Social inclusivity at the heart of technology!
In this mornings’ news, it was revealed that 85% of all adults now have a smartphone and in today’s environment it is easy to lose sight of those people who can’t afford or don’t want to utilise technology in their lives.
It’s especially relevant given the financial pressures on the Education system, where Schools and Academies are quite rightly looking to be careful with every penny, and systems like ParentMail provide significant savings in paper, postage, printing and time.
16 years ago when ParentMail was created, almost half of parents didn’t have email and therefore the ability to automatically produce printed correspondence was built into the service from the outset. That same functionality still exists but feedback from sections of the parent community suggests that some schools no longer think to print out paper copies routinely as they once did.
It seems especially relevant therefore to raise social inclusivity back to the top of the agenda, as every parent should be aware of what’s going on and have the opportunity to have a good relationship with their school; at ParentMail this has always been really important to us. Though we can’t guarantee this information won’t get left behind in book bags, we can ensure that those parents who aren’t online are being sent the same information as other parents.
The same can be said for our Online Payments application, where we offer a range of payment options and pride ourselves on being totally socially inclusive. Though Card and PayPal may be the most popular choice amongst parents, we also offer PayPoint for those parents who may feel anxious about paying online and prefer to go to their local shop and pay with cash.
For Brookside Primary, having this option was very important when choosing a payments system, with School Business Manager Julie Brennan telling us, “PayPoint has been really popular with those parents who don’t like to pay for things online, as it means they can take their barcode into their local shop and pay in a way that’s easiest for them” making the transition from cash and cheques to “digital payments” far smoother for those parents who weren’t ready to embrace paying online.
Though we’re seeing more and more schools switch to ParentMail because they recognise we are the leaders in innovative technology, we still remain as socially inclusive today as we were back in 2001 and our aim to improve parental engagement for all parents in the UK is still as important as it has ever been. Get in touch with us today if you’d like to know more. Leave a comment below or call us on 01733 595959.