-
- Parent engagement
- Platform overview
- Parent communication
- School payments
- Parents evening
-
- Who we help
- Primary schools
- Secondary schools
- Independent schools
-
- Resources
- Customer stories
- Guides & webinars
My School Portal
What's the best parent communication software?
Getting the right parent communication software is vital to ensure you can engage with parents confidently whilst reducing the workload for teachers and admin staff.
Your school's requirements and community of parents are unique. To give you a better understanding of your needs we have compiled a list of the best parent communication software features.
We have also compared the best products on the market to help you choose the right parent communication software for your establishment.
If you would like more help choosing the right software for your school, please get in touch.
What do parents expect from your school’s communications?
When choosing the best communication system for your school, it can be helpful to identify exactly what you need it to do, and what parents want from their communications with you.
When reviewing the best communication systems for schools, ensure they cover some of the following bases:
Convenience
While existing methods of parent teacher communication, such as paper forms and notes in school diaries are outdated and prone to being lost – there’s no denying that they’re convenient. When implementing any new parent communication software, parents must not see it as a barrier to communication, so must be educated on the benefits of such a tool and shown that platforms can make life easier for them.
When implementing new parent communication software, it must be easy to use and parents see it as a tool which is designed to help them. Parent communication software can automate manual tasks, improve accessibility, and increase visibility of parent notifications are all benefits of such a platform.
Security
Despite the high risk of losing forms on school busses and lack of confidentiality parents evening offers, moving anything online can rouse suspicions from all parties. Therefore it’s vital that schools invest in secure platforms and ensure that the relevant training has been carried out by school staff and parents alike to keep systems compliant.
While very unlikely to happen if correct security protocols are in place, online platforms can be susceptible to data breaches, so it’s important to make sure all users access the system via a secure password which is different to the one they use for logging into their email account. Single sign-on across all school platforms can help with this so users have to remember fewer passwords.
Parent engagement software is often integrated with cashless catering and payments systems so its of paramount importance that these payment platforms are secure.
Needless to say, online platforms are objectively more secure than non-digital methods of communication, but if you have any concerns ask your provider about security.
Flexibility
New software adopted within a school or any organisation must be seen to be adding more value than existing systems. Handwritten notes and school planner entries are convenient, but in this modern age its more natural to pick up a phone and exchange WhatsApp messages than search for a pen and paper.
To facilitate flexible communication, parent engagement platforms should be available on a range of devices including smartphones, tablets and desktop computers. They should provide up to date information on their child’s progress, timetable, events and any online forms – making the old school planner quickly out of date and redundant.
With these in mind, you can start researching software providers that offer a range of features to meet these requirements.
What are the best school communication software features?
As well as engaging parents effectively, your parent communication software should help to reduce administrative tasks, be easy to use, and provide everything you need all in one secure platform. Take a look at the best features to look out for in parent communication software.
Email and messaging tools
When it comes to messaging parents, your communication software should provide an intelligent, decluttered and focused inbox exclusively featuring all school communications.
Intuitive, it should give parents access to all the information they need whenever they need it.
Look out for individual student labelling and quick inbox searches to filter by date or term, or even per student for a multi-child household.
A platform with star ratings ensures important messages are flagged and parents don’t miss form, requests of dates.
Single sign-on
Most importantly your parent communication software needs to be secure and easy for both staff and parents to use. One username, one password, one portal.
Invest in a platform that meets all your needs including forms, payments, notifications, clubs, calendars, online booking, clubs, requests and more.
Single sign-on ensures parents don’t get confused and have one place to keep on top of their child’s journey through your school.
Customisable forms
Every school is unique therefore your parent communication software should give you the ability to create interactive, customisable mobile compatible forms to streamline any area of your school admin.
Parents and guardians need to be able to complete and submit forms from anywhere and across all mobile devices. Look out for platforms that give the option to add supporting documentation and comments. This means everything about each individual child is securely stored in one place and is easy to refer back to at any time.
The platform also needs to give you the ability to choose who is notified when a form is filled in, ensuring administrators, teachers, headteachers and others are kept informed as and when they need to.
Online booking functionality
Parents need to be able to keep track of, and register their child for, clubs, trips and events. A school communication system that ensures all permission forms, payments and timetable are stored in one place makes it easy for parents and staff to keep track of who is signed up for what.
Consider software that will allow you to set up clubs, waiting lists and timetables of all the activities happening in your school. It’s a lot to keep on top of, so your parent communication software should remove all the stress and make organising easier.
Online school payments
Online payments for school dinners, after school clubs and school trips can all be handled by parent engagement software. For parents, they can make secure payments quickly and see that their money has gone to the right place. Sending children to school with cash or debit cards can be a cause for bullying so reduce the risk by organising everything online. For teachers there is less manual admin and chasing of parents for money, it’s also easier for schools to manage cash flow when they have all the payment information to hand.
Access online payments software for schools is an integrated platform that does all of the above.
Parents evening planning tools
Whether in person or virtual, a good parent communication tool should help to simplify the planning of school parents evenings, and enable teachers to deliver an efficient update on each student.
From arranging time slots to managing the actual event, everything should be seamless and integrated so teachers only need to be available at the time. Your parent communication tool should also provide teachers with an easy, detailed view of each student - from absences to results.
Microsoft Teams and Google Assignments integration
Many parents and guardians want access to their children’s homework and assignments. Therefore, choosing a parent communication software that dynamically integrates with Teams and Google Assignments – and provides a top level overview of all assignments in a single dashboard - can be a good option. As digital transformation moves schools towards a full Microsoft 365 or Google Classroom setting, this integration future-proofs your digital strategy.
Strengthen parent relationships with the all-in-one parent engagement software
How to choose the best communications software for your school
With everything we’ve discussed in mind, it’s important to consider how you will identify and research suitable providers and take the important step towards switching to a new parent communication software. Here is a handy checklist to get you started:
1. Audit your current processes and tools and identify how better communication software can help
How many forms are being lost on the school bus or left at the bottom of school bags? How much time is being spent by school staff chasing for consent forms or payments for school trips? Examine the inefficiencies of school processes to consider how they would benefit from new software and use this as a basis for your business case.
2. Talk to parents to get an idea of their specific needs
Engage with parents to help understand their expectations. Invite them into the school for a town-hall style meeting to understand their wants and desires from a parent engagement platform. This is a great first step to increasing parent engagement even if there’s no software in place yet. Parents will be appreciative of a school’s collaborative approach to adopting new procedures.
3. Look at providers with good customer reviews and awards
Websites like EdTech Impact and TrustPilot can help identify the best software providers and see how they compare to competitors. Look out for software that win prizes such as the Bett Awards and other accolades. And of course, social media groups on Facebook and Twitter can be great sources of information from fellow teachers and other industry insiders.
4. Speak to other schools
Speak to other schools within the trust or local authority to learn what systems they use effectively. Most websites selling any sort of educational software should include case studies and testimonials which can act as good references to help build a business case for any new software.
5. Ask for a no-obligation demo to see the software in action .
Most organisations will happily provide a demonstration of any software you’re considering. Make sure key stakeholders and decision makers are involved in any session and go to the meeting armed with any questions or concerns. Don’t hesitate to have multiple meetings and follow-ups with sales people if you need to find out more information.
6. Consider aftersales and support packages available
Schools considering adopting new software should look at the after sales offered by different companies. Is there a telephone number you can call in times of need? What times are the support team available to speak to? If you have an SLA, what will it cover? These are all questions to be asking when procuring new systems
Smart, simple interactions for parent satisfaction
How to implement new parent engagement software?
When implementing new software for use with parents and teachers, there will be an initial adoption period while everybody gets onboard with the new system. Ensure this runs as smoothly as possible by communicating the benefits to all stakeholders and going the extra mile to ensure the software works for your institution.
Undertake appropriate training
When implementing new software it’s important to get buy-in from parents immediately as a half-baked solution could have a negative effect on parent teacher communication. School staff must also undertake the necessary training to properly utilise the system as teachers will be the first point of call for parents that require support. It might be helpful to share a “quick start guide” with parents once the system is live.
Help parents priotitise
There will naturally be a transition period when moving over to any new parent engagement software, but it’s best to be as prepared as possible by uploading any key documents prior to going live. Parents want to be able to reap benefits from the system immediately, so they will want to log in and see everything going on at a glance. It’s also important to appropriately flag different notifications or documents, parents logging in for the first time may feel overwhelmed by the amount of information in the system so make it easy for them to deal with high priority items first.
Manage expectations
Make sure parents are aware of the new ways they will receive information with any new software. Whether it’s text messaging, email WhatsApp or in-app communications, parents need to be aware of what communications to expect from any new software. If they’re not expecting a text or email it will come as a surprise and could cause confusion. Schools need to minimise the risk of parents resorting to the old, more familiar methods of communication.
If you’re currently looking for specialist software to implement for your educational institution, you can learn more about Access Education’s parent communication software or read our expert guide on how to improve parent communications in your school.
