Facebook for Whanau
Earlier this year we set up a school facebook page as another means of communicating with our parents and whanau, a task we are always looking for new and engaging ways to go about! Last year at a hui held at school based around Maori achievement, a number of parents indicated that they would be keen for us to communicate via this method.
The types of communication we include on our fb page are;
- Reminders of up coming events - sports, trips, 3 way conferences, assemblies etc
- Thanking parents who help out at school
- Sharing successes of staff and students
- Sharing photos of events around the school
- Organising events and asking for parental support
- Promoting our school values
At the time of writing this we have 32 'likes.' Difficult to really guage whether it is having a huge impact on opening up communication but the parents who are involved seem to visit it regularly. We are aware that a reasonably high proportion of our parent community do not have internet access. Of the 32, a few are staff and past members of the school. Some are also our current students (about 4) which highlights the importance of our digital citizenship work mentioned in other posts,(/blog/view/699816/digital-citizenship) as they are certainly not 13 yet! Fb will be a topic we bring to the attention of parents during future e-Learning discussions.
I welcome any feedback/comments from other schools who are successfully using fb as a means of communication, and have/are also facing the 'too young for fb but on it anyway' issue within schools 
Cheers
Comments
We also have noted that for our families facebook works. we are now constantly uploading photos and information to our facebook. many families who do not read newsletters, or access the website are in touch regularly through Facebook. Sue
Since this initial post, Somerset Cres Facebook now has 49 likes and the page is being visited more frequently by staff and whanau. It is definitely an effective medium to contact and communicate with our community. The emphasis is still largely based around sharing and celebrating successes. New parents are alerted to our page via their infromation booklet given out at the time of enrolment so we hope it continues to grow.
Our facebook page is used to share photos of what is going on in school, but also of reminder of events. There are 189 likes on the page (which considering our roll is around 240) shows that lots of parents use this page. Parents frequently comment on postings. This shows that this an effective use of technology to engage the family/whanau.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/St-James-Catholic-School-Palmerston-North/209913949027338
Facebook is continuing to become popular with our parents and students alike. Many of our senior students are contributing by writing sport game reviews and photos which is great for our parents to hear the students voices. The hits are growing and we are finding that family that live overseas are also accessing it more regularly.
I have found using a Facebook page for my class more beneficial than a blog (which I still use for learning areas) where I can contact parents easier than email or phonecall anytime, anywhere. My students do not have the password, for the page, however they do contribute with my consent. My blog had 1 follower (non-staff) my Facebook page nearly 40, from a country school, that's great. Give it a go. My advice is to make sure you check your settings, and filtering, you don't want to get caught short with undesirable clips on your page.