Keeping up is hard to do, but a local school has taken a giant leap forward in making it a lot easier with a unique technology investment.
Bulkley Valley Christian School (BVCS) has just launched a custom school app called MyBVCS that keeps parents, students and staff connected using their mobile devices — phones, tablets and laptop computers.
“As a preschool through Grade 12 institution, we are an incredibly busy and diverse community,” say Tom Grasmeyer, development director at BVCS.
“A ‘normal’ day might include school trips, special events, athletics practices, and music or drama rehearsals. Coordinating everything with parents, students and staff becomes a communications task before anything else. This new app helps with that.”
Developed by BC-based Appazur Solutions, the MyBVCS app is an off-the-shelf solution that is customized and branded for school communities and is widely used throughout the province. The app allows parents, students and staff to select their courses, groups, clubs and classes and receive calendars, news and event information particular to their own interests.
“The app also ties our website’s news feed, Facebook and Instagram pages, teacher email lists and other news sources into one seamless interface. No longer do parents need to get frustrated as they scour our website, photocopied news bulletins or email trails to find important information. With a few taps they have everything they need in one, handheld location — their phone. Parents without phones can access the same app through a web interface on their computers,” Grasmeyer explained further.
Schools are increasingly turning to mobile technology to fulfill important communications needs. It’s important for schools to have a quick and effective communications protocol in place in case of school-wide emergencies. The MyBVCS app will allow the school to broadcast emergency alerts directly and immediately to parents in case of school lockdown, fire, earthquake, weather cancellations, bus issues or other events.
What difference has it made to BVCS?
“This was just released [the first week of December], so our community is still in the ‘adaptation’ phase — installing and getting used to it. It’s too early to tell, but I am confident that this tool will quickly become an indispensable tool to our school community,” said Grasmeyer.
BVCS parents can find out more at www.bvcs.ca.
– Submitted by BVCS.