“Communication and trust are the key to fostering the student’s success.”
- Susan TerLouw in National Education Association’s article
RapidSMS have done the groundwork of gathering feedback on effective communication between parents and the school. In this guide, we will share how the school can send a message to reach the heart of these parents who has children in primary to secondary schools.
Chapters:
- Why schools need to keep parents engaged? (7 min read)
- How to protect the teacher's phone number? (1 min read)
- What else can be sent other than plain text? (1 min read)
- How to update everyone effectively at a lower cost? (1 min read)
1. Why schools need to keep parents engaged?
The best schools who have been engaging parents know far more benefits than the three reasons below. Adequate communication between the school and parents shows accountability, which build strong foundation of good relationship and trust. It's the secret of success of the top schools. Sending SMS to parents is the most effective way to get their attention because 96% of the SMS received are read within 5 minutes (manimarketingexperts).
Top 3 reasons for schools to increase parents engagement
The best schools who have been engaging parents know far more benefits than the three reasons below. Adequate communication between the school and parents shows accountability, which build strong foundation of good relationship and trust. It's the secret of success of the top schools. Sending SMS to parents is the most effective way to get their attention because 96% of the SMS received are read within 5 minutes (manimarketingexperts).
Top 3 reasons for schools to increase parents engagement
- Prevention is better than cure
- Power of gratitude spread far and wide
- Reap what you sow
Prevention is better than cure
“Texting parents allows the school to update them on their child’s progress before waiting for an issue to arise. It’s quick and easy, the constant flow of contact with parents has done wonders for parent-teacher relationships.”
- Susan TerLouw
In our interview with parents to find out how their favorite schools communicate with them, we selected their favorite types of SMS which they are glad to receive:
Whenever I ask my child, what to bring when school reopens, he always reply, “I don’t know”. Now that the school has informed me what to prepare for him, I’m glad to help him get ready for new term. – Serene Tan |
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It’s great that the school reminds me of the compulsory consents that I need go through. |
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I’m a mum of three children, sometimes it’s exhausting to grill each of them about their progress in school. Some teachers are proactive; they would inform me about the homework page for holiday assignments or during those intensive revision period for major exams. |
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Being a working mum, I couldn’t be with my child all the time. Being informed early that there are no school on special days, helps me to make prior arrangement for care giver. |
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Some interviewees who have shown no preference to the type of messages from their children’s schools shared that no news may be good news. They usually have little to no communications with the school. They also perceived that the school only contact them when something bad happens or the school it’s not a very good school.
To break away from this perception, top schools frequently update parents about important events, share positive news about the school’s achievements or update parents about their child’s good progress. This has also helped the school to gain more support for any initiatives that they want to bring across.
To break away from this perception, top schools frequently update parents about important events, share positive news about the school’s achievements or update parents about their child’s good progress. This has also helped the school to gain more support for any initiatives that they want to bring across.
Power of gratitude spread far and wide
Parents will be thankful that you shared the missed moment of their child's growing process. One of the parents, Simon Lee shared that ever since his daughter got into the secondary school, she doesn’t talk much to him. When he asked her about her CCA, the responses are “same” or “okay, just tired”. He has no idea what she did in her CCA and the achievements they have accomplished.
Working parents shared with RapidSMS that they don’t have much common topics with their child. It's because they don’t know what they did in school, doesn't check out the school's website regularly or have no time to read the school's newsletter.
A parent shared the photos of her daughter's oversea CIP trip with the school.
Working parents shared with RapidSMS that they don’t have much common topics with their child. It's because they don’t know what they did in school, doesn't check out the school's website regularly or have no time to read the school's newsletter.
A parent shared the photos of her daughter's oversea CIP trip with the school.
I feel so proud of my daughter and her school. |
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Schools can bridge the moments which parent missed by updating them with short and concise message. Reading a SMS or push notification take less than 10 seconds.
When I receive a message from my son's school, I will take a quick glance. Such short glances can provide so much insights to me. It's like a sweet note on what I can talk to my son later.
- Shirley Lim
Image from www.dreamstime.com
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Another interesting insight from parents. If the school won an award, parents are interested to know. Because, it helps them to decide if their next child should join the same school and which CCA should they join.
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A few parents agreed that if the school has won some award, they felt it's safe to recommend the school to their friend or relative's child.
Sharing positive messages to parents about their children's accomplishment not only help the child to success better in life but also creates a good impression for the school. This also helps to build trust, improves relationship and reduces negativity. When issues arise, parents will be more willing to hear the school out.
Reap what you sow
Spending 4 years with a person is not a short time. Why not sow the seeds and gave it sufficient care so it will grow up strong. It might shelter and provide for you later. The best school not only nurture their student academically; they also encourage students to learn beyond their classroom. Ministry of Education (MOE) encourages school to build a broad and deep foundation for life-long learning.
Two parents shared the messages which helped them to encourage and support their child to try activities beyond classroom:
Two parents shared the messages which helped them to encourage and support their child to try activities beyond classroom:
My son has always been playing chess with my father-in-law since young. Knowing that the school has a competition for chess, I encouraged him to join. Although he didn’t win but he is aspired to work harder for the next competition. |
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This teacher is very dedicated; he always keep us updated. Not only does he shared the timing to support my son, he even includes what I need to pack for my him. |
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Parents felt that schools should communicate more effectively and provides transparency on certain process.
Chanced upon my daughter's learning journey, I realized the school needs more parent's help so that no children are neglected. A few parents and I are ready to volunteer but they school did not communicate the process to do it.
- Lim Siew Li
When schools spend a few minutes to sow the seed of information to parents, it not only helps the parents but also the school.
2. How to protect the teacher's phone number?
RapidSMS Number Masking
Teachers has one of the jobs which constantly make them vulnerable. They gave trust, time and love to their students in order to teach and learn from them. It is a job that can be extremely rewarding but also highly demanding.
The school can help teachers to protect their privacy by enabling RapidSMS's "Number Masking", "Auto-Reply" and "Operation Hours" feature.
The school can help teachers to protect their privacy by enabling RapidSMS's "Number Masking", "Auto-Reply" and "Operation Hours" feature.
"Number Masking" allows the school or teacher to send message using their name without exposing their phone number.
We know teachers deserves a good night rest like every human hence we have an "Auto Reply" feature to gently remind students or parents to message you after 9 pm.
"Operation Hours" feature regulate messages to be send within operation hours only.
Now, everyone could get their well deserved rest with the 3 features above.
We know teachers deserves a good night rest like every human hence we have an "Auto Reply" feature to gently remind students or parents to message you after 9 pm.
"Operation Hours" feature regulate messages to be send within operation hours only.
Now, everyone could get their well deserved rest with the 3 features above.
3. What else can be sent other than SMS?
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With RapidSMS app, you can send rich multimedia messages like consent form.
The school can send parents consent form and parents can reply their with consensual. Parents can also check the details of the consented activity anytime in their phone without worrying about misplacing the hardcopy. This feature of RapidSMS App can help teachers and schools to save hours of administrative work. Broadcast message to hundred of parents within a few minutes. Parent's reply can easily be consolidated and export as a Excel file for archival purposes. |
Send Rich Multimedia Messages
Send images
Send videos
Note: After recipient click on the mov, the video icon will change to a thumbnail image content |
Documents like PDF, Excel, Powerpoint, Text Files
Note: After recipient click on the mov, the video icon will change to a thumbnail image content |
Send Interactive Messages
Get feedback from parents more effectively.
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Show
gratitude of student on Teacher Day by using SMS Projections |
We also have advanced configurations to allow email to sms sending, unsubscribe, auto reply and SMS directly from your Microsoft Excel.
More details about interactive messages
More details about interactive messages
We are API and SDK ready
4. How to update everyone effectively at a lower cost?
You can find out more details about how RapidSMS App works.
For parents without smart phone, they can still receive your message as an SMS or SMS with link to view multimedia content.
For parents without smart phone, they can still receive your message as an SMS or SMS with link to view multimedia content.
How much am I saving?
We are running a 1 year worth of promotion for schools who uses RapidSMS App.
Below is a comparison of the using RapidSMS App and without RapidSMS App.
Below is a comparison of the using RapidSMS App and without RapidSMS App.
| RapidSMS APP Promotion | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Telco | RapidSMS App | Your Savings | |
| 1 Local SMS (160 characters) | 5 cents | Free | 5 cents |
| 1 Oversea SMS (160 characters) | 15 cents | Free | 15 cents |
| 1 Local/Oversea MMS (0-30kb) | ~32 cents | Free | 32 cents |
| 1 Local/Oversea MMS (>30kb) | ~ 85 cents | 5 cents | 85 cents |
| 12,000 Local SMS | $600 | Free | $600 |
| 12,000 Oversea SMS | $1800 | Free | $1,800 |
| 12,000 MMS (0-30kb) | $3,840 | Free | $3,840 |
| 12,000 MMS (>30kb) | $10,200 | $600 | $9,600 |
This is how you can broadcast more messages with richer content that helps you to save time and cost.
We hope this post has answered all of your concerns. If we didn't, feel free to leave a comment below or call +65 6255 0010 for more information.
We hope this post has answered all of your concerns. If we didn't, feel free to leave a comment below or call +65 6255 0010 for more information.
