Groupcall Messenger Spring Newsletter |
Spring 2010 edition:
› School emergencies...we've got an app for that!
› Messenger User Group Sessions coming to you soon
› Online reporting, are you ready for September?
› Text-back, allow parents to reply by text
› Do you have email activated?
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School emergencies...we’ve got an app for that!
Over the next couple of months we'll be launching an exciting new iPhone, iPod & iPad 'app' that uses mobile technology to improve pupil safety, and radically change the way school emergencies are managed. Ahead of its release, we are looking for schools to help us pilot this new and revolutionary product.
If you would like to be a pilot school, please call Matt on 0208 502 7344, or email mfinn@groupcall.com
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Messenger User Group sessions coming to you soon
We’ve received many requests from schools to arrange and host local user group meetings. These will start with our 1st User Group in Manchester, closely followed by an East London event. These are likely to be mid-morning meetings with a focus on how to improve Parental Communications and getting the best of Messenger.
Key areas will be:
› Value added training
› Hints and tips
› Governmental initiatives
› Data security
› Mobile communications.
If you would like to register your interest in attending these events, please call Matt on 0208 502 7344, or email mfinn@groupcall.com.
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Online reporting, are you ready for September?
As a Groupcall Messenger user, you already have the tools to help you meet Becta’s online reporting targets!
From September this year all secondary schools in England are required to have online reporting facilities to parents; primary schools need this in place by 2012. However, online reporting may be worthless if parents do not log on to view the information. Research suggests that 60% of parents, who do not pro-actively log on to the school's system and engage with their child’s learning, would do so if prompted by receiving an email or text.
Using Messenger you can contact your parents & inform them when information on their child’s achievement, attainment, behaviour, development and SEN is available to view.
Click here to read our Parental Engagement Factsheet, and contact us if you would like further information on how Messenger can help you to communicate effectively with your school community.
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Text-back, allow parents to reply by text
Did you know that parents can reply directly to text messages sent to them from school?
Text-back can save you both time and money. For instances such as first day contact, parents can reply directly to a text sent from school providing instant feedback which is immediately available to view in Messenger, leaving your phone lines free and allowing staff to work on other tasks, whilst ensuring a complete audit trail is available. Text-back costs from only £150 per annum. For further information, call 020 8502 7344
Tip – Did you know you can update SIMS attendance directly from Messenger? This is especially useful when you receive a parental response (by text or voice) and need to update or change the attendance mark.
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Email is included at no extra cost on the vast majority of Groupcall Messenger tariffs. Emailing through Messenger allows you to communicate with all of your parents, staff, and other associates through the contact details that are saved within your MIS, thus removing the need to maintain separate email databases.
If email is not activated on your Messenger system please call us on 020 8502 7344 and we’ll be happy to upgrade your account.
Tip – Did you know you can include attachments with emails sent through Messenger? Research suggests that parents prefer receiving school newsletters via email as they have a permanent record of communications. The school can receive a delivery receipt to ensure that the email has been delivered. Not only does this hugely reduce the costs of printing and distribution, it also improves the schools efficiency and environmental credentials.
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We are always here to help our customers and are on hand to give assistance and solve whatever issues may occur.
We'd like to share some of our top tips for Groupcall Messenger which as well as saving you time, will also make you look like a computer whizz!
Adding Pupils to Omissions
If a child or member of staff will be absent for an extended period of time (for example in the event of a family bereavement), you can add the pupil or contact to an exclusion list. This will result in no messages being sent to that individual.
1. To perform this procedure, identify the pupil / contact and right mouse click on their name.
2. Select "Add to Omissions".
3. Specify that the contact will be omitted until a specified date, or permanently (if the return date is not known).
4. When sending a message, contacts that have been marked as ‘Omitted’ will be identified and automatically flagged up to the Messenger user for removal.
5. Upon return, the individual can be removed from the omissions list by right clicking on the name and selecting the remove from omissions option.
Print a list of Pupils/Staff without mobile phone numbers or email addresses
1. Select the "Pupils" or "Staff" tab
2. Choose “SMS Only”, or “eMail” on the "send using" box
3. Click all Pupils or Staff.
4. Click "next".
5. A warning box informing you of the number of blank phone/email records may appear. Click “Yes”.
6 Right mouse click in the bottom window, and Left click on “Invert marked”. This now marks the records with phone/email details.
7 Click "removed marked", which is on the bottom of the screen.
8. The remaining contacts will be those without mobile phone numbers / email addresses.
9. Press “Print List” to print a list of these contacts, or “Make Group” to store contacts in a group for reference at a later date.
Set messages to always default to a specific template
If you send a regular message e.g. First day communications, this can be set to be the default template that appears on the Messenger system. This may save users valuable time.
1. Once you have selected recipients for a message press "next".
2. On the second screen choose an existing template.
3. To save this as the default template click “Set as Default”, this is towards the bottom left of the screen.
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