Connecting community with ClassDojo

Messaging parents and carers through a private app is seeing attendance returning to pre-Covid levels at Nemingha Public School.

ClassDojo has proven a boon for the small school near Tamworth, with 99% of families actively using it to connect with the school.

By messaging daily, parents are getting up to date information about what’s happening in classes, what their children are learning and participating in, and what key events are coming up.

All these combined helps give parents an understanding of what their children would miss out on if they did not attend school.

As a result, attendance is 91.6% of students attending school at target levels which is 6.1% higher than the state average, 8.5% higher than the network average and 3.6% higher than similar size school group.

“Each class has its own account, and teachers post photos of learning activities at least three times a week, resulting in about 40 new stories each week,” said Principal, Skye Davis.

And as it’s not a public channel, there are no concerns about privacy.

“The parents and carers feel really comfortable with it, and actively use the messaging function to engage with the school and teachers directly,” said Mrs Davis. While Nemingha is using ClassDojo, other apps and tools are available which could provide similar results.

The school is now looking at setting up a Facebook page to complement the private channels, so that they can proudly show off their achievements to the wider community.