave and ParentMail partner to deliver first-class parental engagement!

With over 1800 students and 99% of parents registered on ParentMail, Kesgrave High School collect on average £15,000 online each week, have sent over 700,000 emails home and had a 97% response rate to their first online form! All in all, it’s fair to say the school and ParentMail have formed a very successful partnership when it comes to parental engagement!

We spoke to the Head Teacher’s PA, Julie Garnett, who told us why ParentMail has been such a triumph…

Over 700,000 messages sent since they began using PMX!

“The majority of parents use our branded mobile app, which means messages are sent home as free in-app notifications, popping up to alert parents of important school communications. As a result, we have saved on text credits as we are no longer sending any SMS and instead send all our communications through email which arrive in one single, school branded feed rather than a busy email inbox, improving our parental engagement as a result!   

Collecting £15,000 weekly through Online Payments

“With over 70% of parents regularly topping up and paying online through ParentMail, we’re collecting on average £15,000 each week for payment items and with dinner money top ups going straight into the cashless account system with no work required from our school office, the Online Payments application from ParentMail is a huge time saver for both staff and parents.

What’s more, the weekly settlement report makes it very easy for the auditors within school to keep on top of what amount needs to go to which cost centre – of which there are hundreds. This allows us to easily track what has been paid for within each cost centre, which in a secondary school is very important to keep on top of!

85% of bookings made through Parents’ Evening Manager

“Parents Evening Manager has been fantastic; the most recent evening saw 85% of bookings made through ParentMail and with lots of positive feedback from parents. Previously, students would book their appointments with teachers, which meant they could easily avoid the meetings they didn’t want! Now invitations are sent through ParentMail, the control is with the parents and teachers are far busier on parents’ evenings than they used to be!”

97% response rate to their first online Form

“Form collection is going really well, with the first form sent through ParentMail receiving a 97% response rate! The reporting functionality within this application makes it far easier to keep on top of the administration required for trips, requiring data or gathering information about allergies, for example and has been a fantastic benefit for the school.”

We have to say, if schools were students, we’d have to give Kesgrave High School an A* for how well they’re using the ParentMail system to communicate with their parents!

If you’re a school looking for a way to simplify and streamline your communications, introduce Online Payments, Online Form Collections or more, ParentMail could be the answer. Get in touch today through email (enquire@parentmail.co.uk) or call us on 01733 595959 and we’ll be more than happy to discuss further!

Our founder leaves and takes a look back

After 16 years at ParentMail, our founder and CEO Paul Hughes will be leaving early 2018 to begin new adventures and ahead of his departure, has been looking back and reflecting on how the company has grown since day one…

As I come to the end of my time at ParentMail, I can’t help but look back at the journey from the original school gates where the idea was conceived 16 years ago.

All that time ago we wanted to help our children’s school to reach their parents a little more easily and reliably and we knew that big savings in time, postage and printing ought to be enough for them to pay us a small amount for the service while still saving lots of money… we hadn’t even called it ParentMail at that time!

As it became clearer that schools all over the UK and millions of parents could benefit, we thought perhaps a closer look at the market and potential competitors was worthwhile.  We spent days on the then ‘very young’ internet, even scouring the US to see whether someone else had thought of the idea, and couldn’t find anyone … it simply had to be a terrible idea!

But the overpowering sense of rightness prevailed and persuaded us to continue and to blaze a trail that many others would eventually follow.

16 years later and simply communicating with parents has turned into a broader parental engagement spectrum where it is now normal for parents to engage with school electronically using mobile technology. ParentMail has typically led the way with innovating in this sector, first with communications, then encompassing online payments,  booking Parents Evening, completing forms and now of course it can all be done on school branded mobile Apps.

There’s no doubt that a lot has changed, not least in terms of technology which has now become omnipresent but there have been some noticeable highs on the journey.

I’ll never forget a lady from a school in Oxford calling me one day to tell me that “ParentMail had literally changed her life, and that she didn’t know what she would do without it!” I was truly grateful that someone would take the time to tell me that and I’ve been fortunate over the years to receive a number of similar calls and emails. 

There have been some lows too, mainly that software at times simply hasn’t been good enough, and as the product suite has become larger, those problems can take longer to fix than I’d like.  But the lows have been hugely outweighed by the highs, and I hope that we’ve changed something rather important over the years, that somehow we’ve pulled schools and parents together, and that as a result we’ve helped children too, because their parents are now a little closer to what’s going on in school.

As I move on, I leave the company in great shape, with new owners and part of something even bigger, and just as exciting.  I will miss the people tremendously and the absence of ParentMail will leave a huge hole in my life, but I can’t wait to see where this wonderful business goes next and wish them all the success they deserve.

70% of parents think a mobile app makes it easier to pay!

We took to social media to ask parents their views on school Online Payments systems and the results were very interesting…

Over 6500 parents took part in our survey and we had feedback from people using almost every type of payment system, which meant we could see if some systems were more reliable and ‘liked’ by parents, than others! It seems that systems which allow parents to do everything within one account and through a mobile app came out on top – which was great news for us here at ParentMail!

Here’s a look at some of the key things parents told us:

• Of those who used an online payments system, 77% are very satisfied with it.
• For those using ParentMail for Online Payments, 82% are very satisfied.
• 70% said they thought paying on a mobile app was the easiest way.
• Only 40% of those asked were able to do everything school related from just one account.
• And yet, 80% of parents said they would prefer to be able to access it all from one.
• We were shocked to hear that 5% of people said their schools use more than 5 systems to communicate with them!

What can schools do to make improvements for their parents?

Those who told us they don’t have access to an Online Payments System, voiced concerns over security, reliability and how convenient paying online is…however, those who do use an online payments system gave an average score of 8.5 out of 10 for reliability, security, ease of use and convenience. If you’re thinking of launching a new Online Payments System within school, make sure you know how secure, reliable and easy to use it will be, so that you can reassure your parents ahead of time!

66% of parents also told us they prefer to pay by debit card, making it the most popular payment method. However, almost 50% also told us that they would like the option to pay through PayPal – when looking at new payment systems, make sure you find out in advance what payment options are available so that you can give parents what they want!

The results of this survey have been extremely useful and we’ll be using these stats in our future marketing materials and to help schools who are thinking about using ParentMail for Online Payments to understand their potential parent concerns and wants! Thank you to all who took part!

If you’re a school looking to consolidate all your systems into one, or if you’d like to use a reliable Online Payments system which allows your parents to top up on a mobile app, get in touch today and we’ll be more than happy to help! Call us on 01733 595959 or email enquire@parentmail.co.uk

Activate Learning save thousands of pounds monthly with ParentMail

With all communications coming from a single department supporting five different campuses, previously all communications from Activate Learning were sent out via paper and postage. With over 5,000 students across all campuses, this was not only a time consuming task but also incredibly expensive for the business!

Group Administration Manager, David Chatterley, told us, “In the last two months we’ve sent over 9,500 messages through ParentMail, which would previously have gone home as printed letters, posted home. We have the ability to ‘frank’ our own post which helped cut the costs a bit, but for each second class stamp we would pay 35p, for envelopes we’d pay roughly 3.5p each and let’s say 5p for paper and printing costs. As a rough estimation, for all the messages we’ve sent in just the last 2 months, this would total over £4000.”

As well as substantial cost savings, ParentMail has also allowed Activate Learning to save hours of time each week, previously spent printing, collating, stuffing into envelopes, franking and sending home – now it’s all done online and takes a fraction of the time it once did!

Activate Learning is a pioneering education group. Based in Oxford, with a global reach, the group comprises of secondary, further and higher education, apprenticeship and business training.

ParentMail is recognised by nurseries, schools and clubs for helping improve parental engagement from early years right up till sixth form – but also works with colleges and multi academy groups. Activate Learning is a fantastic example of how larger organisations can improve communications but also save thousands of pounds monthly and hours upon hours of administration time!

With roughly 70% of learners under 18, Activate Learning send a variety of messages home, such as information about work experience placements or online courses, subject specific project work, updates on trips, attendance and behaviour updates, meetings updates etc. Managing communications for both college and school divisions means they are reaching both the parents of students and sometimes the student directly.

David told us, “We’ve noticed a real difference in how responsive parents and learners are to the messages we send home now we’re sending them via ParentMail – a good example of this is our recent parent – teacher meetings. Previously, we would send letters home and request calls in and manually input meeting times into a spreadsheet. This year, we sent a message via ParentMail and received calls within minutes – so soon in fact that we hadn’t even begun to set up our spreadsheets yet; it was almost too efficient!”

Now the College group are looking forward to using the Parents’ Evening Manager application within ParentMail to allow the administration to look after itself, freeing up even more time for the team!

David said, “Almost overnight ParentMail has made a considerable difference to how things are done here – not only with the obvious time and cost savings we have made but with the engagement with parents and learners. We’ve been able to improve our communication simply because of how easy it is to do now!”

“With so many students, moving from paper based to digital communications was a risk, but the ParentMail team have worked with us since day one in order to ensure a smooth transition and we’ve had nothing but fantastic feedback from all our campus sites. I would highly recommend other colleges/ college groups to consider a system like this – I’m sure they’ll thank me later!”  

If you’re a college, part of a college group or a secondary school looking for a way to simplify and streamline your communications, ParentMail could be the answer. Get in touch today through email (enquire@parentmail.co.uk) or call us on 01733 595959 and we’ll be more than happy to discuss further!

Top Tips for going Cashless!

For parents, it’s nearly always a hassle trying to find cash or the cheque book to pay for school items; it’s also time consuming for office staff to collect, count, audit, keep secure and physically bank money.

With school lunches, trips, uniforms and everyday school items, many schools collect thousands of pounds each term, which is why more and more schools are going cashless to make life easier for all involved.

With a socially inclusive online payment system like ParentMail, parents can pay in a way that suits them which increases take up – for example, the option to pay on their mobile App, through their computer or paying through PayPal, which allows parents to pay securely and conveniently simply by entering a password. For others who may not have access to a smartphone or computer, PayPoint allows parents to make payments offline, taking the barcode to their nearest PayPoint retailer to make the payment with cash.

Ready to go cashless? Here are our Top Tips…

• Involve parents early on

The sooner you let parents know you’re going cashless, the better! Send them a letter and make sure you highlight the benefits for them. For those who are concerned about going digital, make sure they know you’re there to support them – once parents are set up and registered, they’ll be topping up and making payments in minutes with ease! Don’t just take our word for it; see feedback from parents about paying on a mobile app here.

• One system for messages AND payments

The more systems you use, the more confused parents will be, so if you’re thinking of going cashless, think about what other applications you may want in place, such as communications, online forms or a parents’ evening booking system – once you know, you’ll be able to find one system that meets all your requirements which makes life much easier for your parents and in turn, your school.

• Launch your school shop

There are no limits to what you can sell through ParentMail, so start thinking about whether you want to sell tickets to school performances, stationery, text books, donations, fees, computer equipment and much more! With built-in functionality to monitor stock, fulfil orders and keep on top of reconciliation, it couldn’t be easier!

• Remember why you’re doing this!

As well as making it easier for your parents to pay for school items, you should also notice time savings for your office staff, so if you find you still have parents coming in to pay through the school office, make sure you tell them how much easier it can be for them and for you by paying online!

It’s no surprise that more and more school are switching to ParentMail when it comes to improving parental engagement and going cashless, with a reliable system that schools and parents can trust. Would you like to know about our Online Payments application? Get in touch today by calling 01733 595959 or email enquire@parentmail.co.uk and we’ll get a free demonstration booked in!

Dinner money top up revolutionised at Leicester Grammar School Trust!

With over 1200 students ranging from the ages 3 to 18, Leicester Grammar School Trust now manages all parent communications from one single system; sending messages, collecting payments, consent forms and surveys online, as well as recording student absences and all far easier than ever before.

Since August 2017, ParentMail has helped the school professionalise its communications and as a result they have noticed an increase in responses and attendance at events, with messages being delivered directly into the hands of parents.

The way in which dinner money is topped up however has been the main benefit for staff and parents at the Leicester Grammar School Trust. The school use Cunningham’s as their Cashless Till Provider and before they used ParentMail the only way for parents to know their balance was running low or empty, was by their children telling them, or calling the Finance Department.

Head of Marketing & Admissions, Natalie Hunt told us, “Having to rely on students to remind parents when their balance was low was a flawed system as they often forgot to do it and would consequently continually go overdrawn. It was also frustrating for parents as they had no easy way of keeping on top of what they owed (or what their children were purchasing) and would only hear about it once the Finance Department had chased them or their children remembered to ask them to top up their account. Now, they receive a notification on their mobile with a reminder that the balance is running low and can top up there and then.”

“What’s more, even if parents forget to top up, they can do it instantly on the App and it’s ready for lunchtime – no more children being nagged to top up their accounts, and no more frustrated parents! I think a large majority of our parents would say this has been the biggest benefit for them!”

Sending everything through ParentMail has proven to greatly improve how engaged parents are with school communications. Natalie said, “We previously used a messaging only system which was very easy for parents to ignore and didn’t seem to add any real improvement in comparison to paper communications. A large majority of our parents simply didn’t pay attention to it. Now, they have one account where they can view messages, receive information about events, top up dinner money or pay for school items or complete consent forms, parents are completely invested and parental engagement has flourished as a result.”

School absence reporting has also improved thanks to the absence reporting tool available to parents. Previously, the school struggled to get parents to contact them to let them know of absences and this often resulted in attendance officers having to chase parents. Now, parents can record this in seconds on the app and as a result the school has dropped the time spent chasing absences by 50%!

With a combination of one account for all school communications, a mobile app to keep on top of it all and a massive improvement in the way they can now reach parents, the Trust is incredibly pleased with how well ParentMail has been adopted into school life and would recommend it to any other school or trust looking to reach parents with ease (and keep on top of dinner money payments!)

Would you like to know more about ParentMail and how it could help your school improve parental engagement or go completely cashless? Simply call us on 01733 595959 or email enquire@parentmail.co.uk

George Stephenson High School gets creative!

With 1298 students, George Stephenson High School has been using ParentMail to communicate with parents since 2012, but recently came up with a creative way to get all their parents registered and paying online!

The school set up a competition where all parents who registered by the end of September 2017 would be entered into a prize draw to win £100 school uniform vouchers.  Senior Administrator Lisa Marley told us, “The idea came from our Business Manager and so we thought we’d give it a go to see if it could help improve our parent uptake. We were surprised by just how many parents of the older students got involved (I suppose the element of competition helped!) and just how many parents were keen to win some uniform vouchers! As a result we now have over 90% of our parents registered on ParentMail.”

Now also using Online Payments to collect payments for school trips, revision guides etc. the admin team within the school office have noticed considerable benefits, as previously collecting payments by cash and cheque for 1298 students was an extremely time consuming task. With almost all of their parents now using the system, it’s made managing payments easier than ever.

It’s also allowed the school to keep better track of who has paid for what and when – Lisa told us, “Previously we would have students turn up for trips, who would tell us they had already paid but we had no record of it, so keeping track of this when the payment was manual was quite difficult! Now it’s all recorded on ParentMail we can very easily see who has paid simply by looking at the account!” 

One thing the school has noticed over the years is the improvements made to the ParentMail technology and the support available from the ParentMail Team. Lisa told us, “With so many students you might expect a few teething problems, but we have really noticed the improvements the ParentMail team have made both to the registration process for parents and to the functionality available for us school side – it’s great when you give feedback and then see that you’re being listened to! The system is clearly designed with schools and parents in mind!”

“I also have to say that the Support Team at ParentMail are fantastic – when I first took on the role of looking after ParentMail I would use Live Chat quite regularly and the team have always been so helpful and responsive. It really helped me feel comfortable using the system knowing I had the team there if I needed them for anything!”

Now communicating with their parents regularly and collecting online payments with ease, George Stephenson High School would highly recommend ParentMail to any Secondary School looking to simplify how they engage with parents – and they’re even happy to share their secret for driving parent registration!

Want to know more about ParentMail and how it could work for your school? Get in touch today on 01733 595959 or email us at enquire@parentmail.co.uk

Ditch the paper and feel greater!

On Thursday 9^th November, organisations across the UK are being encouraged to support World Paper Free Day. For schools, this could mean holding a paper free day, week, month, or even cutting paper usage completely!

Despite the continual rise of digital technology, billions of trees are still cut down each year to supply paper and amongst the culprits using a large proportion of this are schools. Previous research has shown that on average, a primary school will use around 100,000 sheets of paper each year, whilst the average secondary school gets through 300,000 sheets in a year! As budget cuts continue to affect schools, cutting paper, whether that’s just for communicating with parents or reducing its use completely in school, seems like a quick and easy way to cut back on costs.

Most of the paper being used often won’t make it home, or will end up filed or thrown away, often without being recycled. This means that as well as failing to make savings, some schools are also failing to lead by example when it comes to teaching students about ‘going green’ and the importance of sustainability.

It’s hard to believe that in 2017, so many of us are still so reliant on paper, especially when it comes to communication. It is slow, inefficient and terrible for the environment. There are much better options available, with more and more technology dedicated to reducing use of paper.

This is particularly pertinent for schools, as online home-school communication systems can provide numerous benefits including reducing paper and printing costs, increasing staff resource and improving efficiency.

Save the paper and go digital

It’s likely that you’re already using digital communications as the primary method of contact between school and home. In-app notifications can be used to notify parents instantly of a new message, newsletter, emergency updates or last minute reminders – without the cost that comes with SMS. Unlike paper-based communication, digital systems allow schools to see whether messages have been received and opened and give a much faster response rate, as parents are able to react immediately rather than having to rely on students bringing letters home.

Going completely paperless

Now, schools are looking beyond basic communications and beginning to realise the benefits of sending permission forms, parent surveys, parents’ evening invitations etc. digitally, meaning paper communications will soon become extinct when it comes to parental engagement. For parents, this means they can expect to receive anything school related in an online account or better yet, through their mobile app.

Indeed, going digital has numerous financial and ethical benefits for schools, and World Paper Free Day should be the perfect excuse to reassess your requirements and reap the rewards that digital systems provide.

Will you be celebrating World Paper Free Day this November? Let us know how and share your tips for going paperless in the comments section below! Want to know more about how ParentMail can help your school could go completely paperless? Simply email us at enquire@parentmail.co.uk or call 01733 595959.

Switch to ParentMail and reap the benefits, says John Hanson School!

From a dinner money and restricted trip money collection system to improving parental engagement; John Hanson switched to ParentMail in 2016 and has never looked back!

Previously using a very restricted system which only allowed them to record dinner money payments, John Hanson Community School have been using ParentMail for over a year and now have over 96% of parents receiving messages, topping up dinner money, paying for school trips, completing forms, booking parents evenings and recording absences all from one account!

We spoke to Finance Officer, Natalie Bush, to find out if the move to ParentMail has been a good one…

“Having just one account which parents can do everything from is so invaluable and is exactly why I would recommend ParentMail to other schools.

“With our previous payments system, the main issue we had was that parents had a separate account for each child, which in a secondary school setting isn’t ideal as we have quite a few parents with multiple children and therefore doing something simple like topping up dinner money was actually quite complex and time consuming.

 With ParentMail, parents can top up their dinner accounts and pay for trips for all their children in one quick transaction and that has been a huge benefit which we’ve received lots of positive feedback on!

“ParentMail is a lot more flexible than other systems we’ve used and if there is something we can’t do, we feed it back and they actually listen! A good example is a request I made to change some of the reporting functionality within Online Payments. I fed this back to the ParentMail Team and the updates (plus more!) were made – the reports now give me exactly the information I need and are fantastically easy to keep on top of. We’re so pleased and grateful that they actually listen and create a system that’s easy for us and parents to use!

“Another fantastic benefit of the Online Payments application is that you can cater for all parents – so some can pay upfront, others can choose to pay in instalments, some can pay in advance, others can wait for reminders to pay the day before it’s due. I can’t stress enough that the flexibility of the system is so valuable for us!

“As well as Online Payments, which we’re clearly very happy with, we’re also using ParentMail for Forms, organising Parents’ Evenings and sending general communications. So as well as parents receiving all this information in one account, we’re able to send it from one system, which means everything is linked! For a trip, for example, we can send a message to let parents know about it, we may then send a form to see who would like to attend and can then then ask them to pay through Online Payments! Easy, flexible and straightforward for everyone involved.

“With regard to Parents Evenings’, ParentMail has offered us huge benefits allowing parents to schedule appointments and leave notes for teachers  – each teacher now knows exactly who will be arriving to see them and can be fully prepared with data, books and folders leading to a constructive conversation, thus supporting student progress.”

“With 96% coverage of our parents, our communication home has been transformed. Parents are getting all the information we send through our personalised JHCS mobile app and are therefore able to support their child’s education more effectively.”

“We’re very happy with every aspect of ParentMail and the fact that parents can access it all through a mobile app is just an added bonus. I would, and regularly do, recommend ParentMail to any school I speak with – it’s the way forward to become a cashless school, whilst also increasing  parental engagement and supporting student progress.”

Are you looking to consolidate your systems and switch to one system which lets you do it all? Get in touch today and we’ll arrange your free demonstration! Simply email enquire@parentmail.co.uk or call us on 01733 595959.

Paperless parents’ evening booked in less than 24 hours for Whiteabbey

Within 48 hours of launching ParentMail in Whiteabbey Primary School, 80% of parents were able to receive messages, make payments, complete forms and book parents evening appointments online!

Now with 97% of parents registered, the school sends almost all of their communications digitally, bringing with it considerable time and cost savings!

Principal Keith Wysner used ParentMail at his former primary school in Northern Ireland and felt it was perfect in a small school setting. When he moved to Whiteabbey Primary, he was keen to bring ParentMail with him knowing it would be as beneficial, if not more so, in a larger primary school setting.

Now at Whiteabbey, with just over 400 students, he was amazed to see that 174 parents booked their parents’ evening appointments within the first hour!

Keith told us, “We sent out the invitations at 8.30pm on a Tuesday evening and by the following afternoon 88% of our students had a parents’ evening appointment, of their choosing, confirmed!”

Previously the school sent paper letters to tell parents what time their allocated appointments would be – now with Parents’ Evening Manager they can put control in parents’ hands and allow them to book the appointments at the times they want. The majority of parents use the mobile app to book their appointments which means they receive a notification and can book their appointments instantly.

Feedback from parents has been fantastic, with some taking to the school Facebook page to say “Just booked the appointments for parent teacher interviews on ParentMail. So easy and convenient!” and “I had written in my diary re: the upcoming appointments, then my ParentMail pinged about it – I was straight in there.”

The school had previously looked at other parents’ evening booking and online payments systems, but felt that nothing worked as efficiently as having it all under one roof – and with a mobile app for parents!

Keith said “The admin and teaching teams here in Whiteabbey have really embraced using technology to improve our parental engagement and ParentMail has been a real success as a result. Parents’ Evening Manager in particular is one of the most efficient digital tools I’ve used for managing Parent Teacher Meetings and I would recommend the system to other schools to use as it offers choice whilst reducing admin time and costs.”

Want to know more about our Parents Evening Manager application and how it could simplify processes in our school? Get in touch today on 01733 595959 or email enquire@parentmail.co.uk

A highly successful start to the year for the ParentMail Team

September is a notoriously busy month here at ParentMail and of course for those working in the education sector too, as schools welcome their new intake and settle back into school life after the summer holidays!

This year has seen our most successful start to a new school term, with the highest ever number of parents downloading our mobile app and a new record of parent pay