It’s hard to keep up with everything going on in schools but, at the moment at least, every state has adopted a different approach in how they will proceed in Term 2. We remain committed to supporting schools so they can maintain consistency, stability, and reliability in their communication with parents and caregivers. This week we are highlighting some ways to use School Stream you will find particularly useful.
Our commitment to schools. We want to help keep communities connected and reduce the spread of COVID-19. During this time of crisis, School Stream has launched a free School Crisis Communication tool to schools that do not have a communication app. Read more.
Hats off to schools
Before we begin, we want to acknowledge the significant contribution schools have made to supporting their students and continuing their education during these unsettling and uncertain times. We can’t say this enough: Thank you. You have been beyond heroic.
Keep Parents in the loop with these School Stream features
As you are well aware, communication between schools and parents/caregivers during this state of flux is going to be critical. While each state and territory has a different approach to school in Term 2, all schools can take advantage of School Stream’s features and create a ‘one-stop-shop’ type situation for all the information parents/caregivers need to know about schooling for their kids. With School Administration Managers and staff busier than ever, keeping parents informed and up-to-date via their smartphone can help stem the flow of steady calls and emails to the office.
Sync the school calendar with parents’ calendar
These days we are all well-practiced in booking appointments online, using calendars on our smartphones, and appointments saving to our smartphones automatically from our emails. The School Stream calendar feature provides the same seamless integration we’ve come to know in our day-to-day life and allows parents to synchronise the school calendar with the online calendar on their device, making it easy to create reminders and set alerts. This empowers families by ensuring easy access to information. The best news? Staff can update the calendar in a jiffy and can be confident that all parents will get the information they need straight to their smartphones.
Send alerts to parents and families – it’s free!
School Stream supports unlimited messaging via the alert feature. An alert is a message sent to a parent’s/caregiver’s phone where they won’t miss it. Staff can send a message for instant delivery or schedule alerts to be delivered at another time. It’s always free, no matter how many messages you send. In the context of staggered returns to school and homeschooling, it’s ideal for sending reminders about what days are required for attendance, providing information about collecting homeschooling work packs from school, or anything at all families need to know in a timely fashion.
Translation feature
We wrote recently about the translation feature, but in case you missed it or if you need a refresher, School Stream can translate everything you publish to make sure all families are updated – no matter what language they speak. There are more than 100 languages available and, as with all the features, it’s a cinch to use.
Reporting absences
It’s safe to say that school attendance is fluctuating wildly at the moment and it looks likely to stay that way for the foreseeable future. This past Monday, for example, only 12% of Queensland students physically attended school, while a further 1.8 million accessed online learning. In WA, physical attendance at school is voluntary. It’s not an understatement to say that managing explained absences in this context presents a challenge. School Stream can help. Parents can report absences quickly and easily via the app, and then collated and exported into a report by the school.
Crisis Forms
We have created free digital Crisis Forms so parents can notify schools if their child is displaying symptoms of COVID-19. Click here to add it to your template.
We want to help schools get through these uncertain times by providing a reliable and robust communication tool. We’re here to support you and are available via Live Chat if you have any questions. Thank you for your ongoing support. Take care.
