Popular app cuts school's paper trail

Stella and Cooper Angus with mum, Philly, love the Lynmore School app. Photo/Ben Fraser

Lynmore Primary School is the face of the future as it ditches paper notices for a school-wide app.

Lynmore Primary School principal Lorraine Taylor said she saw a Hawke's Bay high school advertising its app on Facebook.

"I saw it and thought it was a great idea so contacted the developers late last year and got the ball rolling," she said.

"It was quite a long process because once it had been developed, we needed to send it to Apple and Android to be approved before it went live."

The app is free for parents and the school pays a monthly fee to developer SnApp for updates and modifications.

"The feedback from parents has been overwhelming. We are a large school with lots of events and sporting codes," Ms Taylor said. "Prior to the app, parents said they found it hard to keep up to date."

Lymore Primary used to print about 680 newsletters at a time and Ms Taylor thinks with the success of the app the school will slowly phase out hard-copy notices.

"There are still a few challenges as some areas of Rotorua are without cellphone coverage. Once this gets solved, the app will ideally be used for most communication."

The app sends out "alerts" which flash across parents' smartphones with last-minute changes for events.

As well, parents can use it to check notices, view upcoming events, notify the school of absences and search staff contact details.

Sports co-ordinator Ingrid Fisher said the app had changed the way she did her job: "It is so useful for sending out last-minute notices about changes to sports practices and clarifying information for parents.

"I used to send hundreds of emails and now I can send one alert that reaches all the parents, it's fantastic."

Board of trustees member and mum of Carter, Abbie Proudley, said the app was brilliant.

"It is so fast and efficient and it's great because you can tailor it specifically to your needs," she said. "Carter is in kapa haka and does hockey, cricket and swimming, so I am able to subscribe to those alerts."

Mrs Proudley said it was a bonus not getting lots of paper every week and being able to check dates of upcoming events.

Lynmore Primary is the first school in Rotorua to develop an app for this purpose.