Start as you mean to go on this September

That’s it – another summer gone and a new year before us. For both staff and students, the start of a new school year presents a great opportunity to break old habits and set the tone for the road ahead. 

With September upon us, now is the time to consider the changes your school can make to reduce pressure in the office, save time in the classroom and support staff and students to achieve great things this year – and we’re on hand to help.

Parent communications

Over recent years, we’ve seen thousands of schools dispose of traditional paper letters in favour of online methods and enjoy huge improvements in parent engagement, as well as fantastic time and cost savings.

For gathering parent permissions, health data and contact details at the start of the year, our Online Forms solution is a great way of saving time and managing information securely. Setting up forms with our online platform is quick, easy and flexible. Alternatively, simply choose a template from our existing database or reuse an old form (super handy for those recurring events or trips). 

Before the wonders of online communications, newsletters, forms and invitations were beyond your control the second they left the school gates. With ParentMail, the ability to monitor message performance, report on data and manage parent responses is all at your fingertips, empowering your communications to do far more for your school.

“This academic year alone, after staff time, paper and print, we’ve saved over £9,000. Before ParentMail we relied on photocopying and paper for our parent communications which was very expensive and inefficient. Schools can’t rely on children to pass along school newsletters and forms, and we can’t always rely on busy mums and dads to respond. ParentMail has made a huge difference to our parental engagement.” –  Langstone Junior School

ParentMail syncs with SIMS and other MIS, making it easy to send communications to particular year groups, classes and individuals. With our free mobile app, parents receive communications instantly, ensuring you receive a great response when it matters most.

Parents’ evening

It’s just around the corner! For many parents, this will be their first time visiting your school, so it’s important that the evening goes off without a hitch.

For schools relying on paper appointment slips, clunky spreadsheets and pupil post, parents’ evening presents a whole host of potential problems; side-stepped appointments, unresponsive parents, tricky timetables etc… This year, get ahead of the game with an online solution designed to streamline one of the busiest evenings in the school calendar. 

Every year, Parents’ Evening Manager supports thousands of schools to plan millions of stress-free parents’ meetings. Utilise the flexible scheduling assistant to set up the evening, preset appointment durations and amend slots with ease. Once your evening is arranged, send invitations directly into parents’ hands to ensure a great response. 

Managing bookings is easy for your team. In the run-up to the evening, keep track of appointments and manage timetables to support teachers with the information they need to plan for meetings. For parents yet to respond, arrange handy reminders or book telephone appointments if needed.

“When you add up all the hours we’d usually spend arranging timetables and managing parent responses, we’ve easily saved a day’s work planning parents’ evening. Previously, we planned the event with paper appointment slips. As and when slips were returned to the office, we’d have to set aside hours to manage appointments. With ParentMail, the whole process is paperless.” – St Ambrose Barlow Catholic Primary School

Wraparound care

For today’s busy parent, wraparound care offers a safe, reliable and affordable space for their children. As such, a rising number of schools are running breakfast clubs to provide a healthy start to the day, as well as a variety of after-school activities and clubs for students to complete homework, play sports and pursue new interests and hobbies.

This year, don’t stress over parent bookings and payments. Our online payments platform, +Pay, makes paying easy for parents and eradicates any cash-related concerns. Our recent upgrade introduces new Advance Bookings to the system, allowing parents to book club spaces, choose dinner selections and make payments all at the same time, helping your school to reduce parent debt, manage suppliers and reduce waste. 

“We can already see how ParentMail will support us over the next year. Almost all the parents are paying for school dinners with +Pay. 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.” – Casterton College 

Cashless parent payments

As dinner money debt continues to cause issues for thousands of schools, staff are left searching for a solution which not only protects the school budget but supports parents, too. 

With +Pay, parents can pay for school trips, uniform, events and dinner money in moments. Handy low balance reminders let parents know when dinner money needs topping up, enabling them to pay at a moments notice. +Pay offers a variety of payment options including debit and credit card, PayPal and PayPoint.

For different payment items, schools can assign multiple bank accounts, saving administration time and keeping finances in check. With over 99% scheduled uptime in 2018, thousands of schools are making the move to +Pay from the market leader in search of reliable and seamless service. For cashless payments that impress parents and improve payments, choose +Pay this year. 

“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.” Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School 

What are your priorities for the year ahead? Whatever they may be, we have a whole range of online solutions designed to streamline processes, strengthen parental engagement and save money. Get in touch to find out how we can support your team with top-notch tech today.