FreshSchools

Great for communication

Commentaires : FreshSchools is a great way to increase parent and community involvement in the school. Having parents engaged in their child's education is invaluable and really makes a difference in that child's life. For this reason I would highly recommend FreshSchools.

Avantages :

FreshSchools is a great tool for parent and community engagement. The school I teach at has seen a lot of positive improvement from using it. With FreshSchools, rather than having long email chains where details get buried, parents have a central place to access information. It is very user friendly and has a visually appealing interface.

Inconvénients :

It took a while to get set up with it, but other than that I haven't had any issues with the software. It would be nice if a totally free version was offered rather than just a free trial.

A great suite that covers all the basics, plus delivers really powerful fundraising tools

Commentaires : After an exhaustive search and trial of school/community/PTA communication tools, we finally arrived at FreshSchools.
Our core requirements for an online suite were:
* Easy to use for all
* Available on the web, mobile web, Android, iOS.
* Must have well-developed fundraising tools
* Affordable
* Well organized volunteer opportunity fulfillment
* Privacy, security and user choice
* Great directory/roster After a few days trying out the software, it was clear that not only did it meet our needs, it exceed in many areas. It is clear that FreshSchools takes privacy and security seriously, and they communicate their practices on their main site. You can reach your content on any device, from anywhere, a must in today's multi-screen world. The cost is sensible, flexible, and much lower and other products that don't have nearly as much to offer. The integrated fundraising tools are really a huge boost to our small school community. The ability to be able to share fundraising event externally in a beautiful vibrant is key when sharing links across social media and traditional email. Being able to have one place to run reports is a big win for our fundraising volunteers. A simple volunteering interface bring a ton of value for our room parents, who now can create and manage events in one place and not worry about hunting down email addresses, they are all in the directory Glad to have a school store that is easy to maintain and use We have had great support from the FreshSchools team, and request for features has been delivered in a short time (weeks, not months) There are some places where FreshSchools is still growing and will get better I am sure:
* Documentation is sparse
* Customization is minimal
* Full calendar sync is needed
* Performance optimization (large lists can load slowly)
* Integration of 3rd party tools like Google analytics Overall our school community has benefited from our FreshSchools adoption, and it has been a great fit for our needs.

Avantages :

Easy to use, and has integrated fundraising tools.

Inconvénients :

The use of discussion boards needs to be expanded. Any parent should be able to start one, and you should be able to reply to a post via email. Calendar sync a must.

We used FreshSchools at my son's school. It was great the first two years.

Commentaires : Ease of use, great features, etc.

Avantages :

Once set up is done, so easy to use. For techies, this is great. Teachers can easily message parents of classes and assign work, send attachments, etc.

Inconvénients :

Getting everything set up is slightly cumbersome. Some features are not user friendly but for the most part it's a great software. Year 3 they hit us with double the annual fee, for fewer features and for the same features was going to be 75% more than previous two years, so that is a big con. Especially for small schools and or PTA/PTO.

FreshSchools is a great tool for parent engagement!

Commentaires : I started with FreshSchools early on and it has been a fantastic asset to our school. The school directory is a great way to put faces to names and figure out the parent/child relationships. How often do you see someone and you can't remember their name, but you know their child? FreshSchools makes it easy to look them up and save yourself that awkward dance of interacting with someone and trying to figure out their name. We have used the calendar extensively and piloted the communications functions for our Room Parents. Parents can sync their calendars and always be on top of what is happening at school. We rigged the volunteer system a bit to act as our Parent/Teacher Conference scheduler and the feedback we've gotten is that it is "easy peasy!" The best thing about FreshSchools is the support. When we were getting things set up, there were some hiccups and features that needed to be added and the willingness to listen to our requests an the immediate and friendly support from the FreshSchools team is incredible! We set up the school store and for the first time, our parents can buy merchandise online and it is incredibly easy to track and fulfill orders. FreshSchools is amazing and I HIGHLY recommend it!

Avantages :

The rapid pace of new features and responsiveness of the support team.

Inconvénients :

The emailing and communication features could be more robust, but with every week, new features are added and the support team is INCREDIBLY responsive.

This program has made a huge difference in the way our parents receive notifications.

Avantages :

This program has replaced our printed school directory. This app-based program allows our parents to communicate with the school, as well as, with each other. It is very user-friendly and parents are able to update their own information.

Inconvénients :

At this time, there is nothing that I can say is wrong with this program. The company has prompt support and my issues are always resolved.

It is unique in its style of school management!

Avantages :

Its interface is pleasant, although in this academic subject there are many actors, among them, students, teachers, parents and representatives, there are also several details to configure such as the degrees offered, the sections, the students, the professors, In spite of all these factors that must be configured, the application is responsible for doing it very easily. This software is applicable to any type of educational institution, and easily manages students, teachers, courses, rooms, galleries, documents, events, etc. that make up the day to day of a school community. I must point out that it speeds up the communication between the school, parents and students thanks to the technology of Internet use and the devices that just email.

Inconvénients :

Despite presenting its free trial version of 30 days, this software to be obtained completely has to pay for the license of use.

Incredible software - user-friendly, tons of features, great support!

Commentaires : FreshSchools is an amazing application. The team behind it are deeply committed to helping schools succeed without breaking the budget. They understand the technology, logistical and financial struggles of schools and because of that, have created a set of tools to ease all three types of challenges. The family directory is outstanding. Our families are able to easily reach out to one parent, their child(ren)s whole classes, teachers or anyone in the school - all while keeping contact information private if they want to. I love the ability to have photos of parents and students in the profiles - it makes it so much easier to put a face to a name. There are so many features that are typically scattered across several software tools. It isn't just a great family directory, but it includes an email service, volunteer sign ups, event creation and calendaring, a place to upload class and event photos, a file directory to put all of your school flyers and announcements and an incredible dashboard so you can see announcements, upcoming events and what is going on at any point in time. All of which can be shared with the entire school, one class or an entire grade. All of this is in the basic version - which is free! They also have a fundraising and emergency messaging module for very reasonable pricing. The support is fantastic, personalized and prompt. Whenever I suggest any improvements, I'm delighted to find out that they are in the pipeline and they often show up very soon after. I HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommend FreshSchools for your school!!

FreshSchools offers everything a school needs in one, self contained application

Commentaires : Overall, this has been a handy communication tool for staff and parents.

Avantages :

FreshSchools thought of everything that a school administrator might need in order to manage a school and communicate with parents. Onboarding is very easy for teachers. It is very easy to add students' and parents' information.

Inconvénients :

There aren't a lot of options for integration, for example Google Docs or Slack.

FreshSchools has offered our school a fresh approach to communication!

Commentaires : I was among a few teachers at our school that piloted FreshSchools for communicating with my classroom families.

Avantages :

I really love having all communication in one location - calendar, family information, messages, photos, and assignments. Having parents enter their own contact information saves a lot of time and easily keeps it current. I am able to contact parents in the way that works best for them - text or email - by only generating one message. Parents have a central place to locate all important classroom event details and current assignments. I can also set up sign-ups for volunteers to drive on field trips or bring snacks to a party.

Inconvénients :

I have not yet discovered any problems with the software. When I have had difficulty figuring something out, I was able to get customer support quickly. This school year all of the teachers at our school will be using FreshSchools. I look forward to more easily collaborating with my colleagues.

Easy Communication

Commentaires : FreshSchools has been useful for our school community to keep all families up-to-date on important event and information.

Avantages :

FreshSchools makes it easy to communicate with parents, homerooms, or other school community groups. Email reminders can be scheduled to send out reminders for important school events. It is user friendly for teachers and parents.

Inconvénients :

I haven't had any issues with the software.

Peninsula Montessori School Review

Commentaires : We decided at the beginning of the 2016 school year that we were going green and be a paperless school. Although it was a big leap of faith from our administration, teachers and parents, it has been a positive experience. The costumer service has been wonderful. Anytime we have had a suggestion or problem, we get a response within an hour or two. We will absolutely use FreshSchools again next year!

Avantages :

The app.

Inconvénients :

Photos sharing

Great change for our school!

Commentaires : We had a horrible system for our PTO in past years, but Fresh Schools has been a wonderful change! Already the teachers and parents are thrilled and actually excited to use it more and more. We are thrilled with the technical support, even after the initial set-up, and we appreciate that Fresh Schools are open to suggestions based on real-user needs. Thank you for helping to kick off this school year on a positive and supportive note!

Avantages :

Technical Support Intuitive, ease of use

Inconvénients :

We do not want some of the features in the left-menu and would love to hide them/customize Not all families have email, so we'd love to have this not be required We would love an area for teachers to schedule conferences

Intuitive, Functional, Responsive

Commentaires : FreshSchools has been a true asset to our school fundraising experience. The user interface is easy and intuitive for everyone to use. Customer support has been phenomenal. Our questions or concerns are quickly addressed and remedied by the stellar team at FreshSchools. There's room for growth in terms of features and functionality, but what is there works well for our whole team from fundraising to school directory to parent communication. We are certainly getting the value we expected from this software and more.

Avantages :

User interface.

Inconvénients :

Could use a touch more depth in terms of utilizing fundraising as a point of directory data entry, but otherwise it's great.

We started using FreshSchools this year and we absolutely love it.

Commentaires : The App is ridiculously easy to use, Customer Service is fantastic - we reported some "Nice to Have" ideas and they were implemented! If you are looking for a product that can keep your parents, PTO, and teachers actively involved and organized, FreshSchools is fantastic to use. Tech Savvy parents keep reporting how much they love that we've started using this for the directory, messaging, events, documents, and photos. FreshSchools is a great communication portal. I am looking forward to using this in our school for years to come!

Fantastic product that is easy to use and relevant.

Commentaires : I've been using FreshSchools for the last year. I have found that it is ver simple to navigate and although I had some questions at the beginning, I was immediately assisted by FreshSchools who were always very prompt in replies, courteous and helpful. It is very apparent to me that with each passing upgrade, they are making valuable changes that will help customers to utilize the platform with more ease and provide other effective tools within the application to encourage usage while at the same time providing privacy.

Communication Made Easy

Commentaires : I have to say this has been the best software I have ever used. The set up was a breeze gave Joe all the info he had requested and it was up and running rather very quickly. Very easy to use and user friendly Menus are easy to navigate it's not one of those menus under menus that have sub menus. One thing I want to see is a Mobile Admin App. Even thoughI love the fact that I can login with my smartphone it will still be nice to have an App. Overall I love the software can't wait to see the future updates there is to come.

Excellent Product

Commentaires : Our school was transitioning from a paper directory to a web-based program. FreshSchools was the best program to support our needs. Parents, teachers & administration love this program! The app is so easy to use and parents are able to update their own information! Best of all...It fits the needs of our budget.

Great suite of tools

Commentaires : Previous to Freshschools we were using a different tool for weekly emails, school calendar, fundraisers, file distribution and infrastructure. Freshschools allowed us to have every tool within a single easy to use interface. Previous to Freshschools, many of our processes relied on paper handouts and just-in-time communications (or miscommunications). Freshschools permission levels allowed us to delegate tasks to room parents that would previously be handled by one or two people for the whole school, enabling quicker and easier communication with parents.

Great service!

Commentaires : Pros: easy to use, can message parents all at once or by class or category, parents can access class rosters on the app, great customer service, free app:) Would highly recommend! Cons: the admin can't access from the app yet (waiting for new update), it is still a new app so there are a couple things that will be coming out in the new update but the customer service is always available and willing to listen to advice..

Great Classroom Resource

Commentaires : Fresh Schools is very easy to set up and get going quickly. I love how I can write a post and schedule events and know that the information is pushed out automatically to the audience I need to get to. It enables me to streamline all my documents and photos that I like to share.

Avantages :

I love the chalkboard. Once I post my message it is pushed out right away. But the best part is that the chalkboard will show all posts and can be referred to when needed.

Inconvénients :

There is not a thing I don't like about the software. However, I do wish I could post short videos. Also would love a page students could access to see documents and photos.

Best School - Parent Communication System and App

Commentaires : Fantastic online system for school admin, teachers and parents. Fresh Schools brings all the things everyone needs together in one centralized location. Room Parents, teachers, parents and admin can communicate with simplicity and efficiency. Calendar, class room roster, event sign up, extra curricular activities, photos and more, it all there. The App is essential, everything is in a central location. The pricing is great and the customer service is phenomenal. It's as easy as Amazon but made just for Schools.

Smartly built, expertly maintained

Commentaires : I spearheaded the implementation of FreshSchools for my daughter's grade school and in doing so worked very closely with Joe Matthews - his performance has been nothing but exceptional. Highly recommended. Very quick and decisive turn around on concerns and issues. It's a great system that will increase member's ability to communicate and keep administrative teams in contact with their constituency. Fundraising is simple, that the system hooks neatly into an App has been key. Parents love it.

Personalized Customer Service

Commentaires : Fresh Schools has been great to work with for our school. They are very responsive to any questions or issues and have gone above and beyond to help us to find solutions to our needs. The website and app are both attractive and user friendly. Our only hurdle has been to get parents utilize the app and the utilities that the site offers. The Fresh Schools team has been wonderful in working with us to get parents on board. We have been extremely pleased with Fresh Schools!

FreshSchools is amazing!

Avantages :

This is an easy way to connect parent’s , students and their schools to effectively have fundraisers. No more send home packets of papers and losing orders or money!

Inconvénients :

It would be nice if it had the day of the week labeled.

We love Fresh Schools

Commentaires : FreshSchools has been a great tool for improving communication at our school. It is easy to use and has several tools we love including the fundraising tool. The customer service is fantastic. I also appreciate that they continue to work to expand and improve the program.