With so many mobile apps available today, it’s not always easy to find what’s right for you and your school. These five simple-to-use mobile school apps are a must-have to save you and your school time and money.
1. School Stream
School Stream is the best school app on the market. It connects your school with parents’ smartphones. No more wasting time and money on individual phone calls or SMS, printed newsletters and handouts that might not make it home. School Stream sends notices, newsletters, alerts, class group messages and events directly to parents’ smartphones.
Use School Stream to find school information on the go, whether it’s what’s on offer at the canteen, which school bus to take, or what books to order. School Stream lets parents download newsletters, report student absences, submit permission slips and synchronise events to their phone’s calendar.
Possibly the biggest win for schools and teachers is that School Stream is fully integrated with your school’s website. There is no need to maintain a separate system – if it’s on your website, it can be in your parents’ phones.
2. Google Drive
Google Drive lets you create and store files securely in one place. Whether you are opening an email attachment from your smartphone or creating a spreadsheet on your computer, you can save your work to Google Drive and access it later from any smartphone, tablet or computer.
Google Drive works with just about any file type, including Microsoft Office files, presentations, PDFs, photos, forms, music, videos, and more. Google Drive helps you organise and keep track of your documents and files. Because Drive stores everything online, you can access your work from any device or computer. Don’t have access to the internet? Google Drive also works offline, so you can use your files even when you’re not connected.
Google Drive is an ideal school app for teachers, allowing you to collaborate with others. Share a document or spreadsheet with a single colleague or a cohort of students. Specify who has access to view, update, or comment on your work. Google Drive keeps track of all your changes, so you can always view previous versions of your documents and see who made changes when.
3. CareMonkey
Forget the hassle of collecting and storing paper forms – CareMonkey allows teachers and carers to obtain consent for excursions and camps through secure electronic permission forms. CareMonkey also provides confidential access to emergency and medical information online, including attachments such as scanned letters and forms. This ensures you have a complete set of information about your students when you need it – a must for teachers and parents in the digital age.
Parents and guardians retain control of their child’s information, which they can update at any time, giving them complete peace of mind. They need only maintain a single profile for each child, which can be accessed by one or more teachers and carers.
Best of all, CareMonkey uses built-in reminders to alert parents when they haven’t completed or submitted the required forms, which means no more chasing and administrative overhead.
CareMonkey is fully integrated within School Stream, so parents of schools using both products need only download the one school app*.
4. Flexischools
Flexischools brings school payments in line with the seamless technology parents expect. Flexischools is an online system that takes care of payment, ordering and processing of all school-related purchases, including canteen, uniforms, events, excursions, fundraisers, fees, and more. Parents can quickly and easily order and pay online, saving you time and money.
Flexischools is fully integrated within School Stream^.
5. Air-Watch Teacher Tools
While Teacher Tools is not a stand-alone school app, it allows teachers to easily guide and manage student mobile devices – a must-have for any school using technology in the classroom. Teachers can manage the e-learning experience for different classes, individuals, or groups of students. For instance, you could select one or more students to use a designated application on their smartphone or tablet for a specified period, or lock students’ devices to remove unwanted online distractions during class. Keep your students connected to the classroom.
* Account with CareMonkey required
^ Account with FlexiSchools required
