The Schudio Free School App – How to Launch Perfectly
The Schudio Free School App – How to Launch Perfectly
The Schudio Free School App is being used well by lots of schools but Carr Hill High School have just launched their app in a brilliant, innovative way that we just had to share.
The Schudio Free School App was built to offer schools a free, easy to use way of engaging their school community effectively. There are other apps around and some are great, some not so great. The difference is that every single other app that is out there is a paid service – the Schudio App is completely free and will be forever.
Through the app schools can add News, Events, Term Dates, Blog, Contact Details, Absence Notifications, links to Social Networks and Announcements (including push notifications) and are all easily managed through the Schudio School Website CMS.
Carr Hill High School in Lancashire do a great job with their school website and are one of the best schools we work with at keeping their content fresh and up to date. They have recently launched the Schudio Free School App to their school community and they’ve gone through a step-by-step process to really nail the launch and make it highly effective.
Step 1 – Make sure your app is fully set up and looks great
Whether you are signing up for a free app or you take full advantage of the free app that you get when you sign up for a new School Website from Schudio we will make sure that your app looks fantastic. You just need to send us some images and your logo and we’ll do the rest. There really is no catch – we’ll do all the work for you.
Step 2 – Add some great content
This is the most important thing you’ll have to do to make sure your app is used effectively and Carr Hill have this nailed! They’re using the Schudio School Website CMS so they’re not duplicating the work when they want to add, for example, a News article to their free school app.
If you don’t have the Schudio School Website CMS it is incredibly easy to add content and we’ll show you how to make sure you are getting the full benefits of your app.
That’s actually the main reason that the Schudio Free School App is free and always will be – we don’t believe you should have to pay to do a job more than once. You could sign up for an app with another provider and have to add content to your website and then add it to your app, and then pay for the privilege. We think that’s a bit much to ask and so the app is completely free to everyone.
In terms of the content and keeping it up to date – just make sure you’re adding news at least once a month, keep your events / calendar / term dates up to date, and point your community to the app as a way of contacting you and they will start to use it.
Step 3 – Create a launch strategy & your website to promote it
This is where you need to think ahead a little bit and put a few plans in place. Below you’ll find a list of things to do to make sure your app is launched effectively to your school community. Carr Hill have set the bar high here but you’ll see from the list below, all of these are really easy to achieve, especially if you have a website that is incredibly easy to manage.
- Create a page on your website with instructions on how parents can set up the app – see Carr Hill for a great example of this. (have a look and see how incredibly easy it is for parents to set up the app!)
- Add an eye-catching announcement on your website – when you go to Carr Hill’s website it is currently the first thing you see, you can’t miss it! (in the Schudio School Website Software adding a ‘splash image’ takes seconds)
- Send out an email / printed newsletter to back up your online campaign to get parents using the app, making sure you include instructions for parents.
If you are a Schudio School Website client and you’re not currently using the app fully then do let us know.
Emma Bateson from Carr Hill explains why it has been so easy to get going with the website and indeed the app; “The CMS provided by Schudio is simple to use. It did not take us long to navigate the dashboard and other features. We were quickly using the CMS like it had been in place for years.”
