2024/2025 Service Definition

Schoolcomms (Parental Messaging Service)

About the Service

Schoolcomms Messaging is an easy to use, dynamic smartphone app, for schools' day-to-day messages, texts and email engagement with parents, staff, and pupils. Cutting down on text and printing costs are key to the success of Schoolcomms, by using inclusive app messaging with the Schoolcomms School Gateway App.

Parents self-activate, quickly and simply, by using their email address and pupil details. Customise and brand your school App with your logos and school colours, creating a professional school service for your parents. Furthermore, you can also include a link to ParentPay, your school website, school calendar, homework, Facebook, or any other important sites within your school, creating one central place for your parents to visit.

What are the benefits?

Schoolcomms Parent Communication provides:

  • Two-way in-app text messaging for parents and staff. Send App messages to parent groups or individuals at no charge.
  • Know when your messages have been received via the delivery tracking feature.
  • Seamlessly send regular text messages or emails to any parents not using smartphones, ensuring service is available to more parents.
  • Free in-app messaging cuts down on texting and printing costs.
  • Parents can submit absence explanations direct from their phone or via the web portal, reducing the need for those morning calls to the office. These can then be written back to SIMS.

What's Included?

  • Messages can be scheduled to be sent at a future date and time, saving school admin time.
  • Fully embeds into SIMS, including write back into the Comms Log.
  • Web-based management dashboard for staff to manage comms from anywhere. Ideal for snow closures or trips that are returning late, use messaging on the go using your mobile phone.
  • Inbuilt templates which are fully editable and personalised, with instant bulk merged fields.
  • School branded app.
  • Add links to all school services for ease of access for parents.
  • Save on printing costs with attachments from SIMS. Send Assessment Manager reports, Profile reports, Curriculum and Exam Timetables in bulk or individually.

Service Features

The following features are included in the service:

Feature Description

Parent Communication App

The Parent Communication App enables two-way app messaging for parents and staff. Parents will receive these messages in the app.

Text Messages

Any parents not using the app for messaging will still get a regular text message, ensuring communication is inclusive of parents not using smartphones.

Create templates and schedule messages for the future.

Email

Option for parents without phones to receive messages from the service to their regular email inbox.

Read/write back into SIMS

Attendance mark and parent comments.

Write back to SIMS communication log – messages sent/received via Schoolcomms

Email SIMS individual assessment and profile reports. Email curriculum timetables/exam timetables.

Message pre-admissions

Send messages to parents of pre-admission students due to start in September.