Top tips for independent schools looking to improve parent engagement and experience

Seamless onboarding

The process of choosing a school is both exciting and daunting for pupils and parents alike. Open days and information evenings provide a glimpse of what attending the school might look like, and these events are the perfect opportunity for schools to showcase their unique offering.

Once a decision is made, attention will turn to filling out important paperwork to secure a child’s place. A poor experience early on in the admissions process can create real anxiety and could potentially cause a parent to re-think their decision.

Similar to an open day or information evening, it’s important to treat these initial interactions as a form of engagement or relationship building exercise, demonstrating the school’s commitment to providing outstanding experiences for both pupils and parents.

Remember, the school that can offer the most streamlined and simple process stands the best chance of impressing parents, who are likely time-poor and juggling many competing priorities.

With the right technology in place, all key documents relating to the admissions process can be shared, completed by parents and then stored digitally, preventing parents from having to manually complete an array of different forms and then post them back to the school.

Similarly, if the admissions team has a question about an application, they can easily contact the parents digitally, further showcasing the school as an efficient institution.

Ensuring parents feel involved

Whether it’s remembering which co-curricular activities are booked on certain days, the times these sessions finish or when the next school trip is scheduled, any parent will understand the challenges of keeping-up with their children’s busy school life.

My School Portal enables parents to access all of this information and a full breakdown of their child’s schedule via their phone, tablet or computer. Parents are also notified immediately should any of these events be cancelled or their timings change.

Ensuring that parents only have to process information that is directly relevant to their own child should be another focus for schools. There’s nothing worse than having to trawl through numerous, school-wide emails only to find that none of the information was relevant. On the other hand, it’s also easy to overlook or accidentally delete important emails - especially if they are sent during the working day.

Via a centralised hub, all of this information can be stored digitally, allowing parents to check back through messages as and when convenient to them. Not only will this improve parent engagement, it will also minimise the chance of a potentially crucial email slipping through the net.

Reducing admin to minimise stress

While schools need to ensure that their communication with parents is streamlined and effective, many parents will also expect the same should they need to get in touch with the school. Whether it’s contacting reception regarding unplanned or planned absences, medical appointments or to ask a question, sitting on hold or having to leave an answerphone message can be a cause of frustration.

The introduction of parental engagement software will reduce the number of emails and telephone calls parents have to make, as they can log all of the above information within the portal. This can prevent the last minute panic of having to make a phone call to the school reception as a parent is busy preparing for the day ahead.

This will also have a hugely positive impact on the school administrative team, as they no longer have to waste time returning calls or manually inputting this data. With everything stored on the portal, important messages from parents can be flagged as important to ensure they are responded to accordingly or escalated to the appropriate member of staff.