10 tips for running a preschool online
1. Inform parents regularly and in a timely manner
Parents don’t even know what to expect themselves in the coming days. There are varying decisions from government and other institutions and information about how their school plans to comply with the recommendations and restrictions put in place.
Make sure parents are regularly kept informed of the school’s approach to individual restrictions that have been communicated in the media.
Due to posts being prepared in the mobile app in a matter of seconds, you can communicate with individual parents or with the entire class at once.
Let parents have some sense of certainty in these uncertain and chaotic times. Save yourself much speculation and frantic phone calls or text messages.
TIP: Inform others of the current status of your school regarding new information/restrictions and label the message IMPORTANT
For example: Our school continues to be open. It is required/isn’t required for students to wear face masks. The maximum capacity is not limited/is limited to X students.
2. Send children activities online, especially for preschoolers
TIP: Normal posts can be sent by teachers directly from the mobile app as well as from the administrator’s computer. If you’d like to send the children a longer assignment, you can prepare and send everything (including photos) directly from your computer.
3. Get preliminary attendance with the help of polls
Although preschools haven’t closed, in the majority of cases, fewer students are attending. Thanks to Twigsee, in a matter of a few minutes, you can find out how many and which children will be coming to school so you can prepare the adequate number of staff. Parents can quickly indicate with a click how they plan their child’s attendance in the coming days. This allows you to better plan all relevant capacities.
4. Receive excused absences conveniently online
Parents can excuse their child’s absence via the app. Their absence is immediately displayed in the teacher’s app including the identifier of a half-day or full-day absence. In Administration, it is possible to easily record, filter, and export for further use. .
5. Enroll new students completely online
The decision of the Ministry of Education (MŠMT) in June 2019, allows the complete management of the agendas of preschool institutions to be carried out online, including the application process itself. We have prepared a completely digital process for schools which not only saves time and energy, but helps deal with paperwork for new students during this time of quarantine. Besides the option for parents to complete all information electronically, automatically generated forms, such as the doctor examination forms come pre-completed and the school can prepare records lists and other necessary documents in a single click.
6. Communicate with your team
We recognize that communication is key, not only with parents but also between individual team members. For these purposes, Twigsee can be used for teachers to communicate with one another. These internal messages are visible only to the designated teacher and not to any of the parents.
7. Start keeping track of attendance online
A lower number of students are attending school these days. Try to use this to your advantage – learn to record attendance online. By doing so, you’ll be able to throw away paper forms and charts which are confusing not only to you, but to other colleagues who have to then copy and collate them, and calculate figures based on payment as well as refer to other important data being generated.
Attendance records for Twigsee comply with all the parameters not only for the Ministry of Education (MŠMT) and Social Security (MPSV), but also, for example, the fire code in the case of an inspection. What’s more, you’re not dependent on one physical copy, but rather all teachers and administrators have the relevant data at their disposal in real-time.
8. Create necessary exports for school and meal fees in a single click
If you learn to record attendance online, Twigsee will help you with another dreaded task – information for payment of school and meal fees. For every child, you will easily see information about attendance and excused absences all in one place.
NEW: Option to set amounts for individual entries (educational programs offered, meal fees, etc.), with which you can print completely personalized payment information for each child.
9. Digitize your class register
Take advantage of the extra time to update children’s personal details and other important information and transfer class registers of existing students to a digital format. We’ve prepared a simple form which you can send to parents in one click.
Parents use the form to not only update important information (contact information, allergies, pick-up information, etc.), but also help with the digitization process – information from the forms are automatically transferred to the administrator interface and the mobile app itself.
TIP: Digital class registers have been fully approved since June 2019. Find out more information: HERE.
10. Relax
We saved the most important for last! As much as possible, try to relax. Of course, the situation is complicated, and we know that you are trying to do the most you can for your students and their parents. However, don’t forget about yourself and your colleagues and recharge your batteries for when all the little rascals return to your ranks, and for that reason:
- Be sure to get plenty of sleep, and what you can, put off until tomorrow.
- Read that book you’ve been meaning to all year long or watch your favorite movie.
- Have a glass of wine or a beverage you enjoy.
- Recharge your batteries and gather strength for when everything goes back to normal.
At the same time, we want to assure you that Twigsee is here for you.
We pride ourselves on our individual approach. We are available to the entire school at all times. That means not only during the initial set up and training, but for the entirety of our collaboration. If you have any questions or need any of the points explained, require training or adjustment of settings from our end, do not hesitate to contact us. We’ll be happy to help you.
We’d like to end this article with our slogan which may sound like a cliché at the moment but continues to hold 100% true for us, #wecandoittogether.
Any questions or requests for help with setting up individual features, can be sent to : [email protected].
18. 12. 2020 | Tereza Šilhanová
