We Asked Parents What They Want from Your School Emails

We all know the feeling of facing an overwhelming deluge of emails when we check our inbox. When you write and send a school email to parents, you need to make sure you’re not adding to their angst with a needless communication. If you are, the email will be heading straight for the junk folder.

We asked parents what they really want from school emails, so you can make sure yours are read. Here are some of the most common responses.

“They Should Have a Real Purpose”

With every email you send, you are indirectly demanding time and attention from every recipient. It is therefore important that every email you send has a purpose and, ideally, is relevant to every recipient.

If not to directly inform parents of something they need to know about, your emails should, at the very minimum, refer to something genuinely novel and of particular interest.

“They Should Address Us as Equals”

As well as respecting the time of parents and carers, schools should also consider whether or not they are using appropriate language in their emails.

Parents and carers of children at your school put a lot of trust in you. Naturally, they want to be addressed as equals, to demonstrate that you value their trust and opinion. Avoiding an overly authoritative tone will help to show that you view parents as partners in the education of their children.

Conversely, however, you should also make sure not to be too informal in your writing. On occasion, taking a formal tone is important, and for some topics, being informal comes across as disrespectful or insensitive.

Striking a balance is crucial.

“They Should Get Straight to the Point”

As people have short attention spans, and often very little spare time, it is crucial to make sure your key message is prominent within any communication. When you’re writing an email on behalf of your school, ensure the reader is drawn to the most important information within the first few sentences. That way, even if they only carry on reading for a few moments more, they have received the most important message.

School emails should always start with the primary information, with other details following in line with their importance.

“They Should Make It Clear What We Can Do”

A term often used in the world of marketing, a ‘call to action’ is a prompt for the reader of a communication to carry out a specific action. This could be visiting a website for more information, or calling a number to buy a ticket.

As we mentioned earlier, every school email should have a specific purpose. With the purpose in mind, you should also consider what action you want parents to take after reading your email. For example, if you are informing parents and carers about an upcoming event, let them know if they need to sign up or confirm their attendance.

By including a call to action at the end of your communication, you give parents instruction on how to get involved; something many of them are keen to do.

We’re Here to Help

Writing an effective school email takes a lot of thought as well as time that teachers often don’t have.

Here at Eduprise, we’re experts in communicating with parents on behalf of schools, especially using emails. Whether you’re looking for templates that help you structure emails now and in the future, or you’d like someone to produce the emails for you, we’d be happy to help. Contact the team today to find out how we can make your emails unmissable.