School trips can be the highlight of the academic year for students, and whilst they can be a lot of fun for teachers and school staff too, the work they put in the background is tiring and time-consuming. To ensure your whole school gets an enjoyable and memorable experience, we’ve compiled a series of blogs to help you facilitate your processes so that planning is not as stressful as it normally is.  

Click here to view part one of our series if you’ve missed it! 

#2 How to plan your school trip digitally to save time 

In our latest blog, we spoke about how clear communication is the most important thing when it comes to marketing your school trip and get the word out to parents and guardians. There is a lot of behind the scenes work that can be extremely time consuming for staff that comes after that, especially when having to centralise all bookings and details in one place.  

Did you know? Relying on a digital platform to plan a school trip can be just as effective as an extra admin staff member at your school, if not more. Along with reducing costs, a digital tool takes a lot less time than a human would when it comes to gathering information, compiling it, and delivering it to parents and guardians. Let’s take a deeper look into how it works. 

School trip booking system 

At Parentapps, one of the things that makes us most proud is our powerful booking system. It has proven to have saved significant amounts of time in schools because it takes away the tedious jobs behind school clubs, school trips, and parents’ evening. It is extremely easy to use and it is the most efficient way to collect information from families when planning something like a school trip.  

How it works and why it’s the way to go 

All you have to do is add all the relevant information you can provide, such as destination, dates, times, group leader, cost, etc. You can limit the number of available spots, and parents and guardians can book their place in at the touch of a button, as well as making their payment. We will talk about payment in our next part, so don’t miss out! 

Having your families sign up onto your digital platform allows you to easily generate reports that will facilitate processes for your staff when booking accommodation and transport and having to provide student names and details. You can also print off the attendee report for your group leader to check attendance during the trip.  

Parental view 

From a parent’s point of view, having all the information they need on a handy app, available for them to look back on, is way more convenient than collecting multiple paper slips and having to return them to teachers once signed. The booking system allows parents and guardians to add the school trip dates to their personal calendar directly from the app, or to export the itinerary to their Maps app in case they have to drop their children off. Relying on such a smart online tool will be a benefit for your entire school community, and all you’ll have to worry about is enjoying the school trip with your students! 

Stay tuned…  

In our next and final part of the series, we will explore the best ways to collect payments for your school trips. Until then, discover more about our booking system, and book a free demo with our team to see how it works! And find part one here if you missed it.