Schools can be a great help in getting word out to all parents that the PTA is launching Classlist.
One option is to ask the school to email out a QR code flyer to all parents to invite them - that code will pre-approve parents who join within a week.
The school can help further by giving the PTA email addresses of parents or pasting a list into Classlist of parent emails to send the invitation. This method has the great benefit being that once parents have been invited by email by an admin they will be cc'd on announcements and events sent by admins. This means you can reach all parents via Classlist right away! This method is GDPR compliant as detailed here, though schools may think that it couldn't be.
You can copy and edit the letter below to ask your school for help in getting word out to parents. You will know which method they will be happy to help with.
Dear
The PTA has raised £ for the school in the last year. We believe our PTA also performs a vital role in supporting and building a welcoming community around the school too.
The PTA will be able to raise more money for the school with less effort if we make the systems that we use more efficient.
We would like to be able to
- Reach all the parents directly with one form of communication ourselves, without having to go via the school office
- Use online payments to collect money from parents, which will save hours of PTA admin time, and make it easier for parents to pay for events
- Use an online volunteer rota tool to find more parents who can help for an hour or two
A free app called Classlist will do all this for us. Classlist also has numerous other benefits, such as parents join without sharing their contact details with other parents, making it more inclusive for all parents, unlike social media. Classlist is used successfully in lots of schools for parent-to parent communication.
We are excited by the prospect that we could raise more money for our school using the Classlist app. Some primary schools took £10,000 via Classlist’s payment system last term alone.
Therefore this is a request for your help in launching Classlist for all our parents.
Please could you send out an email to all parents letting them know we will be launching Classlist? We can give you some wording and an information sheet about Classlist to include in the email, so the only work involved is creating the email to all parents.
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Parent email addresses
Under GDPR the school can also lawfully share all the parent emails with the PTA, as long as that is for the sole purpose of inviting parents to Classlist. Classlist is a GDPR compliant solution.
To do this the school would update its privacy notice to cover the PTA being an organisation that you share data with. You don’t need to gather individual parent permission. Please see this one page sheet with more details.
After updating the Privacy Notice and informing the parents, the parents can be invited to Classlist by copying and pasting their emails into Classlist - up to 1500 emails at a time. Those parents will be pre-approved, and because those invited in this way are cc’d in on admin announcements even before they join, we will be able to reach all the parents using Classlist from day one.
From a practical point of view, the emails could be pasted into Classlist either by a staff member or by the PTA. The work involved for the school in launching Classlist is only a couple of hours - a checklist of what is needed is here.
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We believe the benefits of the Classlist app for our parent community and our ability to fundraise are substantial. Therefore we hope you will support us in getting information about Classlist out to parents.
If you would like to speak to Classlist direct you can arrange that here.
Please can we meet to discuss next steps?
Thank you very much in advance,
With best wishes
The PTA
Feedback on Classlist
“It is working amazingly. I introduced Classlist in September and it has made life so much easier for us. I can’t fault the app. We used to have a Facebook page, Whatsapp groups and email lists. Classlist has brought it all into one place. It has changed our way of communicating, our way of doing things.” Zarifa Dewey, Chair of St Aidan's School Association, Coulsdon
“Classlist is working brilliantly for us. We have found it really easy to sell event tickets, and also to get volunteers to help at the new joiners days. When it snowed parents were able to let each other know early on Saturday that hockey was cancelled. Parents tell me they feel more part of the community. We love Classlist." Susanne McGillivray, PA Chair, Kingston Grammar School
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