With online reporting due to take effect from 2012 Primary Schools should now be taking a strategic look at how they can use New Technology to engage parents. Primary schools have time to get simple, effective and low cost ideas working in advance of full-blown reporting to engage parents. In an environment where budgets and technical expertise are in shorter supply than in secondary schools primary schools who seek guidance can exploit low cost and free technologies such as email, SMS text and Social Networks to engage with parents and improve home school communication.

The challenges for primary schools where young children are not able to be a reliable conduit for communication between school and home are big, but the opportunities are massive and with training non-technical staff in primary school can revolutionise how they communicate with families.