Stats and data just don’t cut it when it comes to parental engagement 

The data you’re collecting from your MIS platform does a job. It helps you communicate with parents on a basic level, but the key takeaway here is the word ‘basic’. Yes, you can share attendance statistics and other mildly interesting insights, but it doesn’t truly support your parental engagement efforts — it’s just data.

This kind of data will not bring parents closer to your school because parental engagement is more than this, it’s about building a meaningful relationship with parents, and it takes more than cold hard data to do that.

Is it time to stop communicating with dry data? We think so, and here’s how…

Becoming a forward-thinking school

Technology holds all the answers to your parental engagement questions. When it comes to technology, it’s done so much for us over the last few years; it’s really opened many of our eyes to the possibilities and opportunities just ready to be devoured. And these opportunities are ripe for picking when it comes to school communication.

Paper letters are old hat; manual admin is time-intensive and lacks the dynamic edge you need when communicating with today’s parents. Today’s parents expect better, more refined comms processes. Most of us have access to a smartphone, so reaching through these devices and communicating directly with them is a basic expectation, a necessity.

So how can tech help you achieve this?

Instant, reliable communication when you need it

If Covid taught us anything, it’s the importance of clear communication. During the pandemic, schools had to quickly transition into using digital tools, sometimes for the first time. Digital opens up so many opportunities to effortlessly communicate and connect with every household — immediate parental engagement is at your fingertips for the very first time.

A school app delivers instant, reliable communication wherever your school staff are working from — at home or remotely. This means you can send that quick push message to remind parents about World Book Day or quickly share important news and documents on the go. 

With one app for accessing everything parents could possibly need, it means you’re able to deliver consistent holistic parental engagement all year round.

Investing in parental engagement brings many benefits

By using an app built specifically for parental engagement:

• Children come better prepared for learning
• There are fewer calls made to your school office
• There’s improved attendance at school events

Parents want to be involved in their child’s school, so giving them a fully-rounded view of their child’s school helps them feel closer and more involved in their child’s education. Something as simple as sharing photo and video content throughout the day can help build that relationship. 

Encourage self-serve by giving parents access to a dynamic school calendar, topical news and other information. The best part? The app is accessible 24/7, so they don’t have to ring you to confirm basic details first thing in the morning.

We created the app to better your parental engagement strategies because building a strategy that works takes time and consistency, and this app helps school staff focus on the more important tasks by removing time-intensive admin activities and helping you remain consistent with your communication.

So, to sum up. Data can be really useful, but when you’re only using data to help you create that superior parental engagement strategy, it’s pretty useless. Your parental engagement strategy needs to be holistic. It needs to give parents access to the information they need and want, from important school news to light-hearted videos of their child throughout the day, and a school app can do that and more.

If you want to learn more about the features of mySchoolApp, read this.