The Great Home-School Communication Swindle

Cash strapped schools are being charged millions collectively for text messages they are sending to Parents/Carers. Is this right in a world of free instant messaging and free social media or does it look a little “Old-School?"

The main reason why many schools continue to embrace text messaging is that it is used as part of their Severe Weather Policy. This is to ensure a 100% of parents/carers are reached quickly should a school have to close. The problem with this is that Text Messaging costs.​

Every provider of a Text Message service to Schools has to pay to send out those text messages. They, therefore, pass this cost plus their mark up onto Schools. Schools either pay for the cost of Text Messages upfront, receive a monthly bill for those Text Messages sent or sign up to "Unlimited Texting" and pay a much higher annual subscription, which can sometimes run into thousands for every school every year. 

Home-School communication shouldn’t stretch an already tight school budget, luckily there are alternatives.

Schools can combine free App messaging and Text messaging to ensure they pay less as more parents and students download the App and if used throughout the year in that way could save thousands each year and every year. It also ensures that for those messages that are considered urgent, such as school closure due to bad weather, 100% of parents are still notified and can react accordingly. 

When parents use just one App to manage all school communications, they immediately associate those notifications with their school and know they can trust the information they receive. This means parents are more likely to pick up messages quickly and respond as required. Schools using an App can provide parents with all the necessary information for the subject at hand, from sharing photos and from recent school trips, informing parents about events and even linking on the App to all the other systems a school may use such as their payment system, homework system, rewards system and parents evening booking.

​With everything in one place on the App, this can help to build a stronger relationship between home and school, ensuring parents feel informed about news- whether urgent or not -regarding their child and can quickly access all the other parent-facing systems a school may have and use.

Over the years the world of technology and therefore technology used in education has changed beyond recognition. Habits have changed both at home and in the school office, Text Messaging Systems cost Schools collectively millions of pounds every year, but with the right App in place, those costs could be drastically reduced, find out more at www.maged.cc​