Communication – Why it Matters & Getting it Right

A common theme among schools is that no matter the system they use and measures they have put in place, parents often complain the communication from the school is not to their liking. Whilst you will never be able to please everyone, particularly the broad range of personalities who drop their children at your school every day, effective communication is key to a happy, well balanced community. 

Why Communication is Key

30 years ago parents would drop their children at school and only expect to hear from them if the child had been rushed to hospital. Smart phones and email for the masses were still a long way in the future and therefore trying to contact parents/parents contact the school during the working day, was not easy and only done in an emergency. 

Jump forward to today and not only has the style of communication changed but also, that of parenting. With more families made up of 2 working parents, time is limited and information is key. If Billy forgets his sports bag, there is no-one at home who can pop it into school for him. Letting parents know in advance that he will need his sports bag makes for happier parents and children. 

How much to communicate

This is the million dollar question. Some schools feel they should communicate every small event (including a member of staff being off for a couple of days with a cold), other schools inform parents of the bare minimum on the basis that the less the parents know, the quicker the dialogue, giving more time to running the school and less time explaining how it is being run. 

Which one is correct? 

In the above circumstances – neither. When looking at what and how information should be shared with parents and the community, it is vital to understand who makes up the community. Currently the independent education sector has the highest number of first time buyers to date. These are people who: 

1 – have not been through ‘the system’ and therefore will want to know more about how it works.

2 – will perceive value for money to be based around what the school shares with them. 

However, a large percentage of parents will have been independently educated and trust that the school is doing the job they are paying for and will not want to be too involved in the day to day minutiae. 

How can we keep both types of parent happy?

Not everyone will be 100% happy all of the time and to a certain extent, that is to be expected when dealing with so many variables on a daily basis. However, finding a good middle ground can be easily achieved, following these questions: 

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  Should we have a Communications Manager?

This will depend entirely on your staff budget and size of school. In many cases class teachers, school secretaries and department heads manage the day to day communication and this works well. The more direct the communication, the less lost in translation it becomes. It is important to have assigned people who will speak to the media in times of emergency and who can contact parents quickly, easily and at short notice. 

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  What should and shouldn’t we communicate?

Every communication should have a purpose. The world is saturated with media, from the moment people wake up until they sleep, media is being pumped out via email, SMS Messaging, Social Media sites etc, there is no escape. Therefore it is imperative that when you send information to parents it has a clear purpose and parents know what their action should be. 

• What is the call to action?

A call to action is where someone posts information with the specific purpose of their audience responding. In an ideal world, parents would only be sent information where there was a clear path of response. Passive information (where there is no clear response to the information sent) can make parents feel unnecessarily hassled and turn them off from absorbing important information if the majority of the communication they receive is passive. 

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  When is the best time? 

Most people will have different ideas of what timing works for them when it comes to receiving and actioning information and there will never be one set time which everybody agrees on. Sending information early has the advantage of parents having plenty of time to get themselves organised. Send it too early and they may forget, making them unreliable and embarrassed. 

Software

Communication software can be a minefield. There are incredibly sophisticated platforms that handle emails, online bookings, payments etc. These can be worth their weight in gold if they integrate with other software you use on a daily basis – Databases/Content Management systems. If they are tricky to use and require a PHD in binary code then staff will usually fall back on a more familiar solution, such as email. 

Most importantly; some software may offer a fully integrated product from an admin point of view but how is the user experience? If the user has to download an app or use a browser in order to communicate with you, not every parent will do this and vital communication could be missed wasting man hours and creating confusion. 

Simplicity 

When choosing software with the main purpose of communicating with parents and their (hopefully) responding to the call to action, sometimes more simple software is best. If all you really need to be able to do is email and have parents press a button to reply then look for software that does just that. What’s more, it is usually free and you can have multiple logins to accounts so all staff have access to parent contact lists. 

The ‘If this, then that’ formula

Blanket communication is one of the most common complaints in schools, where parents receive information that they feel is not applicable to them. Repeat blanket information is even worse. Choosing software that employs the ‘if this, then that’ formula makes for a happier user experience on both sides. For example: setting up a mail out with a call to action that employs ‘if user has responded to email 1, don’t send them email 2’ will allow parents who like information early to receive it in their time frame and not be bothered by the reminder emails that suit those who prefer information to be delivered closer to the date.