Newsletters for parents: How to stand out in their inbox

Communication with parents in childcare can be tricky. You may already have a newsletter that you print out and post each week in your early years setting, or you may use a WhatsApp group chat.

But what if you feel like parents are still unengaged or uninformed?

As an early childhood educator, digital newsletters are your key to good communications. An email newsletter might not be anything revolutionary, but there’s a lot that separates a good newsletter from a bad one. In this story, we’ll look at the moving parts of an effective newsletter.

Using digital newsletters gives you the ability to easily keep all your important information in one place, saving you time on chasing around parents, and ensuring that everyone is always on the same page. That way, you can save face-to-face time for what really matters!

But a newsletter shouldn’t stand alone. Child care management software gives you loads of tools too — which, in combination with a good newsletter, will bring your parent partnerships to a new level.

Let’s take a look at some tips for how you can effectively take your parent newsletter digital, and bring your early years community closer.

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What does a good parent newsletter look like?

There are several factors that can make or break your digital newsletters.

For starters, it’s key to present parents with an easy read. Keeping things short and sweet can help to keep parents engaged in what you’re communicating to them. 

In terms of how you share your information, it’s important to be personable in your communication with parents in childcare. Instead of placing your focus on just regurgitating important information and updates to your families, try phrasing things like you’re having a conversation with one of your parents. 

To write an effective newsletter, you could:

• Break up large bodies of text into bullet points.
• Integrate various colours and images — it’s always more effective to make a newsletter nice to look at. If you need a little help with this, Canva has some free, simple templates to help your weekly newsletter shine.
• Use friendly greetings, and include a personal note or a story from the classroom. Sharing practical info is important, but part of these newsletters for parents is about making that personal connection.
• Use a positive, active voice, and maintain a friendly tone to build and strengthen parent engagement. Try to avoid too much educator jargon, unless it's directly relevant.
• Ensure parents can access your newsletter in their home or preferred language.

Here's a helpful tip: It's important to start with a great subject line, to make sure your email newsletter stands out in a busy inbox. You might consider always starting with your program's name, or a consistent emoji to help families recognize your newsletters.

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What do preschool parents need from a newsletter?

It’s important to remain personable when communicating with parents online. Since they’re reading your newsletter from behind a screen, you want to ensure that they’re not skipping over anything important. Using a welcoming subject line in your email, and starting off your newsletter with a friendly opening, are great ways to engage most parents.

Your communication with parents in child care should always contain any important info in bold text. Highlighted text can also help, too. Examples of those important points could be:

• Dates for upcoming events
• Reminders
• Upcoming deadlines
• Key info from special events in the previous month 

Since parents may not have the capacity to stay up to date with your early years settings’ calendar, it’s helpful for them to see everything in one place. 

Here’s a helpful tip: Since your newsletter is digital, you can include clickable links to make it easier for parents to access event websites, resources, photos, calendars, or sign-up webpages.

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Giving a glimpse into children's learning

Preschool parents love seeing what their children have been learning and doing throughout the day. Sometimes, your newsletters can be the perfect interval to show how much children have grown.

One way to do this is by sharing photos of some activities you’ve done in your early years setting, or by briefly explaining some key topics and lessons you’ve covered. Similarly, sharing what you plan on covering in the next month, or until your next newsletter is sent out, is valuable for parents as well. 

Doing this on a regular basis can help families feel more involved in what's going on in your classroom. By staying up to date with what their children are doing in your early years setting, it allows them to stay engaged and involved with their child’s learning and development. 

If you have space in your newsletter, and permission to do so, you can also share any upcoming birthdays, milestones, or accomplishments of children or staff at your establishment. Perhaps you want to share that one of your children learned to write their name, or that a staff member recently received a promotion. Keeping parents and staff informed about things to celebrate is a great way to continue building connections with families.

How childcare software can factor into these upgrades?

Childcare software makes it even easier for you to engage with parents in your early years setting. By making use of digital tools, like instant messaging and automatic updates, you can be sure to keep parents engaged by sending updates straight to their pockets!

It’s likely that you, your team, and your families are already juggling lots of documents and materials. It can become overwhelming when trying to keep everything organised. Utilizing childcare software allows you to see important information all in one place. Through daily updates, instant messaging, and automatic reminders, it makes it even easier for you to stay organised and build better parent partnerships.

Not to toot our own horn, but Famly offers various in-app features to make your communication with parents in child care easier. Whether you’re new here, or you’re already using our software, here are a few handy in-app features to enhance your communication with parents:

• The Newsfeed: Here, you can share posts, updates, and photos and/or videos with parents and staff, all at once!
• Calendar: This feature allows you to easily keep track of any events – whether in your early years setting, or in the local community – as well as send invites out to parents and staff.
• Activity planner: With this, you can create and post weekly activity schedules to share with parents and staff – it’s never been easier to keep everybody in the loop!
• Live in-app translation: Instantly enable parents to understand the message clearly, in the language they're most comfortable with.

We know it can be difficult to always keep parents up to date. One thing to keep in mind is that there are digital solutions to the unread newsletter and group chat problem. By integrating these tips, or using childcare software, you can be sure to keep parents informed, and maintain their engagement. Saving time on communicating with parents allows you to spend more time on what really matters: the little ones!