School notification systems are popping up all over and as a parent or teacher, you will likely see the many benefits that these systems can bring, especially on an emergency level. With school notification systems, you can be alerted immediately should a lockdown situation arise and be notified as soon as there is any potential danger to your children or students, keeping you up to date and informed on the situation.
"Sure, this school notification system is great during emergencies," you may think, "But emergencies are quite rare, if we're lucky. Does my school really need one?"
School notification systems don't have to be reserved for emergencies. There are a number of ways they can be used in day-to-day life at a school. Here are just five ways that school notification systems can be used apart from emergencies:
1. Notifying parents of closures
One way to take advantage of a school notification system is to notify parents and staff whenever the facility will be closed for the day due to bad weather or any other reason. A pre-planned message can be sent to all subscribers of the system to warn them of the closure. This message can be sent via multiple communication channels such as email, SMS, voice, and fax.
Multi-channel communication allows school administrators to reach as many parents as possible during the event of a school closure. Some parents may not check their email regularly, yet they may check constantly check their phones. By using multi-channel communication and sending out the message using multiple mediums, you can be sure that as many parents as possible know about the closure and can prepare for the day accordingly.
2. Alerts of late buses
Many children rely on school buses to get to class and especially if they live in the country – many minutes away from their school – parents and the kids begin to panic whenever their bus is running late. School bus delays are often announced on the radio, though what happens if no one hears it or is not paying attention?
A notification straight to the phone or inbox of a parent of a child to let them know of the delay could relieve some of the stress that comes with the morning's school preparations. Alert affected parents in an instant that their child's bus is running late so that, if necessary, they can quickly change their plans or notify their own workplaces that they will be running late as well should they need to remain home with their kid to wait for the bus or drive them to school themselves.
3. Provide daily cafeteria menus
Wondering whether to pack a lunch for your child today? Another way schools can utilize their notification system in a day-to-day situation is to send out a daily or weekly menu from the school cafeteria. This way, parents and children can learn what the daily specials are for the week and plan out lunches accordingly.
The school cafeteria can set up these messages weeks or months beforehand and schedule them to be sent automatically each week, therefore reducing the workload of the cafeteria staff. All staff has to do is abide by the pre-set menu and let the notification system do the work for them in terms of letting parents and students know what's for lunch.
4. Overdue library book notifications
Some schools will withhold report cards or final grades if students have any overdue library books. In an effort to make sure that the library receives returns on time and students (and parents) receive their grades, a school notification system can send messages as soon as a book becomes overdue, helping to remind students to either renew the book or return it to the library as soon as possible.
Sending an automatic notification to forgetful students is an easy way to remind them about their overdue books. Students can also choose to receive the notification to their preferred method of contact instead of being inundated with multiple messages to all contact methods. School notification systems will automatically only send the student the message via that method they indicated – for example, as an email or text message.
5. Parent-teacher conference reminders
Parent-teacher conferences are sometimes a stressful time of year for the student involved, which is why some students may choose to not inform their parents of this appointment. To combat this, school notification systems can easily send out reminders to subscribed parents to ensure they are aware of the scheduled meeting.
School administrators are able to set up and send conference reminders within minutes and, with the right software, they can easily enable a feature that requires parents to confirm they have received the message. Teachers can then determine whether they need to reach out again to parents who have not provided confirmation to see whether they plan to attend the parent-teacher conference for their child, thus making sure the process runs as smoothly as possible.
Looking into school notification systems?
SimplyCast's new Alerts tool can provide schools with the ability to alert parents and students in the case of emergency. But not only that, the application can be used on a daily basis as well in an effort to increase comfort with the system in case an urgent situation does come up. To learn more about the SimplyCast Alerts notification system, visit this page on our website or email us at sales@simplycast.com.
