How schools can use online tools to engage teachers and parents effectively

As technology has transformed education delivery and driven innovation in school environments, it's also provided schools with new ways to engage teachers and parents. These groups are two of the most critical stakeholders to communicate with to keep people up to date and ensure every student is reaching their full potential. With the move to online learning and school closures this year, being able to keep these lines of communication effective with reduced or no in-person contact would have been a challenge without the right online tools and systems. In this article, we provide an overview of how schools can use online tools to engage teachers and parents effectively.

Not only can asset leasing help your organisation ensure it has the best technology infrastructure available, but it also ensures your students, faculty and other important stakeholders have the best experience possible when they interact with you. In this article, we outline why leasing technology assets is often more suitable than buying outright for businesses in the education sector, especially in the current environment.

Using technology to strengthen your school

Like other industries, the education sector has provided many great examples of adapting to online learning. While these periods of adaptation and transformation aren't always easy, having the ability to take a long-term view with integrating technology into your school is the critical piece that will ensure the technologies and tools you implement have lasting positive impacts. For example, your school may have undergone a refresh of its information technology assets and intends to continue with updates on a regular basis. However, without the tools and programs in place for effective engagement, you can't maximise the value you derive from these technologies.

Getting the platforms right to maximise parent engagement

Beyond structuring and rolling out asset leasing programs for the education sector, Quadrent partners with leading worldwide software companies to ensure the rest of the school’s business runs smoothly. In partnership with IRIS Financials, Quadrent helps the education sector to get the most from their technology, effectively manage their finances and engage stakeholders. Specialising in financial management software for the education sector, IRIS Financials is used by over 2,000 education organisations in over 58 countries.

The integrated software package includes seven programs which cover each component of a school's operations. PS Connect, one of these programs, for example, is a cloud-based communication management system. The key benefits of this system include:

• efficient communications management
• integration with smartphones through a customisable mobile app
• saving on printing, postage and messaging
• improved abilities to monitor and manage whether communications have been received.

With an effective system for parent engagement and communication, schools can contact parents in a range of ways. Whether a staff member needs to organise an excursion or event, or a parent wants to review key information about their child's school activity, PS Connect provides all of this functionality in one place. Some of the advanced features on the platform include:

• the creation, distribution and completion of electronic forms and surveys
• digital document distribution with notification via SMS and email
• automatic translation of communication in over 40 languages
• absence and punctuality monitoring tools.

Better parent engagement helps teachers

Having effective tools and systems in place to engage parents allows information to be shared more efficiently. This helps teachers in not only monitoring a student's progress in the classroom, but it also provides a forum for teachers to engage effectively with parents throughout the school term.

While face-to-face meetings may be preferred for information evenings or parent-teacher interviews, the ability to keep in regular contact with parents throughout the school term ensures teachers can demonstrate their efforts in a student's development as well. This may include sharing notes on a student's homework or an assignment, how a student is responding to new and challenging subjects and any suggestions for additional activities to help the student outside school hours. Having the ability to communicate regularly and effectively can also reduce some of the stress associated with being a teacher, especially in fast-changing times.

Quadrent and IRIS Financials: your partners for effective teacher and parent engagement

Understanding how to keep teachers and parents engaged is critical in ensuring your students have positive learning outcomes and proactively addressing challenges. With a system such as IRIS Financials' PS Connect, schools have all the tools they need to communicate with parents in one intuitive platform. Not only does this help teachers with managing and organising activities and necessary tasks that require parent involvement, but it also provides schools with an opportunity to better engage their stakeholders.

Teachers, parents and students have dealt with a significant amount of change this year. If you’d like to understand how Quadrent’s asset leasing and financing solutions, along with software packages such as IRIS Financials can contribute to positive learning outcomes for students while ensuring you engage teachers and parents effectively, click here to download some information about how we can help. 

Contact us today if you would like to understand more about how your organisation can make sure it has the technology infrastructure it needs while maintaining a strong financial position and engaging learning environment.