This post originally appeared on our ParentSquare Learning Network blog on October 12, 2020.
How can you support great school-home communications across your district?
If you didn’t already have an effective form of school-to-home communication pre-pandemic, chances are you have one now.
But getting a system in place is only half of the battle — how do you train your teachers and staff to properly use it so that information is easy-to-read, absorbable, and prevents “message fatigue”?
Melanie Corona, PIO of Gilroy USD, shared her “communications training” slide deck during a recent ParentSquare Learning Network webinar, Serving Your K-12 Community During a Crisis and Beyond.
Here Are Just Some of Our Favorite Takeaways:
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Use a CTA (call-to-action): make it very clear what action you want your reader to take (click a link, fill a form, save a date, etc.)
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Target your message to the right audience: for example — don’t send a message to the entire school if it’s only meant for new families!
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Don’t depend solely on PDFs: don’t attach a PDF with no context and expect people to download, open and read it.
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Provide a resource for questions: make sure to end your message with information on where parents can ask follow up questions. (Perhaps this would be your email, a direct message in ParentSquare, or the front desk phone number.)
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Avoid overusing your message channels: only send information when it’s relevant and refrain from repetitive messaging! Otherwise, parents can develop message fatigue.
You can view Melanie’s full slide deck here. Thank you to Melanie and Dorien for allowing us to pass it along to others! We hope these are useful for you and any groups in your K-12 community who may be sending out school-to-home communications.
Note: Gilroy USD uses ParentSquare as their school-home communication platform, but the ideas can apply to whatever platform you have in place!
