Too much time and frequently, too many irritated parents. A new Weduc survey shows primary, secondary, independent schools and trusts lack the tools to communicate with parents efficiently.
More than three-quarters of respondents (77%) admit they have to devote either a “significant amount” or “quite a lot” of time to working all their various communications channels. And despite all this effort, only 20% of schools believe that 90% or more of their parents receive and read a typical message. A third of the schools said up to 75% was as much as they usually achieve. That is a lot of effort that still leaves a substantial proportion of parents in the dark or disengaged.
The key to success is how schools use their communication channels and what kind of technology is available to them. Many schools may have separate software or applications for different channels, which makes efficient management difficult, while others rely on the school website, social media or printed letters.
In the survey, Weduc found that despite the availability of purpose-built parental engagement platforms, email remains the most popular method of communication – in use with 87% of schools. This is followed, some way behind, by the use of school websites to post messages (68%).
It should be reassuring that almost two-thirds of schools (65%) are using in-app messaging – a method more in tune with contemporary lifestyles and the prominence of smartphone apps in most parents’ daily routines. However, more than half of the schools surveyed (51%) still use text messages, and 45% continue to rely on old-fashioned printed letters, which as everyone knows, are very time-consuming and costly to produce, and often never make it out of a student’s school bag.
Social media is used by a substantial minority of schools. Facebook is in use by 40% of schools, while 38% use Twitter. Instagram is trailing some way behind, with just 17% of schools using the platform.
Schools are still not optimising every channel they use – and parents get frustrated
From these results, we can see that despite using a mix of channels, the success rate for many schools is still not high. Nearly two-thirds of schools are using in-app messages, but either the apps they use or the quality of their messages, fail to engage as many parents as they should.
So it was not surprising that when asked to sum up their communications with parents, school staff gave responses such as: “Works for most, but not for those hard-to-reach parents – and they are the ones you want to reach.” One respondent said: “Terrible. Our parents are livid.” Another response was: “Requires improvement and more up-to-date methods.”
Many staff want more parental cooperation and better software
Given these difficulties, what do school staff think would improve the number of parents reading messages? By a large margin, the most popular view from the survey is that parents should be more cooperative – expressed by 63% of respondents. A quarter (25%) believe their school should have better software to make communications with parents more efficient and more effective, while 20% want to increase the number of channels they use. Of those wanting new software, ease-of-use is the primary requirement – from staff and parents’ perspectives alike.
This latter point is important. Ease-of-use makes it far more likely that parents will accept the technology a school offers for communications. It is also vital staff find the technology simple to use so they can save time and the school can maximise the number of channels it operates. Having the ability to communicate on multiple channels increases the chances of success. But the messages sent should be targeted and sent via the channel that parents prefer.
A better way with technology
Russell Faulkner, Head of Marketing at Weduc said: “This survey is very enlightening but not a surprise. School communications have become more complex over recent years with the addition of social and digital channels. Schools struggle to devote the time to make them effective. This is further exacerbated by the demand for people’s attention from other digital sources, meaning schools struggle to get parents’ time.
“At Weduc we have designed our system in a way that makes the use of multiple channels easy and gives each message a much higher chance of being read. Our platform is purpose-built for schools and enables one-click posting on websites, social media feeds and in the school’s branded application. That really is ease-of-use. We’ve used technology to make it more likely that parents will become active participants in their child’s education, even those who are currently disengaged or difficult to reach.”
You can read the full findings of the survey by clicking here.
This is a sponsored article on the behalf of Weduc.
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