One of the goals for K–12 schools is to engage their communities in ways that will improve student outcomes. When parents (and communities) engage with local education, studies show that students progress far better than those who don’t.
When teachers and administrators keep parents updated on activities at school, parents will discuss those activities and reinforce the learning that is taking place there, creating a positive learning environment where students thrive. Something every school hopes to facilitate in partnership with parents.
So, how can your school encourage such parent engagement?
Engage parents with a parent teacher communication app
Using an app allows your staff direct line access to parents and families in the most convenient way possible: their phones. In fact, it is estimated that about 95% of the U.S. population has a cell phone.
An app, sometimes called a parent engagement app, will allow both one-way and two-way communication between your school and parents. Your messages are personalized by parents so that they receive what they are most interested in and what is relevant to their child’s needs.
Because this communication is on parents’ phones, they will seldom ignore it or put it out of reach, so your chances of their reading it are greatly improved. So much more effective than a newsletter sent home in the bottom of a backpack! The trick will be getting the parents to download your app, but when they do, communications become much easier!
But, don’t ditch the website
Unfortunately, an app won’t replace all other forms of communication. You still need a mobile-friendly school website to provide a place for parents to go and get relevant information, enroll their kids, and get archived news and events in just a few clicks.
The up-to-date school website is always available as an information resource. It is vital for marketing your school and increasing enrollment (since only existing parents will have access to the app).
Your school website is called “pull communications,” as it pulls site visitors in when they are looking for specific information.
Parent teacher communication apps are “push communications” that send out timely, target-specific information on an as-needed basis, much like the app on your phone for reminders for meetings you don’t want to miss.
Both the school website and the parent communication app serve vital services to parents and staff. Both services will help you delight your stakeholders, whether helping teachers communicate with their students or keeping parents informed about what is going on in their child’s school day to help them engage in their education.
Parent teacher communication apps that make life easier
Like those personal reminders, a well-designed app will let parents customize the notifications they get from the school, making their lives easier.
If they only have high school students, they want to avoid being notified of an elementary school event. So, schools can let parents customize the app to their individual wishes. For example, if they have a student on the wrestling team, they may not want to see the basketball schedule and can customize the reminders for that.
Download our FREE eBook: How to Create Sensational School Customer Service.
Anything you do to streamline and simplify your staff’s and your parents’ lives is a win-win. They’ll appreciate your effort. A parent teacher communication app can help you accomplish that.
In conjunction with your website, you’ll have a winning communication strategy.
Building trust
Want to instill trust in parents? One way is to keep them informed! A communication app can do just that. Here’s how your improved communication strategies will benefit each of your stakeholders:
Parents
- Receiving emergency text alerts and other important updates right to their phones
- Subscribing to the events, calendars, parent groups, or athletic teams they are interested in to help them stay in the loop
- Letting parents find and communicate with teachers right from their app
- Automatic integration of their customized app to their phone’s language and settings
- Parent tools can include calendars, contacts, event alerts, and newsfeeds.
Students
- Getting assignment reminders about upcoming due dates (no more excuses about forgetting)
- Using their school digital ID for most school library and cafeteria systems
- Receiving daily alerts about class schedule variations (helping them be where they should be)
- Student tools can include video messages, daily messages, language translations, and video highlights.
But an effective communications app doesn’t just make life easier for parents and students. It also benefits administrators and teachers. Here’s how:
Administrators
- Saving time with immediate access to centralized school communications
- Providing accessibility to everyone with confidence in delivery
- Having a record (for oversight and control) of all conversations
- Pushing news stories right to the school website from the convenience of the app
- Admin tools can include social media management, quick links, custom forms, and conversations.
Teachers
- Staying organized and transparent by getting necessary forms and documents directly to parents and families (to be completed and submitted digitally)
- Combining all texting apps and methods into a centralized and secure location for teachers and coaches to communicate with students and parents
- Providing secured access targeting messages for only intended recipients to improve communication and boost the morale of all your stakeholders
How parent teacher communication apps help in school communication
You’ll build trust and confidence by providing your staff with the tools to engage their students and families. You’ll immediately improve school communication and boost staff morale by giving administrators the tools to engage teachers and staff.
Here are some of the features you’ll look for in an excellent parent teacher communication app:
- Share important news, announcements, and more to a central newsfeed and via push notification alerts.
- Subscribe and view calendars for general events, athletic teams, parent groups, student clubs, and more.
- Connect with administrators, teachers, and staff by phone, email, class websites, and approved social media.
- Give access to an interactive map to easily access all event locations’ turn-by-turn directions.
- Use custom forms, complete with digital signature collection (can be used to conduct surveys, collect permission slips, report absences, and more).
- Give access to important documents such as student handbooks, policies, guidelines, campus safety plans, and more for easy viewing, printing, and sharing.
- Showcase school events and moments through an interactive photo gallery and online videos.
- View vital resources available online through your Student Information System (SIS), online grade book, parent portal, cafeteria menus, athletic sites, library resources, and more from within the app.
- Customize the look, layout, and feel, highlighting your school’s colors, logos, and featured photos.
- Choose the language you’d like displayed for your messages and information.
- Make back-to-school shopping a breeze by providing busy parents with supply lists (and purchasing through Amazon with one click, checking off items as they get them).
- Call or email the school or district office and quickly access the official website and social media pages.
- Screen students before they come to school for symptoms and exposure with a Wellness Screener.
- Accommodate people with a wide range of special needs, including those with physical motor limitations, limited vision, blindness, and more.
Quick and effective parent communication
Of course, we would only list some of these amazing features if we could provide you with them! So, we hope you’ll contact School Webmasters today to get the details.
Your branded mobile app will provide all these features (and more). Your school app will also offer the following benefits:
- ADA compliance. Compatible with iOS and Android accessibility and the special needs of those with disabilities, your app will be compliant.
- Personalization. Some personalization options include choosing how and how often notifications are received, translating information into preferred languages, changing display options, and selecting which notifications are viewed by whom.
- School branding. We will design your app to match your school logo or mascot and colors. You will increase your school’s brand awareness by showing off your up to date tools and technology.
Improved school communication = student progress
There is often a gap when it comes to parent teacher communication. It is nearly impossible for teachers to contact every student’s parents to tell them how their child is doing in school consistently.
It is equally tricky for active or working parents to coordinate with busy teachers to discuss strategies to help their child succeed. But technology in the form of a parent teacher communication app can coordinate these efforts.
A branded mobile app can involve parents in ways they previously could not engage. From attendance notifications to event reminders, parents and teachers are working toward the same goal: the student’s educational progress.
When those invested in the goal of consistent parent teacher communication are on the same page, success is close at hand.
The successful use of a well-designed school communications app can transform a student’s learning environment. Improved parent teacher communication helps students see improved educational results.
Improving a parent’s involvement level also alleviates some of the stress they might feel about their engagement with their child’s progress. This will also enhance parent-student engagement in the learning progress and student outcomes.
All communication information in one place
Yes, now a branded mobile app can easily be part of your digital communication plan. With School Webmasters, you can communicate through all channels easily, securely, and efficiently.
Contact us to get all your digital communication tools, including your branded mobile app, mass notifications that include voice, email, and SMS (text) messaging, social media management, and your school or district website and CMS, connected under one integrated platform to make management easier than ever before.
Discover how we can streamline communication for you at www.SchoolWebmasters.com or give us a call at 888-750-4556 and speak to Jim.