SchoolCues

What is SchoolCues

SchoolCues simplifies and improves school management, communication, and administration through powerful, relevant and easy-to-use tools. Staff and parents have dedicated apps available to them, or they can use the web-based interface.

SchoolCues brings school information, data, and communication management into a single platform. Most small schools rely on a host of different independent services that do not interact with each other. SchoolCues solves this problem by putting education-friendly modules and tools into the hands of all school staff.

There are several different features, some of which include functions include:

• Sending newsletters to parents and receiving confirmation of receipt
• Issuing and collecting permission slips
• Issuing urgent messages to parents that they can receive in their SchoolCues parent app, by email, or by text message.
• Handling of school payments
• A fully featured student information system that offers easy retrieval and input

The developers of SchoolCues are focused on simplifying school administration for small schools (typically schools with up to 400 students)

Continue reading this SchoolCues app review to see how its simplicity and ease of use enhances its many features into a compelling package that your school should consider.

What we love about SchoolCues

Ease of use sits at the forefront of SchoolCues’ design. Throughout the ten years since its inception, the Schoolcues team have paid close attention to how schools use their product. with each feature having clear role, purpose, and value.

School communication and the parental engagement it hopes to support are smooth and efficient using SchoolCues. Although you might find other standalone services that offer more features, they come with greater complexity. The features dropped are not ones that schools typically need, so the trade-off is very much in a school’s favor.

The distilled essence of careful design and considered evolution have resulted in SchoolCues being a product that is hard to fault. School staff will find their administrative burden reduced and parents will be better informed.

Is SchoolCues easy to use?

Using a single integrated solution offers several advantages. SchoolCues' modules allow school staff to work on newsletters, student information systems, grade books, parent communication and more from within its single interface. The terms, processes and interfaces are consistent across the modules, which significantly adds to its ease of use and makes the learning curve so much shallower.

Instead of learning the process and quirks of different software for different tasks, staff need only follow a gentle learning curve to become confident users of SchoolCues. This is especially beneficial to new school employees who might be having to familiarize themselves with many things in their new role.

How will teachers benefit?

The customer support from SchoolCues is superb and exceeds that of more expensive software. Sitting in on a Zoom-delivered demonstration of the software displayed a personal, accessible, and open approach to its customer interactions. SchoolCues ‘s customer support follows up each subscription with a full onboarding session to ensure that school workers get the most out of the service. It can be used as a classroom management app by teachers and schools.

Each member of staff has an allocated role title within SchoolCues. These titles represent staff's responsibilities and how they will use the app. Staff in many different roles will appreciate the functionality and simplicity of the different modules:

Administrators

The student information system distinguishes itself from many competitors through its clarity and ease of use. Entering and searching the information is simple, which will be a great help during admission and enrollment.

Teachers

SchoolCues will give teachers peace of mind. Tracking parents' responses means that they know that parents have received important information, such as an accident report or request for an appointment.

It is for simplifying their administration that teachers will most appreciate SchoolCues. Everything is easy to send out, and the responses remain easy to access when they are needed.

How will parents benefit?

Just as SchoolCues makes life easier for school staff, it does the same for parents. It is accessible through a web browser or, even more conveniently, through an app.

Enrolling children is a straightforward process. The details do not need to be entered all at once, giving parents time to gather any extra information they might need.

Any letters, messages, forms, accident alerts or appointments sent by teachers will find their destination. Email, app, and SMS texts are supported, making it a service that everyone should be able to access. SchoolCues is not a two-way chat app, but schools can create letters and forms that invite parents' responses.

If their school requires payments from parents for any reason and is subscribed to SchoolCues’ payment module, the service can handle this.

What SchoolCues can improve on?

During the demonstration session, the openness of the presenter made it clear what a balancing act SchoolCues is performing. The developers must judge any new functionality in terms of the complexity it adds and the breadth of usefulness it provides.

Any single school might wish for a feature that would suit their needs and way of working, but how many of these would it take until they took away SchoolCues’ elegant simplicity? All is not lost, though, as the free customer support might well offer a workaround that gives the functionality needed within the tools that exist - as happened during the observed demonstration for this review.

Schools in Europe will have a different perspective. Having read this SchoolCues review, they might well wish to investigate it further. Unfortunately, while SchoolCues’ developers plan to make the app suitable for Europe and the UK, it is not there yet. It is not yet GDPR compliant, and it has a few quirks that display its country of origin that will confuse non-North American audiences.

How much does SchoolCues cost?

At the time of this review, there is a free trial available for schools. Combined with the comprehensive live demonstration of the service during which questions are answered honestly and clearly, this makes now a great time to appraise the SchoolCues service.

What is included with the free version vs. paid?

Only the service itself needs to be paid for, which is part of a school's subscription. The apps for parents and teachers are free to use in conjunction with that service, and those without apps can access SchoolCues through a web browser.

SchoolCues' pricing structure is easy to understand. Your number of students and which of the SchoolCues modules you want to use set the price. Considering the functionality of the service and that you'll be able to drop subscriptions to other services, it provides excellent value. Pricing for SchoolCues starts at $1 per month.

Is SchoolCues safe to use?

SchoolCues is for parents and teachers who must always use the app with privacy and safety in mind - as they must when using any form of communication. The system has all the standard security technologies and safety protocols in place to prevent unauthorized access to user data.

The service has a strict privacy policy which an appropriate member of school staff should ensure is compatible with their schools.

Is there an app for SchoolCues?

Yes, the SchoolCues mobile app is available on the IOS and Android platforms and is free to download from the iTunes app store and Google Play. The SchoolCues mobile app is automatically activated for your account with the email ID that is on file associated with your child. In order to use the mobile app, you should first sign up and activate your account.

What type of training does SchoolCues provide?

SchoolCues provides training in the form of live online, in person, and videos.

Overall rating of the app

SchoolCues' developers say it is halfway through a twenty-year development plan - this is an app planned to be around for the long haul. It is already excellent, so subscribed schools have a lot to look forward to. New features for the next school year have already been announced, and both the platform and its apps receive frequent updates.

SchoolCues is as polished an app as you could expect to find and one that is genuinely useful in many ways. It is entirely worth its five stars and certainly worth your time to get in touch with SchoolCues and book a demonstration. You can check out their website at www.schoolcues.com.