Why should your school switch to an online calendar system?

Your school will host a myriad of events throughout the year such as parents’ evenings, coffee mornings, sports days, charity events, clubs, trips and shows. But coordinating these can be made so much easier by using an online calendar system such as Google, Microsoft or one provided with your MIS or school website.

The 6 key benefits of an online calendar system:

Sustainability

With increased communications around climate change, a heightened awareness of corporate responsibility and the need to be eco-friendly and sustainable, it’s time to move away from one-time use paper-based solutions (even if they can be recycled). Online calendars can help to reduce your organisation’s digital footprint and cut down on excess paper wastage.

Coordination

Trying to manually collate appointments from various paper diaries owned by different people can be a minefield, especially if you’re all working from multiple locations. Using an online calendar means information can accessed from any location and by anyone who needs it – quickly and efficiently.

Security

A physical paper diary is an insecure means of transmitting information due to its relative portability and vulnerability. It can be easily lost, stolen or damaged and there is unlikely to be a backup version. This means that in these situations, any information lost will be permanently irretrievable.

A personal online calendar can be linked to your own email address and password protected, with the option to choose who can view the content. It can also be backed up on the cloud to avoid data loss.

Shared visibility

If you have a calendar which needs to be maintained by multiple people, using an online provider is the ideal solution. You can set permissions, determining who has the responsibility to edit, create and delete events, and users will be able to see, in real time, when an event has been updated. Attendees can also receive invites to their own personal calendars, ensuring they never miss a meeting or important date.

Recurring events

If you have a weekly after school club or a regular day where children require their PE kit, then an online calendar can help you to save time and avoid duplicating the same event onto multiple days. A digital calendar (such as Google or Microsoft) will allow you to set recurring events on a daily, weekly or monthly basis by simply adding one event and changing a few settings.

If an event stored online is cancelled you can also simply change the title to ‘Cancelled’ or remove the event entirely, rather than having to reissue a whole new paper calendar which will take time, effort and money. Any attendees who have subscribed to the event, will receive an automatic update advising the date has been amended or removed.

Integration with other systems

One of the best things about an online calendar system is that it can integrate with other systems such as your school website, MIS or remote learning setup to help you avoid unnecessary duplication of work. You can create a public facing calendar which can be synced to your website or internal systems, allowing your community to see the latest events and dates in real time.

You can add colour-coded categories (such as year group or key stage) for easy identification and parents can subscribe to the calendar using their phone, to receive automatic updates and amends.

Check out these customers who make great use of their school website calendar: