How To Make The Most Of Social Media During School Closures
With the majority of schools closed to counter the threat of COVID-19, keeping pupils, parents and staff up to date with the latest developments is more important than ever.
It is highly likely all schools will already use social media – whether this is posting photos on Twitter, connecting with other schools on LinkedIn or updating parents through Facebook.
But now more than ever, social media is a brilliant, and often underused, tool for schools, academies and MATs to communicate with and get feedback from families who are educating (or entertaining) their children at home. It can help to increase engagement at a difficult and unsettling time. Here are our top tips for getting the most from it.
Reinvent the newsletter
Let’s face it, emails are easily scrolled past and missed in busy inboxes, so when schools send out important updates this way, the average open and read rate can be pretty low and parents and staff risk missing out on vital information. Social media can help you get around this, offering parents a quick and digestible insight into all of the latest announcements. You can also repeat some of the key messages over a defined time frame to make sure they have landed. Keeping parents up to date with the latest information can save time in the long run.
Using social media channels while your school is closed can create streams of communication between staff, pupils and parents. For example, this could take the form of a ‘through the home classroom window’ post, with images or videos of where your pupils are learning that day, or using Facebook to share short blogs on e-learning resources or specific subjects.
On Twitter, using specific hashtags that involve the school name and the class number (like #StJohnsPrimaryClassThree) is also a great way for parents to monitor your feed. By choosing to follow their children’s specific classroom hashtag, they will receive notifications whenever you post about it, receiving a tailored ‘newsletter’ on the matters they care about. This can keep a class together in the virtual world, even when they can’t be together in the real world.
Support with home-schooling
With many parents now taking up home schooling, there is a huge number of examples of schools, organisations and individuals boosting engagement during these difficult times. This could be through physical activity. For example, Rob Pearce, a PE teacher at Middlewich High School, is following in Joe Wicks’ footsteps and encouraging students and staff to keep fit by tweeting daily exercises from his home.
There are many other great examples of this sort of engagement out there, Steve Backshall is offering nature talks, Strictly star Oti Mabuse is running free dance classes, and Myleene Klass is hosting online music lessons, and schools could create a daily timetable of online classes for families to follow.
Sharing this free content is not only a great way to build engagement with parents who may be struggling for teaching inspiration but can also help pupils to learn new skills and hit the ground running when they return to school.
Build relationships with parents
When you post regular updates on social media, you will start to build a connection with parents and this will be vital for the whole school community over coming weeks and months. Giving them the option to engage more with school life helps foster a sense of belonging and can ensure that parents that are now doing some form of ‘home schooling’ feel supported.
Many parents will naturally turn to Facebook messenger to get immediate answers on pressing questions. Outside of office hours, set up an automated reply service so they know when they can expect to get a response to their question.
Communicate with other schools
Finally, social media can be used to build links with other schools, including those within your MAT and/or those outside it. By using LinkedIn and Twitter to build your profile within the education community, you may be able to share tips and advice while schools are closed.
You should also encourage your teachers and support staff to use social media to share insights and ideas on what is happening in the wider profession, such as teacher and pupil well being and lesson plans. By doing this, other professionals may get in touch to share their ideas, offering you a free resource to improve your remote lessons and school culture.
Social media can be an invaluable tool for schools if used well and in the current circumstances it is absolutely essential. With regular messaging and interesting insights into your school’s life using both images and videos, you can harness a free tool that helps build trust with parents and pupils at a difficult time.
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