The idea of a connected school community isn’t new. Who remembers excursion letters left forgotten in the bottom of a school bag, or intercepting the school report before it makes it to mum and dad? But, what does it look like today? A flood of emails, text messages, ragged paper forms – a bombardment of communication every day.
With over 39 million active mobile accounts, Australia are amongst the highest users of mobile phones in the world. Which begs question, is your school engaging your community where they want? We believe offering a mobile phone experience is critical in connecting the school community – here’s why you should explore it if you haven’t already.
Better engage parents on their child’s learning journey.
In times past, a parents’ knowledge of what was happening at school was limited to the school newsletter, end-of-term reports, and parent/teacher interviews. That’s only a handful of touchpoints in what is a critical phase of a child’s development.
Today, parents can have their child’s education journey in the palm of their hand. Even as our lives get busier, a school mobile app offers unparalleled visibility for parents. At Compass, we’re seeing the immense benefits of engaging parents.
Our data shows parents are logging into the Compass platform 2.4 times per week. They’re checking schedules, learning tasks, adding attendance notes and even checking wellbeing. Consider this against the ‘old school’ of a handful of touch points per term and you can see the potential benefits of 28+ touchpoints over a 12-week term.
Parents use the Compass platform 2.4x per week.
What’s the benefit? Making it easier for parents to be present on their child’s education journey enables them to actively contribute and monitor progress. Ultimately leading to a happier student who performs their best.
Connect on mobile and lessen the administration burden.
Two facts. One – admin is essential, but not enjoyable. And two – approximately 90% of Australians possess a mobile device. So, how can schools make administration palatable and easy to complete?
Not only does Australia have one of the world’s highest rates of mobile phone ownership, we also spend around three-hours per day looking at that small screen. Now consider the benefits of quickly making a canteen or excursion payment directly on your mobile phone. Or, checking what’s happening next week. We’re seeing this play out every week at Compass – our usage data from our 2 million active users indicates around 80% of parents are regularly engaging with the school through the Compass app.
80% of parents engage with the Compass mobile app.
What’s the benefit? Engaging users on mobile devices increases engagement with parents and the wider school community. Importantly this reduces administrative burden leading to a greater completion of tasks and vastly reduced human error or lost information. In short, make it quick and easy and you’ll reap the rewards.
Keep your community informed with rapid communication.
One of the ongoing challenges all educators and institutions face is communicating en masse to various groups at school. There are many ways to communicate, yet none are as effective as communicating to a mobile phone.
Open rates for different communication methods tell a deeper story. The average email is opened after approximately 3-hours, while an SMS is typically read within 3 minutes. Consider the implications for notifications through a mobile app – parents are far more likely to view a notification than open an email. That’s where school management apps like Compass become invaluable.
Using the Compass app, educators are able to send bulk or customised communications directly to a phone. This is particularly useful for ad-hoc updates as well as scheduled ones. Tap, open, action, close – that’s it. Notifications and action through mobile apps can be fast and easy – is your school offering this experience to your community?
Conclusion
Ultimately, the success of any students learning experience is deeply connected to the network around them. This means bringing parents and guardians closer to their child’s education experience, and it means engaging these people where they want to be reached. On mobile. The schools who use technology to their advantage and connect with their community on mobile devices will offer a better education experience to students, reduce the administrative burden, and improve engagement with parents and guardians.
To explore what the Compass platform and mobile app can do for your school, get in touch with our team.
