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As a parent myself, I sometimes wonder if schools realise quite how powerful their brand is within this specific sphere of their target audience? Anything that carries the school crest (or perhaps logo is more fitting) automatically gets my attention. And if you are a parent, it is quite an interesting mental exercise to think how this compares to some of the other brands we see every day.
 
I struggle to think of any brand, in any sector, that prompts quite the same response in me, as seeing the crest of my children's school. Obviously, this is because I am very interested in anything to do with my family. I can hear many headteachers, school business managers and teachers out there thinking, "ah, but our parents are not like that". Maybe the headteacher of my children's school would say the same thing?
 
So how can schools take advantage of this? Undoubtedly, a number of ways but the one that always springs to mind for me, is push notifications. How many times a day do you look down at your phone when you hear a little 'ping' and you see the icon of the app that has triggered the alert? I may choose to ignore some, but I never see the school crest without checking the alert. I think this offers some exciting possibilities for schools and their school apps.
 
 
 

From the start of the Autumn term to the last cheerio of summer, school staff are constantly rushing about, teaching students, assessing students, planning for progression, preparing reports, with one eye over their shoulder for Ofsted and somehow fitting in extra-curricular activity, seasonal shows and parents' evenings.
Appsforschools regularly get enquiries about school apps. They are driven either by one of our marketing blasts or a response to a twitter post, but usually because someone at the school mentions an app to someone who is busy. Somehow that person finds the time to ask us for more information. If we are lucky that person manages to take the information that we provide to their senior leadership team, and then pushes them to make a decision, generating a PO number from the finance office. Then they comes back to us to make a few changes from the initial enquiry... thereafter they take responsiblity for the app.
If the school launches their app and regularly sends out push notifications and the parents like the regularity of contact... then everyone wins.
An app is more interactive than a mobile website, no matter what your web developers tell you. Websites are a passive medium. An app is an active medium, if you use push notifications. We can show you the stats to demonstrate user activity whenever there is a push notification. We see user engagement increases at least 10 fold times on days when a push notification is sent.
Occasionally, a school will suggest something original that we will endeavour to develop .
WE HAVE A INTERESTING SOLUTION FOR SCHOOLS!
We really do understand that schools are incredibly busy.
So in the coming weeks, we plan to release a new development that should help school admin departments. It will keep parents up to date and drive more parent involvement and engagement. This will be part of our basic app offering. So far, the response to this development from schools has been far more positive than anything we have done previously. 
As we believe we are the leading app developer for schools, we won't be posting any details yet, but I am happy to discuss these new developments with any school before the end of summer term. Or you could subscribe to our blog so you are kept up-to-date.
Peter
01625 572922
 

When we set up Idea Farm's Apps for Schools in Summer 2012 it was primarily because we were looking for a sector to enter in which to build apps. My business partner Stuart and I at the time had between us, 5 children attending 3 different schools, Stuart had 3 youngsters in primary and my partner and I had each had two girls  just about to start A levels in Year 12 at two different sixth forms.
We decided on Apps for Schools, because we couldn't use any of the 3 websites that covered our children's schools. This was not bewcause we were unsophiosticated as far as websites were concerned, but because schools were not maintaining their websties very well and information within them was not easy to find. Even essential information such as when Summer term  starts was not freely identifiable on any of the websites. I have found out subsequently that schools often tend to dump website management on someone who is very busy and their first priority is to get the information into the website not necessarily to signpost where that information is located.
Our first enquiries came about mostly from schools who were keen on trying something new. At the time, we sensed that there was an element of not knowing why they wanted an app and I'm not sure many what they wanted to do with it. A regular series of questions was how easy was an app to maintain. I must confess that we didn't understand the question. We thought they meant that assuming an administrator has some time how easy is it for them to manage the content. What some of our first customers meant to say was"assuming our adminstrator has no time how easy is it to manage the website"?
At first several schools simply waqnted every bit of content to view their website through the app. Then we had the crazy statement from one school (after they asked for every element of their app to view their website) that they could save themselves the cost if they just  produce a mobile website. This statement is more laughable because at least one school has said to us that the cost of their website being made mobile friendly was significantly higher than the cost of our app.
Anyway gradually we have now worked out a number of ways to bring content into the app not just by viewing a page on the website. We can now bring into an App, events content by ICS feeds and XML feeds, we can bring in news by RSS and we can bring documents into app from website by setting up importers to view the school's websites. Hence almost all the content is brought in automatically, thus reducing the need for admin for the content. However the increase in functionality surrounding push notifications including filtered and individual notifications and the possiblity of registering users so the school can see to whom they are sending push notificaitons, means that someone in the school needs to use the control panel.
The real question school's needs to ask themselves is how does the app fit into their opverall communication strategy and can the app be used for anything else within their schools educational business.
We are currently developing a facility for a school to use the app for taking the school register. We have already launched a school e-planner. Although we accept with all this increase in the use of mobiles within schools that a new attitude needs to be developed in relation to pupils and their devices
Exciting times!
Feel free to contact us to see if we can take your ideas and use them to the enhancement fo your school.

An update on our recent post about using PayPal to provide payment facilities for parents. We had found out that schools can apply to PayPal for non profit status. If granted PayPal will provide transactions at a low cost of 1.9% of transactions plus a 20p fee.
However, we have been introduced to a school to an oprganisation that are able to offer the following:

• Dinner money transactions at 0%
• School Uniform and School trips at 1% with no additional costs.

The company is called U18 Connect and they have developed a website wherein children can manage their money and pay for age appropriate purchases. Particularly useful because we understand financial management is to beome a part of the new curriculum. U18Connect have on their website, useful software tools wherein children can work out how to save and budget for purchases. The other premise is that parents can load the children's account with pocket money. The children can then choose what to spend their money on or save whatever their interest.
We are not formally connected to U18Connect. 
 
Contact me for more information.
 
 
 
 

Working in education often leaves you with little free time. 
That's why we've shortlisted a few of our favourite education technology blogs, so you don't have to spend hours searching for new (and reliable!) sources of information. If you think we've missed somewhere out, get in touch at laurence@ideafarm.co.uk and let us know!
 
1. Edudemic:
Edudemic is packed with quality content written by a wide range of highly talented writers. It's a great place for classroom orientated articles such as their latest How to Get Free Classroom Supplies & Teaching Materials post.
 
2. TeacherToolKit:
With "Most followed teacher on Twitter in the UK" stamped across the top of his blog, Ross Morrison McGill has a lot to share, and a lot of listeners. His blog has lots of great classroom resources such as lesson plans, homework templates and even a guide on presenting motiviational school assemblies!
 
3. ICTEvangelist
As the title suggest, Mark Anderson has a huge passion for all things Education Technology. Winner of the 2015 UK Educational Blog Award, Marks blog is definitely one to browse on your tablet whilst riding the school bus!

4. Guardian Education Teacher's Blog
Slightly more mainstream but nonetheless a brilliantly written collection of articles from a number of talented authors. Don't be put off by the size of the publication as the majority of it's authors are guest bloggers who work full time in education.

5. MattBritland.com
You may have seen his face plastered all over the Bett show 2015 programme and for good reason too. Matt speaks regularly about education, education technology and the effect of politics on education. Luckily, he is a regular poster to his blog where you can find all kinds of brilliant articles surrounding the topics above. Definitely one to keep an eye on!

We have been asked a few times recently about the new Apple watch and how will this impact on our school apps and in education in general.

My stock answer has so far been, "No use at all, it only does what a phone can do anyway"

It feels like a bit of a cop out to just say that there is little use of a watch like this in the class room, two of the biggest hurdles being the cost and the fact that any watch user also needs an iPhone.

However that aside and assuming that every student in the class is wearing one, I thought I would explore some ideas.

Physical education
Perhaps the most obvious application is in the school gym. Students monitoring their own heart rates, to check they are getting enough of a workout. Combine this with measurements of movement or geolocation and you can start to build up a detailed picture of cardiovascular performance over time.

Class room tests
I don't mean actually doing a test or an exam on a watch, but monitoring heart rate throughout the test, (perhaps the test is being taken on a linked iPad) to see which questions cause the students most stress.

Getting students to their next class on time
Using geolocation to make sure students are in the right place at the right time. Sync this with your MIS timetable which triggers individual notifications if a student is likely to be late.

Making sure pupils are present on the school grounds
OK so this one could be done with a phone, but I thought it was worth a mention.

Making sure students are moving around enough
Studies have shown that our lives are becoming increasingly sedentary, and perhaps schools have their part to play in redressing this imbalance. Apple watches already have apps installed that can track and log your level of activity throughout the day, perhaps good habits taught in schools could offer benefits thoughts a child's life.

So after some thought, I think I may be revising my answer to schools, at the moment it is too expensive to consider but within the next few years as prices come down wearable tech could make a real contribution to a childs learning.

We have recently managed to attract several schools and it occurred to me after the third school moved over to us that there was a common theme developing.
In all cases these schools had apps or websites with other companies and couldn't say why they wanted to change, but within a few days I got emails from them saying that they were really pleased that Idea Farm always responded to their emails and their calls.
I then realised that many companies offering support and maintenance contracts are not providing the support service perhaps because they haven't costed the facility.
We alwayts knew we would need tyo provide support for schools.
But let's be clear it's more to do with changing personnel in schools and changing software requriements...anyone who has developed anything for Apple will know that their criteria are always changing and developers particularly app developers have to be alert to the changes and ensure that they help customers.
Most of our support is handled by Laurence Stanley, although we all help out when needed. 
We will upload a newsletter or a change to your app if you are not near an internet connection but need something changing.
We will remove and replace an image if there's a requirement.
We will even do design changes within reason, once a term is probably acceptable, once a week probably not!
Whether you can't do something, or you want a hard coded change making to your app we aim to respond within one working day.
Give us a shout, we try really hard to provide a high class support service as well as an excellent product

We have been asked many times if we can arrange to accept payments within apps.
Previously we have set schools up with links within their apps to Parentpay or the Local Authority.
However when pressed by a school for a different solution we started to inventigate the expensive world of schools arranging payment.
All sorts of charges accrue on schools when setting up merchant accounts and we spoke to Barclaycard and Streamline (formally RBS). Understanding the costs were not only labyrinthine but also asked schools to esxtimate the amount of transactions they expect to process.
The school that originally asked us to find a solution, believed that there were something like £60,000 of transactions per year going through the school office. These included, small ad hoc payments for uniforms, dinner monies adn school trips.
Aside from determining how many transactions would go through we also discussed how many parents would be willing to use the school app to make payment, sepcifically if making the payment incurred an additional transaction fee of between 35p all the way to £1.
The big card companies and companies parent pay charged set up fees which as well transaction fees (a few percentage (point of each transaction) and a card fee as well.
The whole thing was muddy and complicated.
We finally found that paypal, who are extremely experienced in this process and who have clearer transaction fees (if a little heavy) for schools, did have a useful service.
Instead of 20p plus 3.4% of the transaction, Paypal would let schools apply for charity non profitable status...where the charges were 20p plus 1.9% for transactions. This made their tranaction fees more transparent and relatively competitive against the banks.
In order to use paypal within your school app, you need to apply for a non profit account with Paypal.
We then set up a payment facility within the app where the schools can set up a new product, trip or dinner money, when it comes to taking payment the parent is sent off to Paypal to make the payment (the parents don't need a Paypal account). The school app is able to provide the schools with accounting infomration to show which parents paid for which service and when payment was successful.
For more details contact Peter Sadler on 01625 572922 or peter@ideafarm.co.uk

We often get asked why schools should develop an app instead of a mobile friendly website. The main reason schools look to comission an app and/or a mobile friendly website is to effectively communicate with their parents. At Apps for Schools, we suggest schools get both an app and a mobile friendly website because both systems have communication advantages that the other one lacks. Luckily, having both a mobile website and a school app does not require any more administration time as both systems can be synced automatically so, for example, a news article only has to be written once and is automatically displayed on both setups. 
The list below details just some of the advantages of each setup. The possibilities are endless, so I will try to keep it short:

Advantages of a School App

• Unlimited, free Push Notifications - Send your audience alerts even when they are NOT viewing the app. These alerts can be targeted to year groups, subject areas of even individuals!
• Handy, on-the-go information - Does a parent need to find the schools term dates in a hurry? Not a problem!
• Save money and the Planet! - School apps are now expanding to include E-Planner systems. Not only does this add extra functionality over the traditional paper planners, but it also saves money and trees!
• Marketing - Have your schools branding displayed on the Apple App Store and Google Play store for all to see! 

Advantages of a Mobile Website

• Easy access - No matter what your device or window size, mobile websites will stretch to fit.
• Speed - Mobile websites tend to be much faster than non mobile friendly websites as they are optimised to run nicely on smaller, less powerful devices
• Marketing - Want to be further up the list in Google for schools in your area? Having a mobile website helps immensely with SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
• Sync with your app - Don't want to have to manage two different platforms? No problem! Mobile Apps can easily sync News Feeds, Calendars and other information from your mobile website.

 
It's worth pointing out that not only do we produce Apps for Schools, but we also produce Mobile Friendly School Websites too! Updating content is as easy as riding a bike and we can even sync the two to work off each other. Get In Touch for more information!

Had a great conversation yesterday with a school who gave me food for thought.
She pointed out that she wanted to commission us to produce an app because as a school that is just on the border of being put into special measures, she felt that the best way to engage with parents on some of the changes they were having to make was through a mobile app. In an area of economic disadvantage few families had access to a computer or a laptop, but frequently families had taken out smart phone contracts for a variety of reasons. It was their way of accessing the internet.
 
What better way to reach out to them than with an app?
 
The idea could have been dreamt up by an app developer like us, but to come from a customer was very reassuring.