School Communication Hub in Action: How to Transform School-Home Engagement

The expectations for school communication are not static but change as we as a society move forward with technology and innovation.

Parents – Gen X, Millenials, and Gen Z – are comfortable with apps but also critical and seasoned users who quickly determine whether a school communication app suits them. School admins may have a clear target: to get messages delivered to a maximum number of parents. Teachers are busy and overworked; they need streamlined technology solutions that help them communicate and not burden them with more work. All this occurs while schools recognize the value and impact of positive school culture on student learning outcomes and well-being.

As a school communication software and app provider, we recognize these societal changes and pressure points. Our mission is to deliver a modern school communication hub that effects positive change – let’s dive in and see what it means!

#1: Create Convenience with Powerful Digital Information Delivery 

Today, most parents are not new to school communication apps that have replaced some of the more traditional paper-based communication. While we may have a natural longing for some of those methods of communication from our childhood, we acknowledge that the amount of school communication today has increased, and relying on paper-based methods is no longer efficient.

Rather than strictly delivering information, schools are now partnering with parents to engage them to create better learning outcomes for their children. A system where the parent’s voice is heard and activated as a community makes sense. While personal letters and notes add a human personal touch, having a digital platform that tracks and safeguards communication and information is a valuable tool for busy parents and teachers.

#2: Facilitate a Unified Platform for Everything

The key to convenience is a commitment from the school’s side to post all important information and communication to one easy-to-find digital school communication hub, such as School Signals. The more scattered the digital interaction points are, the harder it is for parents to know what is where.

At School Signals, our commitment to information delivery touches all of our features; the school community must be notified about new content, schedule changes, events, and volunteer opportunities. School Signals integrates notifications to all the features so parents don’t need to log back in to ‘check’ if something new has been added to the platform. 

#3: Unlock the Value of Two-Way & Proactive Communication 

A school communication hub should do what it promises- deliver important messages to parents in the most timely manner. But can we create engagement beyond this metric, too? What are the motivating factors for parents to come back to the app? A few of us want to be just object of information. A school communication can work towards building trust in families in being heard; developing genuine connections between school and home; being a bridge between school and home. 

When schools communicate, they have an opportunity to harness the power of technology and use it to drive a positive change. If technology can be the tool that helps to facilitate conversations and invitations that lead to a positive school culture, our mission is met. 

The principles of proactive school communication can be put into effect in School Signals, where the head of the school and teachers can share information and address concerns before they turn into unmanageable issues or even conflicts. School Feeds, classroom feeds, school events, volunteer opportunities, parent-teacher conferences, and private messaging enable parents to be active participants in the school community. 

#4: Don’t Hold Back on Showing Teacher Appreciation

Teacher retention rates are at an all-time low, and teachers need all the love and support we can show them. A digital platform is a strong tool to rally the school community behind teachers and show them how much the school values them – individually and as a community.

The School Feed is designed to share teacher appreciation. Additionally, take advantage of the nuanced audience settings that allow you to tailor posts, messages, and groups for teachers and staff only. School Signals turns into – excuse the old phrase – an intranet for your teachers and staff – eliminating the need for email chains or some other expensive license agreements. 

#5: AI Can Aid Communication, but Let’s Be Clear: Communication is Inherently Human

Take the latest topic of concern and wonder: AI and its implications for education, learning, and communication. Today, experts from different fields list their take on AI, from promising and positive assessments to nihilist and alarming ones. 

In education, we see how AI can empower and drive learning, and on the flip side, we are concerned about how it will affect the student mental health, and student’s motivation to learn even the most fundamental skills, such as math and independent research. 

In the school communication space, the modern school communication hubs have started to integrate their systems one by one with the current AI trends, such as language translation, writing assistance, and even content creation. As a school communication company, we are working on these helpful tools that may reduce administrative burdens and repetitive tasks. 

In the School Signals system, AI aids to monitor the conversations in the School Feed and detects and flags inappropriate content for admin review. The goal is not censorship but a positive school culture where members refrain from the use of offensive and derogatory language. Additionally, language translation and accessibility tools are positive trends in AI, and School Signals is taking steps on this front. AI-driven content creation may be helpful for admins and teachers in identifying voids and missing information, and it can be used as a tool in a school communication hub. 

#6: The School App Keeps Everyone Connected – But… the App Needs to Be Approved by Parents!

While school admins are the customers who have the power to choose the app for their school communication needs, ultimately low adaptation and usage rates may hinder even the best communication efforts. We know that school apps can crash, content can load slowly and apps can be a maze (and not a fun one) to go around and navigate. How do you make a pitch to parents to stick with an app that is not working for them? Time and efficiency arguments quickly go to dust when the reality of the app’s poor user experience sinks in.

Technology -and attention spans- move fast: we need to engage parents with good technology before they give up the entire experience. Our users – parents – are not just our customers; they are customers of many social networking apps, too, and their app experience must be close to the big apps they’ve been using for years. 

What Criteria Do People Use to Choose Apps?

According to 2023 published research, Why people choose Apps: An evaluation of the ecology and user experience of mobile applications, six main factors are important influences on user preferences and acceptance of mobile phone apps. A parent communication app should, therefore, meet the following criteria. 

• Personalization: How much can the user customize their experience?
• Integrity: Does the user trust the app and/or its supplier?
• Performance: Does the app increase effectiveness and performance?
• Utility: Are the app’s features useful and needed? 
• External influences: Does the user’s community recommend the app? 
• Facilitating conditions: Does the app include user training and tech support? 

School Signals is a modern school communication app that answers these questions clearly: The app allows parents to customize their notification frequency and type (text, email, app push), personalize their community profile, and follow activities that are interesting to them.

We’ve extended the app with social networking features where parents may share their interests and hobbies and chat with one another to create a true community and facilitate community relationships. In other words, we want parents to feel they are included in the app and that it is their space to connect and communicate. 

We stand by our users by offering them an AI-driven Help Center and a personal connection to chat with our customer support. We support not just our paying customers but all of our parent users. We work with schools to maximize the value of our app by encouraging frequent and timely updates and communication – to keep the app active in parents’ toolset for communication. 

A well-designed communication platform should feel like an extension of the school’s culture—welcoming, straightforward, and easy to navigate. Engagement naturally follows when parents feel that the app respects their time, their preferences, and their role in the community.

The Takeaway

A School Communication Hub helps schools stay in sync with teachers and parents by making communication simple, straightforward, and easy to keep up with. Building authentic connections and a stronger school community is easier when the tools work for everyone in the school community.