Cover photo by ThisisEngineering RAEng on Unsplash | Thumbnail photo by Agence Olloweb on Unsplash
Bardia Public School: Letting teachers teach
Streamlined school-parent interactions find new use in pandemic
Partner:
My only last bit of advice is get Buzzy. It’s been a fantastic development here at this school and we’d never go back.
Brett Moseley, Principal, Bardia Public School
The challenge
Like many schools, Bardia had a range of ways in which it communicated with the community. This included email, notes home and SMS messages as well as the school newsletter and website. But it was a lot for everyone to keep track of. Staff were getting Clogged with paperwork, forcing them to spend precious time on admin instead of teaching.
"That scattergun approach, while it was well-intentioned, probably led to more problems unfortunately when it came to communication," explains, Brett Mosely, Principal, Bardia Public School.
Bardia needed a simple way to communicate more effectively, that was easy for staff, parents and students to access and use. The school decided to try Buzzy’s flexible and powerful School Updates App.
Bardia Public School is a government primary school in New South Wales, Australia with over 650 students. Classes range from Kindergarten through to Year 6. Bardia’s use of Buzzy as a solution has created unexpected benefits during the outbreak of COVID-19, as an easy communication channel for school work and discussion.
The solution
The app is being used for a wide range of interactions, ranging from School News, Teacher Class and Parent Communications to Pick Up Authorisations, Absentee Reports, Event Management and Sports and Band updates. Bardia Public School is also using it internally for office-to-staff communications. Parents use it to plan school holiday playdates.
The Buzzy app is also very secure. Parents and carers request access, which the school authorises and links them to students. There’s no opportunity for any strangers to get access.
"What Buzzy does is it houses all of that into the one way of communicating. Parents like it because it’s easy for them. They’re able to receive information about their child, or send us information about their child, from anywhere," Brett says.
The result
Bardia Public School’s new Buzzy School Updates App has been an instant success. Teachers have more time to teach now that all the communications are streamlined, and the school office is virtually paperless.
It also offers rich engagement analytics through an easy-to-use dashboard. The school can instantly see which parents have received and accessed a communication, and which ones haven’t.
"I think it’s been a real success. The teachers really enjoy it. The office staff adore it because it has reduced their workload," Brett says.
The Buzzy School Updates App is also enjoying high engagement among parents. Nine in ten parents used the app regularly - and since the COVID-19 changes, this has risen to 100%. Around 80% find the app easy to use and say it saves them time. Some of the most popular features include being able to advise the school about absences, give permissions, and the convenience of having all information in one location, accessible from anywhere.
As schools started remote learning, the power of the platform has changed to support and deliver online learning and coordination. Bardia’s transition was seamless as all the communication channels were already in place.
Buzzy has become the primary communication tool between school and parents at home with their children not only for critical information about COVID-19, but also delivering eLearning from teachers to students. Each week “offline workpacks” are delivered to the Class or Hub Buzzes, and parents, teachers and students use Buzzy’s comment system to keep communication open and clear.
The adaptability of the Buzzy Platform has allowed Bardia to react immediately, transitioning teaching style from face-to-face to remote as well as supporting the wider school community to keep connected.