A priority for principals in the new year will no doubt be getting ahead of the curve on their administrative tasks, which are taking up an increasing amount of school leaders’ time and leading to burnout.
Reports show that school leaders are suffering from burnout (1.6 times the population); stress (1.7 times); sleeping troubles (2.2 times); depressive symptoms (1.3 times); somatic stress symptoms (1.3 times); cognitive stress symptoms (1.6 times).
As expected, there has been a backlash from the profession over increasing administration and compliance duties. However, while some state governments are being proactive about the issue, thousands of principals continue to struggle.
This is one factor that led mother of two, Sharlene Barnes, to develop the Skool Loop App, which is being adopted by an increasing number of schools across Australia and New Zealand.
“A primary goal of the Skool Loop app is to reduce administrative burden on schools,” Barnes told The Educator.
“We want principal’s to spend their time on the important things and not worrying about time-heavy admin. This is why the app streamlines tasks such as; permission slips, the school newsletter and instant alerts to parents, all through the app.”
What makes the app so efficient, says Barnes, is that this information goes directly to parents, meaning that school and parents no longer have to rely on kids to be the primary communicator between the two.
“We can now wave goodbye to notes or newsletters stuffed into the bottom of the school bag,” Barnes said.
Secure for schools and students
One concern that often holds schools back from investing in apps, said Barnes, is the digital privacy of the students and staff that use them. However, she pointed out that the app has been designed to be as secure as possible for schools and students.
“We worked closely with our technicians to ensure the highest levels of security. As a result, Skool Loop can’t be used to access personal parent and school data, we don’t request any to be loaded through the app,” Barnes said.
Skool Loop memorizes the IP address of the device being used to access the app but does not request any personal information and we have no access to school databases.
“This is extremely important to us, and we constantly monitor our activity to give parents and schools the peace of mind that they have the highest level of security,” she said.
Barnes said one feature of the app that will be a “huge benefit” to both schools and parents is the e-permission slip function which allows parents to receive an alert notifying them that a new permission slip is available to sign.
“This allows parents to sign the permission slip right there on the app,” she explained.
Barnes said this saves parents a “significant amount of time and effort” and also means that they get their permission slips on time.
“It also streamlines the process for the school, teachers no longer have to chase up notes from students each morning as they have been collated and sent straight back to the school admin via the app,” Barnes said.