Parental Engagement Via Involvement
Effective parental engagement is never far from a school leader’s mind. The pandemic has brought it into even sharper focus. Government organisations and independent bodies such as the Nuffield Foundation and Gems Education have undertaken research on the subject. The results show correlation between high levels of parental involvement and higher attainment, even if we don’t yet understand exactly why.
The first level of parental engagement is ensuring parents are involved in standard school/parent activities. These include reading school communications and ensuring their child has their PE kit on the correct day(s). It is important for parents to have easy ways to do this that fit in with their busy, everyday lives.
Spoilt for choice
Over the last ten years, countless software packages and apps have appeared that make certain tasks simpler to complete. Things once done with pen and paper are completed electronically for ease use and efficiency, while creating a more sustainable future.
However, parents already have smartphones loaded with personal apps they use day-in, day-out. They have multiple email accounts, hundreds of passwords and an endless list of bookmarks that they will probably never read. Therefore, for schools to make their interactions with parents as easy as possible, it is best to offer them an all-in-one solution.
The MIS that makes life easier for parents and schools
With RM Integris, parents get access to the RM Parent Portal app. The app, which is available for iOS and Android, gives parents easy access to the relevant data about their child via their smartphone or tablet. On login, parents see a powerful dashboard view of all the key information about their child such as attendance and behaviour data and their timetable. The system is flexible to allow schools to choose which information they share with parents in the app, and which they do not.
Communication with parents
Schools can easily send out letters and emails to parents via the communicate module in RM Integris. Parents can then see all communications in a single place. It can be easy for parents to delete an email or for a child to misplace a letter but having all correspondence in one app means nothing can get lost. This also serves as a historical record of received communications.
SMS is still a useful tool for schools. They tend to be used for shorter, more urgent communications, such as short-notice school closures. Schools can easily send SMS messages to parents from the same communicate module in RM Integris. This keeps things easier for admin staff by having the same interface for all communication types.
Parent communication with the school
Ultimately, the school needs parents to be engaged as much as possible with their child’s education and, outside of the school day, the parent should become a partner to the school. Technology should be used to make what used to be difficult, much easier. For example, contact details. Using the Write-Back feature, parents can easily edit their mobile number in the RM Parent Portal app so that the school has correct contact details. There is no need to wait until the beginning of term to complete an update form or to have administrators taking endless calls from parents.
System administrators must then choose to approve/deny the changes made by parents in an approval system. This means that items are sanity checked before the system updates the data in RM Integris.
Effective communication breeds engagement. RM Integris is the MIS system which gives schools easy to use tools to communicate effectively with their parents and carers. It removes the need to use multiple systems, bringing everything you need into one communicate module. It’s just one element of RM’s ongoing commitment to improving the experience schools get from their MIS.
Switching to RM Integris, including RM Parent Portal is simple. Our friendly UK-based support team will guide you step-by-step. To find out more contact us now
