A message from the General Manager
The Australian Council for Educational Research is predicting a surge of school enrolments of 26% by 2022. This is not surprising given Australia’s population growth, but it presents unique challenges and opportunities for all schools and for software suppliers like SchoolPRO.
Improved efficiencies in school administration processes will continue to be important and to this extent our new partnership with Consent2Go will further assist schools in the area of excursion management. Fully integrated with SchoolPRO, details of the Consent2Go app are contained in this newsletter. To access a special introductory offer for a combined Consent2Go and SchoolPRO solution, please contact me.
Finally, I am continually drawn to the importance of SMS as a communications tool. Interestingly, research from just two years ago predicted the decline of SMS, which would be overtaken by a never-ending stream from social media apps. To the contrary, now in an era of ‘death by email’, we are seeing a strong resurgence in the impact of using SMS. Importantly, the average open rate of SMS is 94% within the first three minutes. This has huge implications for the effectiveness of your message.
Gary Stoneham, General Manager
Welcome to the SchoolPRO Community
We would like to welcome a collection of new schools to the SchoolPRO community. The following schools from Tasmania, Victoria and South Australia have all made the decision to implement our software:
Of note is new user, Tuitionworks—a leading coaching college known for inspiring and nurturing academic excellence. This highlights the flexibility of SchoolPRO to be deployed in settings that are not just traditional school environments.
Online Enrolments Coming Soon
SchoolPRO, in collaboration with Digistorm, have worked together to develop an effective integration with Digistorm’s popular ‘ENROL’ app. This enhancement will offer an effective online enrolment system for parents and a simple, efficient process for importing these details into SchoolPRO.
Want to know more about ENROL and its connection with SchoolPRO, contact us today.
An Active SchoolPRO Voice, Christian Townsend
If you have ever received support or assistance with SchoolPRO, chances are you have already spoken with Christian Townsend. Christian may be young, but he is already a SchoolPRO veteran—he joined the team over 4.5 years ago. A professional at multitasking, he manages to assist our users while studying a Bachelor of Software Engineering from The University of Canberra.
This ACT local has a passion for elegant solutions, with the vision to help make every SchoolPRO user’s workflow more efficient. With a customer base spanning across the country, Christian is adept at long distance communications and an expert at delivering remote support and training.
“Overcoming difficult challenges maintains my motivation for continuing to provide excellent support and consultation,” he tells us.
Christian has a wide variety of interests, which means he can not only tell you a thing or two about SchoolPRO, but also sports, music, gaming and travel. Born and raised in Canberra, he could probably talk politics too (however strictly outside of business hours!).
We are so lucky to have such an enthusiastic member on the team. Christian will be providing his Top Tips in our regular SchoolPRO updates, so be sure to let us know if you have any suggestions for topics.
Be Prepared for the Reporting Period
SchoolPRO Report Card Module users, help us help you!
For schools using the student reporting & assessment module of SchoolPRO we encourage all schools to review and advise us off any report format changes ahead of what is always a busy and resource hungry time.
To avoid disappointment, we would ask you provide a hard copy sample template of what you require and allow a lead time of two weeks for changes to be made available.
Variations to report templates do fall outside our normal service & support program, with changes being billable at prevailing rates.
Of Interest
France Bans Smartphones and Devices in the Classroom
With the growing use of technology in the classroom, France has recently done a 180 degree turnaround and banned all smartphones, tablets and smartwatches in school. According to Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer, “the ban is a matter of public health because children are not playing during breaks anymore.”
What’s your view on the topic? Let Gary know.
Have your say
We would love to hear from you and all SchoolPRO users. What are your challenges and opportunities that you are seeing in going forward for your school? Do you have a great idea that you would like to share?