Launching Hero at your school - Families

Prepare Hero so that the end-user experience is a smooth as possible:

1. Review your app settings:
   • Review the app settings in the School App Options section. This is where you add links to other school-related webpages to your Landing Page. More...
   • Update the options on the ‘What can Parents see?’ section on Hero. More...
   • Check that you are happy with the pages that are open for parents to view.
   • Check that your school dates have been updated for this year. School dates are used to control some of what families can see on the Hero App (for example they can view the days that the school will be closed). This is also used when reporting absences. More...
   • Log in as a parent at this stage to check you are happy with what families are able to view with your current settings.

Plan your communications:

1. Request a free promotional pack from the Hero team.
   • Contact the Hero team via your software. Click on the ? icon> Contact Us.
   • When your pack arrives, decide on the date and times to begin using the resources.
2. Update your website and other online platforms:
   • Add the Hero app link (go.linc-ed.com) to the school’s website. Download images to use for the website. More...

Prepare your internal team for the launch:

1. Share your plan and best practice guidelines with staff
   • Inform your staff of the school’s plan for launching the family app and where to direct parents for assistance.
   • Set and share school-wide expectations around frequency, timing and content of posts. For example, you may want to encourage the use of writing regular small updates rather than the use of long-form updates of PDF documents that may be too much information for families.

Inform and engage your community:

1. Communicate using a variety of channels.
   • Article: Adapt the text (see appendix) to your school’s context and add to the next newsletter. Download
   • Bookmarks: Print bookmarks for sending home to parents. Download
   • Flyer: Share the promotional flyer with families (This includes a QR code to download the app). Have flyers in the office, on the coffee table in the foyer, at the canteen, library or any other area of the school parents and caregivers are likely to visit. Download
   • Poster: Print promotional posters to display. Display promotional posters in the office and high traffic areas of the school. Download
   • Parent sessions: Run parent sessions to introduce and demonstrate Hero to parent.
   • Video: Create a video showing parents how to use the Hero app based on the personalisations your school has made.
2. Prepare new enrolment Hero packs
   • Use post analysis to check for parents not receiving notifications and not able to log in
   • Create a new enrolment Hero pack for families of newly enrolled students. This could contain a written introductory paragraph, flyer, bookmark etc.

Support families to get started:

1. Provide support to families as they explore Hero.
   • Have a staff member available before and/or after school to assist parents with logging in.
   • Morning tea/coffee drop-in session.
   • Transition to school meetings - include a section on using Hero.
   • New families session - include a section on using Hero.
2. Support parents who speak English as an additional language to understand your school’s vision for communication and reporting, and how to use the Hero app.
   • Identify a parent from each ethnic/language group and assist them with learning how to use the app so they can support other parents.
   • Send home translated introduction to Hero information.
   • Students make videos for parents in home languages.

Promote the app with your community:

1. Celebrate the parents and caregivers who have logged into the app.
   • “My Mum is a Hero” certificate.
2. Run competitions and weekly prize draws.
   • Community post keyword competition or Parent post competition. Download
   • Hero Quiz Download
3. Have a parent or caregiver share the benefits of using Hero.
   • Once parents and caregivers are logging into the Hero app, have a parent share about their positive experiences.
   • Interview a family member and share this via the community feed.

Regular review, reflect and update:

1. Undertake a review of family engagement.
   • Navigate to any post and click on the three dots> Analyse Engagement.
   • Identify parents who have not read posts and offer support to log in.
2. Undertake a review of staff use of the Community Feed feature to ensure best practice
   • Is the school communicating regularly via Hero?
   • Is all communication being sent through the one channel - Hero?
   • Is the timing and frequency of posts appropriate?
   • Is information centralised so that parents are not receiving multiple messages with the same content from multiple staff members?