Hi Catherine,
Thank you for raising this question. It’s been great read through everyone’s responses and gauge how other schools approach their parent newsletters.
For us, we distribute a weekly eNewsletter. Previously this was sent via Mailchimp; however, this year we have moved distribution to our SIS (Veracross), which I have been largely happy with – particularly from a list management perspective.
Our weekly eNewsletter includes an address from our Principal, a ‘What’s On’ section for the following week, general reminders from across the school and community, and articles and photo galleries. The articles are largely teacher-driven and then curated by our MarCom team.
We recently surveyed our parent community about the format of the eNewsletter. The overwhelming response was a preference for the weekly format, with little support for moving to a less frequent model. We send on Fridays in the early-afternoon, and our open rate has consistently remained around the 50% mark for several years.
Thanks,
Kirsten