case study
Quernmore CofE
Primary School
“It’s immediate. We can hit many many parents, really quickly. It’s just revolutionised school. That’s all I can say, it’s just fantastic. I really really love it.”
Interview with margaret standen | business manager
quernmore cofe Primary School
What challenges were you looking to address?
“We were using a text messaging service that was costing us an absolute fortune so we just wanted to streamline the messaging and find a cheaper way of doing it. We were looking for messaging but also the ability to do forms via an app, to cut down on the amount of paper that we were sending home.”
What did you choose Parentapps Connect over other providers?
“I saw a Parentapps demonstration at a local cluster meeting and it caught my eye. We were already using another app at the time, so we didn’t really look around at other app providers as I was totally blown away by the presentation and I just loved the app.“
How do your staff find using the app?
“I’m the only person that uses the app from an admin point of view as we’re a small school. I don’t let anyone else have any control of it. All the other staff members in the school signed up quite readily for the app, they all have it on their phone and know how it works. They receive all the messages, they just don’t send any out.”
It has cut the amount of paper that we have to send home. It cuts out the middleman of the child, and relying on them actually remembering something.
How are parents engaging with the app?
“We had the usual teething issues at first but the vast majority of our parents just embraced it and got on with it. We have the odd ones that were a little more challenging but in the end we won them round as they could see the benefits of it. We only have a few parents who have chosen to not use the app, like dads who just don’t engage and that’s just how it is. And we only have one parent in the whole school who doesn’t have a phone that can have apps.”
Did you attend the initial training session when launching your app?
“I did receive training at the beginning and it’s like any other training session, everything makes perfect sense at the time when you’re sitting there and someone’s showing you. You learn to use it yourself after that, but I know you’re always at the end of the phone or at the end of the click of a mouse if I do get stuck at all.“
What impact has Parentapps had on your school?
“For me it’s just amazing. It has saved me so much time. The only downside to the app has been that parents can’t message you back but I’m happy to hear that feature will be launching soon. At the moment when we send a message out we have to say email us back on this email address or phone me, so it’s brilliant news that that feature will be coming soon. Fantastic. Obviously I loved the app from the word go so I just accepted that feature wasn’t included, but when we were asking for feedback I always thought it would be great if they could reply to me directly and soon they will be able to.
It has cut the amount of paper that we have to send home. It cuts out the middleman of the child, and relying on them actually remembering something. It’s immediate. We can hit many many parents, really quickly. It’s just revolutionised school. That’s all I can say, it’s just fantastic. I really really love it.”
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