Reducing admin time and increasing parental engagement

The problem

Race Leys Infant School wanted to improve parental engagement and communication. The email system they had been using was outdated, and the school wasn’t taking advantage of text messaging because they believed it to be out of too costly. Being a small infant school, budgets were tight, so they needed a solution that would tick all the right boxes without breaking the bank.

Edulink One’s impact

Race Leys Infant School conducted research across various channels including forums, social media and asking other school professionals for recommendations, to find the ideal solution for their needs and discovered Edulink One. After having a demonstration to see what they could achieve with the platform, the leadership team at Race Leys Infant School loved the functionality and decided to become a customer.

Saving valuable time

The implementation of Edulink One has significantly reduced the amount of time spent by staff completing manual admin tasks at Race Leys Infant School. With parents able to access and update personal data directly in the app, there’s no longer a need for manual data entry as Edulink One’s integration with SIMS seamlessly updates the schools MIS. This has not only proven to save time but has also minimised the risk of errors by putting the onus on parents to update their information correctly.

The absence reporting feature within Edulink One has also made a big difference as it reminds parents to report when their children are unable to attend school. Ultimately, this has resulted in the admin staff saving up to 45 minutes every day! They no longer have to worry about chasing individual parents on the phone each morning, which previously took up a significant amount of time, particularly in cases where parents were unreachable and multiple calls had to be made. The two-way messaging platform within Edulink One has saved the day as Race Leys Infant School can now quickly send push notifications and/or text messages to parents who often respond quickly.

Race Leys Infant School have also made substantial cost savings by utilising Edulink One. Now, the school benefits from sending data sheets for parents to check through the Edulink One online platform which then seamlessly writebacks to SIMS, reducing printing and paper costs as well as saving their staff’s valuable time.

Improvement in parental engagement

Since implementing Edulink One, parental engagement at Race Leys Infant School has soared! Parents at the school love the app and find it incredibly easy to navigate. They appreciate being able to access the relevant information they require in one centralised location, eliminating the need to search through various channels.

In particular, the school has seen a large increase in attendance at parents’ evenings. Previously, parents have found it difficult to book appointments via the method of returning paper slips, as often their desired parents’ evening slot had been taken already, resulting in time spent going back and forth with the school. With the introduction of Edulink One, parents at Race Leys Infant School now book their desired slots online, giving them the opportunity to view which appointments are left and securing the time they are able to attend.

Favourite Edulink One module

When asked what her favourite Edulink One module was, Lorraine Grant, School Business Manager at Race Leys Infant School said:

“That is a hard question to answer- I love everything about it! If pushed to choose just one, I would say the personal data update module has really helped us save so much time on data entry in the office as well as printing costs, but I really love it all! I can’t stop recommending it to every School Business Manager I talk to at meetings I attend as well as on forums.”