SMS for Education
Parents like to know what their children are doing, if they are safe and if they have all the relevant updates and information from their child’s school. By law, parents have to be contacted if their child is absent for morning and afternoon registration and with all the events, potential changes and updates it is essential for a school to have a good communication platform that works for everyone. This is where SMS comes in handy, it is the perfect solution to be able to reach out to parents on a bulk or individual basis. The messages can easily be picked up on the go and I think we can all agree our phones are never more than a reach away, so it is the perfect way to have instant direct communications with both parents, teachers and students.
How FireText can help:
We have packed our text messaging platform with awesome SMS features to ensure you can use it in the best way possible for your school. As an example, you can easily upload your mobile contacts in bulk using a CSV file and once they are uploaded you have the opportunity to segment them into as many different text groups as you wish, at no additional cost. As such, this makes it super easy and efficient to be able to contacts all the parents of children who are in year 8 to let them know they have upcoming mock exams. Alternatively, if the school is closed due to a teacher training day you can easily send out a bulk SMS campaign to your whole contacts list so everyone is notified. SMS also works perfectly alongside other forms of communication, if you have sent out an email or letter because you require to share more information, you can easily send out a text to notify parents so they are aware to look out for it - we all know how crowded our email boxes can get, meaning it’s super easy to miss important messages.
It is just as simple to send out text messages on an individual basis too, so f you want to remind specific parents about upcoming meetings with teachers, or if their child was absent from registration you can easily select the contact and send out the SMS message. What’s super handy to ensure it is an efficient process, is our SMS templates feature. The templates allow you to write out the message and then save it. This is perfect for when you will be sending out text messages with similar content, instead of having to write it out every time you can easily select it from a drop-down list and it’s all ready to go!
Whether you use an attendance system or are more comfortable with your email, you can integrate FireText in. We have numerous SMS integrations and an awesome Email to SMS functionality that allows you to send SMS text messages right from the comfort of your existing platforms. This is perfect because it means little to no additional training will be required from your team, they can start sending out text messages from the get-go!
Below are just a few suggestions for how you can start using SMS for Schools:
- If the school is due to be closed, whether it is planned or last-minute SMS is the perfect way to reach out to parents, teachers and students to make sure everyone is aware.
- Many events, such as sports days and plays are hosted at schools, which allow parents to get involved in their children’s school lives. However, in some instances, for example, if the weather is awful, these may need to be cancelled and rescheduled. FireText SMS service is the best resource to send out updates instantly.
- If you’re running behind on a school trip, you can send out a bulk text message to let parents know an updated time to pick up their children. This keeps them in the loop and ensures they can arrange something if they are unable to get there.
- Text message reminders are perfect if you have an upcoming meeting, you can send out an SMS reminder to parents to let them know which teacher they are supposed to be meeting when and where
- If a child is absent from school they can send out an instant text message to notify the parent and see if they were aware of this. You can choose to offer the option for a reply using our SMS reply numbers, alternatively include a call to action to get in touch with you a different way.
Our SMS service is perfect for schools and our team of friendly experts are on standby to help get you set up and sending right away, simply get in touch and we can bounce back some ideas for how you can use the FireText SMS platform!