Schools Review School-links

Recently, Ashburton College received a request from a Principal in their Region, asking if they were using one of the Early Notification providers that the Ministry is subsidising, and if so, were they happy with the way it was going.

This was Ashburton Colleges’ response –

“We have been using ‘School-links’ since Term 2, 2008.

It has evolved a lot since then. We were one of the largest schools that came on board over two and a half years ago and Andrew Balfour and his wife Robyn have been very obliging and helpful with any problems we have had, or suggestions we thought the package could improve on.

He has also kept reminding us of all the options the package had, so we would optimise School-links. It has the Early Notification system along with a broadcasting option to send bulk messages by email or text to parents, students and staff.

We have this set up for staff so we could send a staff text to over 85 staff to inform them for example, if the school closed because of snow. It also has the facility to book Parent Teacher Interviews online.

Andrew and Robyn Balfour have been a pleasure to work with.

We would recommend School-links to any school that is looking at an Early Notification system”.
Ashburton College 2010

“School-links has made a considerable difference in the way our school reports and communicates information regarding non-attending students.
Although our unjustified attendance rate before School-links was not significantly high (perhaps in comparison to other schools).

Hamilton Boys’ High had a goal to reduce all Year Levels of unjustified non-attendance to under 5%. Using School-links Early Notification this goal has been realised with the average Year Level now sitting at around 1.8%. We attribute this success to the incorporation of School-links and to their dedicated team and support staff who have managed this integration with efficiency and ease.

One of the other benefits of this programme has been the increased level of communication between the school and parents. Caregivers have become more proactive in informing the school of student absences, thus reducing the time Tutor teachers would spend chasing absent notes.

An exciting aspect for Hamilton Boys’ High is the realisation that we have only utilised a small proportion of School-links capabilities. We look forward to developing and operating the other available tools which are sure to enhance, refine, save time and improve existing processes.

A worthwhile investment!”

Hamilton Boys High School, Hamilton

While our absentee numbers are low in comparison to many schools, the use of School-links EN has made it a much easier task for our Student Centre to contact parents about missing students. There is much less 'tag telephoning' and most parents have been very positive about the process. The response to texts is usually quite prompt but there has been limited response to the email message.

An issue we have identified is the accuracy of the contact details but the use of EN has helped identify and correct numerous discrepancies.

Teresa Cargo - Deputy Principal
Sacred Heart Girls' College, Hamilton

It is with pleasure that I speak on behalf of School-links. From the beginning of our relationship with this organisation, we have received loyal and regular support. The willingness of Keith Mockett (our School-links liaison person) to be available to us has been appreciated. His work has been very thorough.

The hands-on assistance has been the most valuable. We as a school have been kept up to date with change and advances in the system and can see the way forward for us in utilising all the facilities.

Our assistance has been:

Training our Attendance officer-On EN, Accessing Web Batches
Advice on Professional Learning courses
Regular contact providing support
Setting up our General Notifications database
Training for Admin Staff on General Notifications

Kiri Gill - Acting Principal
Heretaunga College

Our school has been using the Early Notification package for absences provided by School-links since July 2007 and we have been impressed by the improvement we have had to our student attendance.

Since introducing the system we have noticed a significant decrease in daily absences, despite the fact that the coldest part of the year came later. Moreover there has been a huge improvement in explained absences as the text message reminds parents to contact the school. Whilst we still have some truancy, students know that their parents will invariably find out and are clearly less inclined to try it on.

I have been impressed by the supportive assistance we have received from Andrew and Robyn Balfour. There were some problems at the start, more with our Student Management System than anything else, but we worked through them together. We have made suggestions and these have been readily listened to and acted upon. Andrew and Robyn know what we were looking for in an Early Notification system and they have delivered it. I am convinced that the price of the service is money well spent and we will certainly continue to use their notification next year”.

Tony Sears- Deputy Principal
Waiheke High School

School attendance systems have been improved, in particular with the introduction three years ago of ‘School-links Communication Solution’ that notifies parents when their child is absent without leave.
We now have a period-by-period check.

Rob Burrough - Principal
Linwood College Christchurch

School-links Early Notification is efficient, due to the minimal resources on staff time it requires to firstly notify parents /guardians and secondly update student attendance.

We have found School-links Early Notification has made a significant difference with regard to our students who regularly attend 80% of the time. It raises attendance to approximately 90%. This is a significant shift within the school, due to the percentage of students in this range.

School-links Early Notification also engages parents / guardians in the learning of children. It is a point of contact with the school, which often leads to further dialogue about the learning of the student. We find that students who have significant parental involvement in the schooling of their children attain academic success.

School-links Early Notification is an efficient, real time tool which helps our students attain academic success.

School-links complete communication solution provides our school with a high level of technical support and offers a 2-way text and email gateway for our sports teams and cultural groups. This is especially useful for time critical alerts and cancellations.

Richard Harris - Deputy Principal
Tamaki College

Halswell Primary has been actively using School-links for over a year. We were first introduced to School-links when our Principal attended and Educational Seminar in Christchurch and Andrew and Robyn Balfour from School-links came out to our school to train me.

School-links is very intuitive to use and their training is excellent. Whenever I need help I contact School-links support desk and their friendly advice is well received.

We made the decision immediately to use the software to its full capacity.
The biggest challenge is to ensure that all caregivers were registered and that can be done quite easily. It is also an excellent way to capture their current contact details.

We have a weekly newsletter and as a result of using School-links, now only need to run off 6 hard copies for families that don’t have access to a computer. As we are a large school with 625 pupils and 420 families this is a huge cost saving in paper, photocopying charges and time to copy the newsletter and distribute.

Any notices are published on our School-links portal and caregivers can refer back to them at any time. We are assured that the notices are not sitting in the bottom of school bags.

Any urgent messages can also be sent to caregivers via text messaging e.g. if the school has to be closed for a ‘Snow Day’.

Last year we held a Ski Trip and the teacher used School-links to text caregivers a ‘wake up’ call at 6 am.

The feedback we have had from parents is tremendous and they are confident they are receiving up to the minute information between school and home.

I have worked in the school office for many years and I can honestly say that School-links is the best thing to be introduced into our school.

Viv Mills - Principals Secretary
Halswell Primary School