Good Push Notifications

Push Notifications can be incredibly effective when utilised correctly. Here are our tips and tricks to get the most from them.

Push Notifications can be sent to you App users to help direct their attention when you want it! Maybe you've made a change to the school calendar, want your staff to complete a digital test, or your parents to see a resource about Safety Settings.

They appear just like a notification you might receive from other apps on your phone like Instagram or Whatsapp. But how do you make them, and how do you use them well?

Consistency

Your adult users will receive selected push notifications from the Safer Schools NI App containing safeguarding updates, alerts and blogs from us at Safer Schools NI. It can therefore be important to differentiate any push notifications sent out directly from the school. Try and keep your Title and body used consistent, with a similar structure and language to help differentiate. You could even use your school name at the beginning of the notifications.

Clear and Concise

Push notifications have a 200 character limit in the Body, and only 40 for the Title. It is important to make your push notification clear and concise. We suggest include what a post relates to in the title, for example if its the latest holidays at the start of term, titling it "School Holidays Update!" would be great! You could even include an emoji to make it eye catching.

Other Considerations

1. Is it timely? You can schedule a push notification for a specific time or date to ensure it has the best engagement. For example, PN's to busy parents first thing in the morning might get lost in the start of their day, but it might be ideal for an older pupil as they're heading into school.

2.  Is it actionable? The push notification should make it clear what the user should do next. For example, if you are wanting to inform staff of a Safeguarding Risk, include a link to a page within your Safer Schools NI App or a resource that would give them guidance on what action to take next.

3. Is it Specific? You can send the notification to a specific user role. Ensure the contents of a notification is appropriate to the group you're engaging with. For example, informing staff that they need to return their child's school photo permission slips wouldn't be relevant to them!

Notifications that aren't relevant to users will cause them to disengage with notifications from the App and then they might miss important ones in the future.