Parentapps Blog

How you can help prepare your school for shut down

Parentapps Team

With the number of coronavirus cases rising each day, UK schools and offices are starting to take precautions to stop the virus spreading further by implementing work from home strategies and shutting schools down.

Although this is only a temporary measure until the worst of the virus is over, shutting the school down can seem like a daunting and bold action to take.

 

The Government hasn’t enforced school closures as of yet, but your school must be ready to take action when required. We’ve gathered some top tips to hopefully help you get a handle on essential communication at this time.

Source: Unsplash.com

 

Text messages could cost your school more money

If your school shuts down it is vitally important that you keep an open and honest stream of communication between the school and its surrounding community.

 

If your school currently uses text messages and paper, then once the children are sent home, you can only rely on sending text messages.

 

Text messages consist of 160 characters each, which means they can’t be used to share detailed information to parents and guardians and if your message exceeds 160 characters the message can cost three or four times more.

 

This means your school could end up with a hefty bill that has not been budgeted for, and if parents have changed their phone number, they won’t receive the communication from your school.

 

How our app helps

 

  • Our app allows schools to create messages of up to 2000 characters and all messages are FREE – so you can send as many as you need without the worry of incurring additional costs.

 

  • You can attach essential information to your messages – including links to specific websites, information pages or PDF letters.

 

  • You can easily see who has read or not read your messages with our notification read receipts.

 

  • You can create questionnaires and surveys to allow parents to respond to anything the school needs a reply for

 

  • Our platform is entirely cloud-based, which means it’s easily accessible from home or a remote place of work. Your staff don’t need to come to the school premises!

 

  • Homework can also be sent to out via the app to minimise disruption for learning.

 

We’re now offering an extended 60-Day FREE trial with NO OBLIGATION to purchase and we can have your school up and running in 24-48 hours.

If you would like more information then please click the link below and complete the form and our customer success team will make contact.