What do parents want?
From communication and transparency to a strong wellbeing strategy, families and carers are demanding more from the school caring for their children.
So, when it comes to winning over prospective parents, school leaders need to consider how they can demonstrate value.
That’s where education technology can play a critical role. Investing in the right software has the power to create value by improving communication with parents, taking some of the workload off teachers, increasing student engagement, and supporting student wellbeing, to name a few.
Let’s look at the fundamental things parents are looking for, and how education technology can help school leaders demonstrate value.
Regular communication
Since the Covid lockdowns and remote learning, schools are seeing fewer parent visitors on-site. But that doesn’t mean they don’t want information and updates about their child’s progress.
On the contrary — the demand for information is increasing. Parents care about how the school communicates with them. They demand transparency into their child’s attendance, engagement, and learning progress. They want evidence of continuous reporting and learning, where teachers provide timely and targeted feedback to students to create a more personalised learning journey.
For schools, the ability to create a digital connection with all parents and carers can be easier than trying to encourage face-to-face interaction at the school gate or at parent-teacher meetings. Keeping them engaged with their child’s learning is also crucial for building on the relationships between teachers, parents and students.
How edtech can demonstrate value:
Technology in a school can play a significant role in keeping parents up to date and informed about their children’s education, as well as engaging them in the school community as a whole.
Not only does communication help parents feel informed, but if they also feel engaged, they’re more likely to participate in home learning to encourage continual learning beyond the classroom.
School management systems can bridge the gaps that traditionally occur in school-parent communication. For example, having a dedicated Parent Portal where parents can check their child’s attendance and assessment reports. It also includes tools for parent evening arrangements and teacher-parent invitations to keep lines of communication open and transparent, while demonstrating a professional image and helping to create a frictionless relationship.
Strong focus on wellbeing
Parents seek schools that provide a supportive and caring environment where their children will thrive, and the importance placed on this has soared since the pandemic.
Schools must clearly show how they strive to deliver a holistic approach to education for students. Those who can demonstrate well-established and successful wellbeing programs for students and staff will win over prospective parents.
How edtech can demonstrate value:
Education technology can help you implement and track your wellbeing strategy. Depending on the system, it can collect data points and provide deep insights into potential gaps and issues.
Technology can also help you share insights with parents about their child’s wellbeing.
For example, a visible learning and wellbeing platform can give parents a 360-degree view of their child’s development and can access real-time insights into their child’s progress and wellbeing.
Teachers can easily unpack attendance, wellbeing, and academic results for each student and parents can readily access their children’s progress, tasks and results, such as assessment and feedback information.
Personalised teaching approach
The best measures of school performance for families go beyond high scores. Parents now realise they should look for schools that make a difference to students’ wellbeing as well as learning over time and deliver a personalised experience for their child.
For school leaders, this creates a challenge. You need to demonstrate how you support teachers to spend more time teaching and interacting with students, rather than drowning in admin.
How can teachers drive deeper engagement for learning and improve student outcomes? What tools and resources do they have to identify and address gaps in their teaching and tune their approach for individual students?
How edtech can demonstrate value:
Innovative education technology can empower teachers with insights into academic progress, attendance and wellbeing, so they can make a difference to student outcomes without dealing with any additional burden of admin, data analysis and reporting.
For example, a collaborative teaching and learning ecosystem can give teachers a range of tools and insights to effortlessly support great student outcomes. The platform automates or eliminates all the administration and hassle that goes with teaching, while also giving them the visibility they need to make informed, insightful decisions.
This also helps schools stand out from the competition to attract and keep talented staff – something parents definitely want to see.
Are you investing enough in the right technology?
Specially designed student information and school management platforms like SEQTA, Zunia, and Engage can demonstrate value to prospective parents while also helping build stronger relationships with the existing school community.
Talk to our team about how you can get value from your edtech platform. Call us on +61 1800 498 642 or +44 193 540 3020 or email sales@educationhorizons.com
