Raising awareness amongst new parents

Your new parents will be more receptive to paying online, as they won't necessarily know and different, and are therefore ideal targets for increasing ParentPay signups.

There are various ways of letting your new intake parents know about your school collecting income online. Why not put an announcement in the newsletter, or post on the school website, letting them know what ParentPay is, and how it will help parents and the school?

Posters can be put up around the school, encouraging parents to activate their accounts.

A presentation could be shown during intake parents evenings and open days.

For more information on resources available for promoting to parents, see article Promoting ParentPay to parents.

Get ahead

• You can send out activation letters or emails ahead of the new term.
• Why not encourage your parents to the Parent Support site where they can find supporting videos and documents to get them started.
• Find out how using PayPoint and Bank Transfer can help your school go cashless.

Tasks for the school

At the end of the summer term, you can upload pre-admission pupils, allowing you to get your new intake on the system and ready for the new year ahead.  See the Uploading and importing section for more information.

Once on you will need to send out activation letters or emails for the pre-admission or provisional intake.

Incentivising parents

There are various ways to encourage parents to activate their accounts and start making payments online:

• Offer a computer in reception and invite parents to come into your school to activate their account.
• Set up a ParentPay booth at intake parents evenings or open days.
• Organise a ParentPay session after school, inviting parents to take a few minutes to activate.
• Consider a promotion, such as a Christmas dinner that can only be paid for through the ParentPay service.