A daycare tells guardians the same things every week. What the group did, what is on the menu next week, who needs care during the holidays and when the parents’ evening is. Often each of these has its own channel: the weekly letter by email, the menu on the hallway wall, a poll on a paper slip and a reminder in a WhatsApp group.
In Knuut, all of these are announcements. An announcement always has the same parts. It is sent to the whole organisation, to one unit or to one group. It has formatted text, and you can add images to it. The guardian gets a notification on their phone, and staff can see who has read it.
This article gives four examples of how to use the same tool.
A weekly letter for the group
The weekly letter is the most common announcement. A member of the group’s staff chooses their own group as the recipient, and the announcement goes only to the guardians of the children in that group. Nobody maintains a recipient list by hand. When a child moves from one group to another, their guardians receive the next letter from the new group.
The text can be structured with headings and lists, and images go straight into the text. Photos from the forest trip appear where the trip is described, not as a separate pile of attachments at the end of the message. The month’s programme or the words to a song can be attached as a file.
On Friday, read receipts show how many guardians have opened the letter. They also tell you whether important matters belong in the letter in future or need an announcement of their own.
The weekly menu
The menu concerns the whole unit, so it is sent to the unit and not to a group. The list from the kitchen or the catering service is attached to the announcement as it is, as a PDF file or an image. Nobody needs to retype it.
The guardian gets a notification on their phone when the menu is published. The menu stays in the announcements in the guardian’s app, so nobody needs to ask in the hallway on Wednesday what was for lunch today. An image opens directly in the app, and a PDF file can be opened or saved to the phone.
The same approach works for other recurring attachments: the monthly activity calendar, opening hours during the holidays and the programme for the spring celebration.
A poll answered per child
When you need an answer from guardians, you create a poll instead of an announcement. A poll has ready-made options, and you can set a deadline for it. Depending on how the poll is set up, the guardian can choose one or more options, and you can allow additional information with the answer.
The answer is given separately for each child. This solves polls such as summer care needs, where the older child in a family is in care at the start of July and the younger one not at all. The same works for trip sign-ups, photo permissions and the number of people coming to a parents’ evening.
Staff can see which children still have no answer. A reminder goes out with one tap, and it reaches only those who have not answered. Guardians who have already answered are not disturbed.
A trip, a parents’ evening or a closure day
In an announcement about an event or an exception, the most important thing is the right audience. A planning day for the whole chain is sent to the organisation. A water outage at one unit is sent to that unit. The preschool group’s visit to the swimming pool is sent to one group. Nobody receives a message that does not concern them, and that is why the messages are actually read.
Read receipts are at their most useful here. If the daycare is closed on Friday, it is worth knowing on Thursday who has not seen the announcement. You can call them or tell them at pick-up.
An announcement can also be sent from the unit’s phone. A staff member opens the app with their own PIN code, and the announcement shows who sent it. A change to the trip day reaches guardians even when the director is not at a computer.
What announcements are not for
Matters that concern one child do not belong in an announcement. For those, each child has their own conversation between the guardians and staff. Running out of spare clothes, giving medicine and an agreed pick-up person are handled there, with attachments. Other guardians cannot see the conversation.
The split is the same as in everyday life. A matter shared by everyone is told once to the right audience, and a single child’s matter stays between their family and staff. Read more about announcements, polls and conversations on the communication feature page.