For many schools, communication with parents is simply done through a weekly newsletter or hundreds of bits of paper in a book bag. With the introduction of technology and the advanced upgrade in schools MIS systems, communications with parents has been streamlined with the use of emails and SMS messaging. But, could you do more to better engage and streamline your communication with parents and improve the information/data collection you are completing?
With the Microsoft365 platform you can do just that. With powerful software like PowerPoint, Forms and Sway at your finger tips, you can full redesign the way you share information with your parents. Being able to send out a digital version of your school newsletter which pulls in features like data collection through forms and training videos via PowerPoint, you can increase the overall engagement of parents and also streamline the delivered information to them.
Over the past few months we have started redesigning how we use the Microsoft platform to send information out to parents and complete data collection. Recently we have migrated our termly school newsletter over the Microsoft Sway, which has allowed us to create a clean and simple template which we can import all information from around the school and what our students are learning and share this out with our families on a bi-weekly basis. With a clean drag and drop interface, this makes it even easier for those members of staff that understand how to use a computer fairly well but might not be able to go in-depth with confusing software. With Sway this removes all of the confusion and allows our staff to simply input all of the information, adapt content and create amazing newsletters.
One of the biggest pieces of software that my schools uses more than anything is Microsoft Forms. Loads of people ask what the capability of Forms is and the simple answer is, if there’s something you want to do, there’s always a way to do it. For us this has meant the implementation of e-forms for our business operations along with collecting our new EYFS starter information to running quizzes for classes. Microsoft Forms has a million and one uses which can reinvent the way you ask your parents to sign up for a club or take surveys which could impact the future of how the school operates.
The Microsoft365 platform is a huge beast to fully understand, but with baby steps and having a logical understanding of what you are wanting to get out of it. You can fully rework what you thought was possible and streamline your day to day work.
Below is a recording from a Microsoft Training session that I led back in September which showcases how you can use the Microsoft Platform to further empower your communications with your families.
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