People Services Spotlight

Clare Wright : Classlist

It was never going to be long before someone invented an efficient and practical way to communicate with other mothers (and fathers) in your child’s class.  I am over the endless ‘reply all’ filling your inbox and people starting a new email on the back of an old thread as they can’t (understandably) work out how to create a new group that you can send to with one click. I am in a Whatsapp group for my eldest sons class (Year 1). Frequently a topic has been started and never concluded as people miss it or they are onto the next thing quicker than you can say ‘did anyone take home Timmy’s swimming trunks?’ Anyway, let me get to the very exciting point. Clare Wright saw all these cracks and co founded Classlist.

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“Both myself and my co-founder Susan are ex-management consultants and have had children at several different schools due to moving house in the UK and abroad.  My eldest child has just started Senior School aged 13, and it is his fifth school, including 2 American schools in Brazil, where we lived for 4 years!”

Classlist is ideal for class and year group messaging, organising class/school events and RSVP.  Parents add their own details, which can only be seen by their own year group. Classlist is data protection registered, private and encrypted, and it makes communication with other parents quick and easy. It is basically a private social network just for your school.

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Classlist helps parents register, share and update whatever contact details they feel comfortable with.  When you send a message on Classlist it always uses the latest details.   We started out with a pilot at our own school, the Dragon School in Oxford, before building the mobile version of Classlist.  We seem to have hit the nail on the head in terms of what parents need, as we have lots of new classes and schools joining Classlist.com every week.

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There are some other great features based on the people in your school’s community: a school run sharing map (find other families nearby to share journeys with), and customisable private birthday invitations too.

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If you are a class rep or teacher I would register your class or school pronto!  It’s a game changer…

 

Clare’s Favourite

Shop : Brora

Website : Pinterest

Restaurant : Porthmeor Cafe on the beach and next to Tate St Ives in Cornwall

Hotel : My Blue Hotel, Jericoacoara, Northern Brazil

Holiday destination : Argentinian Patagonia

Parenting Tip

“This summer I was working a lot and my children had to amuse themselves. I wrote a blog piece for Classlist.com about what to do in the holidays, and I had a very positive reaction to my advice that you shouldn’t arrange much at the start of the holidays, but should let your children get really bored, and then they will get creative!   I don’t allow any TV or devices until 6pm in the summer holidays – mainly because I can’t stand hearing ‘it’s my turn’.  For me the biggest downside of devices is that when children are bored, instead of thinking ‘shall I make something, or shall I go outside’, their first thought is ‘can I go on the iPad?’.  If they know that isn’t going to happen they get really good at filling their time themselves, and they can still have a go on the iPad later.”

 

 

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