Sometimes all it takes from a School Business Leader is to ask one question to make a substantive cost saving- but that is normally linked to an uphill battle of culture change to implement it. Vikki Dea shares her experience of implementing such changes in her own school
My current school spent the £500 topped up on a franking machine in 7 school days. Naively, I didn’t even realise that as a school we still posted mail out to that volume. I would have assumed we were emailing and reaching out to parents through our social media. It turns out that certain departments were ensuring all bases were covered and emailed, posted and announced on social media! Can a message get told too many times?
We’ve always done it that way
Working in three different secondary schools within the same Trust over the last three years, it was easy to see the operational differences of how each headteacher wants to communicate to parents. As SBLs, we need to balance the cost of that communication whilst making communication as effective as possible for our schools. Starting my new school in September I heard a lot of “we’ve always done it that way”.
Sometimes that way is not always the right way though.
If you are looking at how your school communicates with your parents think about these 3 questions
What do you currently receive within your MIS package now and do you utilise the free options?
Our Trust currently uses Arbor, and this gives us the option of free in app messages and free emails. This allows us to send letters, newsletters and reports free to anyone who has provided an email address or is using the installed app on their smartphone. However, it does not include an SMS package, so every SMS sent needs to be paid for. These can be bought as additional bolt-ons in certain volumes and our attendance team like to use this option once they have tried calling parents. I dislike the use of SMS, mainly as it costs me more on top of my MIS subscription! Everyone has a smartphone these days surely, so an in-app message is just as effective.
What is your parental engagement on your MIS system?
If you have low parental engagement and you are presenting your case for using the free in app messaging system to your senior leaders, be prepared to be shut down! You will need to do some leg work first. Look at your percentage of parental engagement using the portal. There will be some parents who live and breathe the app, log on hourly and will know how to navigate it better than you do. There will be others who are sceptical and haven’t downloaded it yet – how can you get them on board? Could you invite small groups into your school and run support sessions for parents on how to download and use the app. Explaining that all communication will go through the app and be in one place may encourage parents to get on board.
How do the parents within your school want to be communicated to?
This might sound obvious, but have you asked how your parents prefer to be communicated to? A simple survey could give you some valuable insight to their preferred methods and the frequency as to which you are contacting them. You might not get the answer you were thinking of but hopefully your parental survey will also be another piece of evidence to take to your Senior Leadership Team for limiting that usage on the franking machine!
Ultimately there is no right answer, and the right answer will be whatever is right for your school.
As a parent myself I know that even my boys’ school still emails a newsletter out on a Monday evening or sends an SMS if a club is cancelled – and then homework is on Eschools. Wouldn’t life be simpler and more cost-effective if everything was in one place?
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