So what exactly do Government want?

Government insist that schools communicate electronically with parents and there are 2 key deadlines:

• Secondary schools must communicate with parents electronically by 2010
• Primary schools must communicate with parents electronically by 2012

The Government education technology agency formerly Becta is shaping these deadlines into tangible targets.  They have published two toolkits aimed at providing schools with the information that they need in order to measure their position, define and implement an electronic communications strategy.

Why do Government want this?

There are several reasons why Government wants to encourage electronic communications with parents including:

• Parents want it.  Several recent research studies have shown that the vast majority of parents feel under informed about their child's progress and that their preferred communication channels to become informed are text message, web and email
• Parental involvement improves academic performance and so engaging parents makes sense
• It costs a lot less than using paper
• It is environmentally friendly compared to paper communication

What are the implications for me?

If your school hasn't got an electronic communications strategy now is the time to get one.

It's an ideal time to start the groundwork, gathering up to date contact detais and beginning the process to educate parents to receiving information electronically.