As a Principal, Governor or PTA Chair, you already know how important it is to engage the active involvement of parents.

“Parents…play a crucial role in helping their children learn. Children achieve more when schools and parents work together. Parents can help more effectively if they know what the school is trying to achieve and how they can help.” (DfES)

We aim to do everything except write the words for you! This is a genuine service - not a complex computer program which you have to master. You need no special computer skills; you won’t have to manage the mailing list or arrange for publication; there’s no software to buy and you don't even need a website.

If you can create a 'Word' document and email it to us - you have all the skills you need!

This is what one client - the NGCAA - said to us in June 2005:

“Many thanks for publishing the latest issue of our email newsletter. It is excellently produced and I am very impressed with the results – not least because you do everything except write the words for us!  The quality is marvellous - highly professional - and my committee should be well pleased. This takes our communication…to a new level and represents excellent value for money.”

You’ll find the three most frequently asked questions below but we don’t believe in running such a personalised service by remote control so…

Please call us for an informal chat on 01509 670612 or email us and we’ll get back to you!

You'll want to know:

• Why an email Newsletter?
• How much work is involved?
• How much will it cost?

Why an email Newsletter?

‘Traditional’ methods for communicating with parents have largely failed:

• Printing and postage is expensive and notices sent through the student often end up at the bottom of a school bag or are handed to parents when they’re busy and distracted.
• Phone calls and ‘face to face’ meetings are time consuming and usually restricted to ‘child specific’ (often negative) discussion.
• School websites can be difficult to keep up to date and are rarely visited.
• The varied lifestyle of many parents makes attendance at meetings and events very difficult.

The same parents who are too busy to read notices, attend meetings or visit your website will check their email inbox every day!

If there’s a School Newsletter which is personally addressed to them in there, they’ll almost certainly read it – and they’ll be in just the right frame of mind to respond positively to requests for support; get involved in school activities and engage in meaningful two-way communication. By regularly informing, entertaining and educating parents, you make excellent home:school liaison a reality!

Over 80% of people who go online in the first place, do so for email – not ‘web-surfing’ – and, for many, it’s the preferred method of communication!

How much work is involved in producing our School’s email Newsletter?

A lot! These are the main tasks and we’ve highlighted what you need to do in red:

Design your Newsletter template. Format your ‘copy’ into your Newsletter template then publish and deliver it to those on your mailing list on the specified date. Automatically deliver the best format to each recipient’s mailbox. Monitor delivery and open rates. For each issue, email us with what you want to say. Check on ‘bounces’ and ‘click-through’s’. Manage the registration process. Confirm registration with each individual subscriber. Input subscriber data onto your mailing list. Check for duplicate and erroneous addresses. Action additions, removals and amendments to your subscribers’ profiles. Capture requests for forwarding your Newsletter. Deliver forwarded Newsletters, together with sender’s personal message, to intended recipient(s). Input images, logo’s, messages and link addresses. Ensure adherence to Privacy Policy and DPA guidelines. Promote ‘white-list’ status with ISP’s and action ‘black-listing’ where appropriate. Action ‘one-click’ unsubscribe feature and ensure permanent removal on request. Review new measures for reducing unsolicited mail. Design and deliver on-line surveys for you (chargeable). Meet all software licensing costs and agreements.

How much will it cost?

We know how important it is to get ‘value for money’ for your School. By now, we hope the benefits of your School’s email Newsletter are self evident but what of the costs – and who can you get to pay?

Let us know what and how often you wish to publish – we publish to your schedule, not ours – and roughly to how many people. We’ll get back to you with firm costings. We'll also show you how to link your e-publishing to a fund-raising opportunity which a Regional Advisor for the NCPTA suggested to us. It should allow you to cover the costs of publishing!

Many Schools will also choose to attract sponsors for their email Newsletter – perhaps from local companies or generous parents! The latest figures show UK shoppers spent over £1.5 billion online during May 2005, 35.6% (£408 million) more than a year earlier. In stark contrast, total retail sales growth was at its slowest rate since 1947, according to the latest government statistics, with a year-on-year increase of just 0.9%.

This means local companies will be keen to promote themselves online to ‘your’ parents and we’ve made provision within our Newsletter template for this to be done subtly yet effectively. We’ll happily provide you with a draft letter together with some facts and figures to support your requests to sponsors for funding.

Don't leave it to OfSTED to show parents how good your School is!

Call us on 01509 670612 - we'll help you take your communication with parents to a new level.