We produce a newsletter three times a term (Week 3, 6 and 10), which is done in the newsletter module of our website. We previously used Naavi. The newsletter covers mostly news not published elsewhere (i.e. socials, or on the Schoolbox newsfeed), and includes short articles from our leadership team. The link to the newsletter is sent out via email throught TASS to all parents & staff, and the link also published on the Schoolbox newsfeed for students, staff and parents.

In addition, every Friday we send out a ‘What’s On’ email which includes very short notices that require immediate action and a list of events that are coming up in the next week on each of our two campuses. These are also published (but in a different format) on the Schoolbox newsfeed (for parents, staff and students). I experimented with formats when we first started using Schoolbox, and have found that I get higher readership if I do a table format for the events coming up. I pin the events to the top of the newsfeed, and put the Quick Notes in separately.

The stats on Schoolbox are really handy, as you can easily see whether it is staff, students or parents accessing what is published.

Newsletter stats are tracked through Google Analytics, which is limiting. I would love to be able to see which newsletter items are the most read. I have tried Hotjar and similar for user tracking, but it just slows the website down too much. Tass can tell us which parents open the email, but can’t check for clicks.

Our website is due for review in a year or so, so I might relook the options for newsletter then.