What controls are in place on Classlist?

Schools often turn to Classlist as a GDPR compliant solution to parents sharing contact details (and Classlist also has the advantage that parents can take part and communicate via the app and website without sharing their contact details with other parents should they not wish to).  For instance they may have a job or family circumstances which mean they don't want or can't give out their email or number to other parents.

With regard to the concern that schools sometimes have about parents making inappropriate comments on Classlist, we have several processes in place which mean that these are very rare on Classlist, but if they do occur they can be dealt with.

Firstly, parent sign up to our Terms and Conditions, which unlike those on social media, are designed to ensure that the school parent community remains a positive space for all and is not used for instance to complain about the school - as such our T&Cs and our Member Guidelines (a short code of conduct) state that Classlist shouldn't be used to complain about the school or people connected with the school.

Secondly, any parent that saw an inappropriate message on Classlist could click on 'report' and that post would be reported to an Ambassador, who could then remove it via the 'Monitor Community' admin area that Ambassadors can use.  However the need for this is very rare.

We find that parents do not treat Classlist in the way some are reported to treat WhatsApp and Facebook, where they can sometimes get carried away believing what they are writing is encrypted and not causing harm, and where the admin has of the WhatsApp group has no control over the content.   A WhatsApp group admin for instance can't remove a negative comment by a parent in a group, so things can get out of control.   In addition, group members of a WhatsApp group sometimes can't see the name, only the number, of other members which can be unsettling.

With Classlist, the school name and logo is at the top and negative incidences are extremely rare - we send 2.5 million messages a month and only about 3 or 4 are reported and those are generally where parents are trying to promote their business. 

NB Promoting your business via parent features is against the rules.   (We keep the Classlist service free by having up to 7 sponsors of each school and their ads rotate into the ad spots on Classlist, but these are paid for to cover our costs, they are clearly labelled as sponsored.  NB Advertisers can't access Classlist or contact parents).

So we are happy to reassure schools that Classlist provides a more secure and controlled environment in which your parents can communicate.