The ParentPlanner app will help parents organise their childrens’ school lives
HELP is finally at hand for parents fed up with signing endless permission forms for school trips and digging out loose change to pay for them.
A new app is being launched that will allow parents to approve a school outing and pay with a few clicks on their smart phone.
The ParentPlanner app will also allow for dinner money top-ups by mobile as well as day-to-day messages between home and school.
The app is based around an online site called ParentMail which is already used by 97 Scottish schools to speed up communication with parents.
Paul Hughes, managing director of ParentMail, said:
“Schools generally don’t like receiving cash and there is also the whole issue of children carrying cash into schools.
“It’s just a very convenient way of paying school bills. “
He added:
“The good thing about phones is that most parents use them all of the time. Some parents may only check their emails once a week. It means the school is more likely to get it to the parents more quickly.
“The other huge motivation is that if parents have children in different schools it allows them to have one account that will bring together all of their messages from the different schools. They can also view all of their payments. “
The app will also allow parents to top-up dinner money and add their own events and reminders.
Mr Hughes said:
“It’s completely free of charge for parents but schools pay a subscription fee for the system. “
Parent Mail started in 2002 when a group of parents were discussing a letter they received from the school.
One of the parents had not received the letter which got the group thinking about school communication.
