7 Ways to use SMS messaging in schools to improve communication

Communication is a form of connecting with people and exchanging talks with each other. In every human life, communication is necessary and there are many communication channels such as SMS messaging, MMS messaging, email marketing, and many more. Communication channels are generally used for marketing purposes, running campaigns, and advertising. Schools also require certain communication channels to interact with parents, teachers, and staff.

Compared to business school communication is unorganized and runs through every minimal source of communication. In the olden day's communication in school was completely different as there was not much technology and people used to follow the old methods by taking attendance manually, making announcements personally, and much more such activities. Sending messages, and contacting everyone is a difficult and long process. To date, many schools use email and notices through the paper to interact with parents and staff. Some of them avoid them or overlook them and do not read them. This leads to miscommunication and will be difficult for the schools to connect with parents.

Communication in schools can be improved by making use of SMS messaging. SMS messaging or short service messaging is a communication channel that allows one to send and receive messages. This is a text message and was introduced in the year 1980 and is the oldest method that is running successfully till today. This is the widely used method to communicate with anyone. The word limit is 160 characters which enable the user to send the content shortly with no extra added content making it lengthy. People prefer short messages rather than lengthy messages.

Here are 7 ways to use SMS messaging in schools to improve communication.

Morning meetings: 

School has meetings with the staff or parent-teacher meetings. Generally, these meetings are informed through written notices by sending them to every class. Also if there are urgent meetings they used to send them through paper notices only which is time-consuming and some might not make it time to the meetings. SMS messaging can be improved by sending messages at any time and the messages get delivered immediately which makes it easy for the school to communicate. Through these meeting messages, the needs of a school can be fulfilled.

Events and daily activities: 

School has some events or special days to celebrate along with the staff, children, and parents. There are daily activities also that take place in a school such as sports day, speech competition, and essay competition. Such reminders or announcements are made through paper notices or passing the message individually which is very difficult. SMS messaging helps the school in such cases to send messages or inform a day before the event to everyone with just one message. Bulk SMS messaging can also be used in these cases as passing information involves a lot of contacts and bulk SMS messaging can be made easier.

Example: Good morning, Tomorrow there is a sports day at 9 a.m. being conducted in school and we request every child to attend the event without fail. 

With regards-

De paul school.

Classroom announcements:

 SMS messaging can be used for classroom announcements. This is a simple and efficient way for the faculty to communicate with parents about the daily activities or weekly homework assignments. Using SMS messaging faculty can send messages about their homework or remind the students about upcoming events.

Example:There is a project work due tomorrow and the teacher can send a reminder message to the parent about the project work along with providing information about the project. 

Attendance: 

Attendance is a major issue for a school as many children will be absent every day and it's the responsibility of the school to inform the parent about the absentees. This will clear any miscommunication between them and also the parents get to know about the child. There are some messaging platforms such as MessageMedia, which send automated messages to the parents if a child is absent. Such automated messages make the work of the school much easier.

Example:Dear Satish, This is to inform you that your child Viya is absent today. Please confirm or call 8754678905 to know more in detail about the issue of absence.

Communication with parents: 

SMS messaging in schools is mainly used to communicate with parents. Connecting with parents is important for a school as the school should let the parents know about their child and daily activities and the parent should also know the rules and day-to-day events of the school. 

Reminder texts: SMS messaging allows sending reminder messages to the parents to provide any information if required.

Inquiry texts: Many parents have doubts and a lot of queries and some wanted to inquire about their children. SMS messaging helps to communicate such types of activities and makes it easy for both the parent and the school.

Alerts and emergency messages:

 There are certain times like Bharat bandh, expiry of staff such sudden emergencies take place and the school has to be cancelled. The school has to inform every parent to make them not worry about their child. Emergency messages are two such cases and use text messages alerts or emergency messages to be sent to be informed.

Example:Alert:School is cancelled due to Bharat bandh. Classes will resume as usual from tomorrow i.e.Wednesday.

Co-teaching collaborations: 

There are some cases where the faculty wanted to switch classes or take up classes in absence of any teacher. In such cases messaging comes to the rescue where the teachers can send messages about their classes and schedule accordingly. There will be some changes in the timetable and due to miscommunication two teachers attend the same class without knowing. To avoid such accidents, the faculty can send messages beforehand and avoid clashes. 

These are some of the ways a school can improve its communication by making use of SMS messaging. If these are followed and applied practically many issues can be solved as texting is more convenient and simple to use.