We partnered with Haldor to deliver a free session for schools and multi academy trusts focusing on boosting parental engagement in students’ homework using Microsoft Teams.
While there are some great advantages to parents and guardians being engaged in their child’s learning and homework assignments, it can be a challenge for schools and trusts to find an easy way to connect and communicate with parents.
During the webinar, we shared our top tips on getting parents more engaged with homework by using the out-of-the-box tools in Microsoft 365 and how to enhance this with Haldor’s dedicated homework app.
Below is a summary of what we talked about.
Set up a weekly email digest for parents.
An automatic weekly assignment digest can be set up within the standard Microsoft 365 package.
Parents receive a summary of their child’s assignments once a week, and this provides a quick overview of set assignments, completed work, overdue homework and upcoming deadlines.
To use the weekly email digest, your school needs to be using Microsoft School Data Sync. Cloud Design Box are Microsoft SDS Advanced Partners, contact us for an SDS managed service.
“There are a few limitations to this,” Darren Hemming Cloud Design Box’s Operations manager, a parent and former teacher explains.
“It’s only sent once per week, and we know some parents want to see this more often. The email digest is also limited in terms of the information provided – there are no grades or scores.”
Additionally, it’s a static email and parents do not have the ability to log into Teams whenever they’d like to check up on their child’s homework progress.
Enhancing parental engagement with Haldor Homework.
Haldor Homework bridges the gap and allows parents and guardians to log in on-demand and find out what has been set in Teams and the current status of assignments.
Haldor gives a more in-depth view of assignments, showing homework details, rubrics and grades.
“It’s really useful for parents and guardians to be able to read the rubrics and grading criteria. It really involves the parents in their child’s learning,” says Darren.
What’s more, there’s no additional work for schools and admin teams as it links directly with Microsoft School Data Sync – there’s no need to create parents’ accounts or reset passwords.
Parents simply sign up themselves and gain access to their child’s homework information. If they have multiple children at the school, they can flick between profiles in a few taps.
On top of this, Haldor Homework is integrated with Microsoft’s accessibility tools, making the app inclusive and accessible for a broad spectrum of needs.
Microsoft’s Immersive Reader enables the user to change the style and appearance of the text to help with reading comprehension.
Parents can also use the Read Aloud tool to get the information read to them via their speakers or headphones.
Meanwhile, the Translate tool and Picture Dictionary are particularly helpful for breaking down language barriers.
“During the pandemic, we saw many parents teaching their children from home and becoming very engaged in their child’s learning. Now the schools in the UK have gone back to the classroom; it’s exciting to see a tool like Haldor Homework continuing the blended learning spirit,” Tony Phillips, Founder of Cloud Design Box adds.
Please note: to set up the weekly assignment email for parents and use the Haldor Homework app, your school or trust will need to use Microsoft School Data Sync, the industry-standard way to automate your Class Teams and pull through parent/guardian contact details. If you need support with this, please get in touch with a member of our team.
