The challenges facing headteachers have always been immense. It’s not only how to make sure educational standards are maintained, but finding ways to work effectively with different parties such as parents and teachers, not to mention local councils, providing the kind of environment where children thrive. Then there’s the prospect of being constantly tested, having to implement plans to move the school up the tables while finding the best use for limited resources.
On top of this, headteachers are having to face the challenge of new technologies. In schools, as with many other parts of our lives, social media has taken off on a grand scale. While it can be a great tool for children to communicate it can also cause major problems such as cyberbullying that teachers need to have some pastoral control over.
Exploring options to release up time and resources that can be better used elsewhere is one issue that many headteachers will be familiar with. A number of schools are starting to embrace better technology in the effort to deal with this. For example, introducing something simple like a dedicated school app can mean that communication between staff, pupils and parents is more streamlined. It relieves the pressure on overworked administration staff and means that everyone is kept fully informed and up to date.
While it may free up time to spend more of your day worrying about the latest SAT results or the upcoming Ofsted visit, there’s no doubt that technology can make schools run more effectively. It helps cut down on wasted resources, for example having to print out documents and forms to give to parents, and it can be managed quite effectively from one desktop control panel.
Headteachers are, of course, always looking for wise investments when it comes to the day to day running of their schools. There’s no doubt that mobile technology is going to revolutionise the way we learn in years to come. It’s already giving us more opportunity than we’ve ever had before. While many older teachers may not be totally in tune with the world of smartphones, our kids are and they will be using these devices or similar ones throughout most of their lives.
Headteachers need to embrace all aspects of mobile communication and that includes investing in school apps that help to keep everyone informed. Parents nowadays normally carry around a smartphone or tablet to which instant notifications can be sent. An app would have all the information they need and can easily be tailored towards a particular need. That means you no longer have to worry about whether person X or Y has been told about something, they’ll have received a notification about it.
There’s plenty for headteachers to contend with over the coming years, some it far more important than the use of technology to smooth over administration in the school. Making a few simple changes, however, can be a good investment and alter the way everyone communicates with each other.
To find out more about how an app could benefit your school please get in touch and a member of our team will be happy to answer any questions you may have, or if interested we can arrange for a free demonstration.