Customer Story: Brentwood School

• Streamlined parent experience: MSP replaced a clunky system with a user-friendly platform for parents (single sign-on, real-time tracking, easy top-ups).
• Boosted efficiency: Automated reports and a simplified refund process reduced workload for IT and finance teams.
• Scalable growth: MSP accommodated a student body increase with  minimal staffing implications.
• Continuous improvement: Brentwood is developing features like a unified school hub and "Child's Day" snapshot for parents. They're also exploring a more robust messaging system.
• Collaborative decision-making: Brentwood now involves IT in software selection for a more balanced approach to procurement.

Brentwood School: A tradition of excellence

Founded in 1557, Brentwood School is a leading co-educational independent day and boarding school in Essex, UK, for students aged 3 to 18. The school fosters a modern and inclusive community, guided by its core values of "Virtue, Learning, and Manners."

As Head of ITSS at Brentwood School, Sarb Singh's experience as a former student fuels his passion and enthusiasm for the school's development. In this customer story, he shares how My School Portal (MSP) has improved communication and boosted efficiency at Brentwood.

Brentwood’s journey to Access My School Portal (MSP)

Ensuring a smooth cashless payment system for the parents of over 1,900 students proved a major challenge for Sarb and his team. In 2020, Brentwood School, an Essex-based independent school, adopted My School Portal (MSP) specifically to address this issue.

Prior to the adoption of MSP, Brentwood faced significant challenges with their previous cashless catering system. Here's what Sarb highlighted as the top issues:

• Technical glitches: Unreliable data transfer between the payment system and the cashless catering system led to errors.
• Parent frustration: New parents, especially at the beginning of the school year, struggled to log in and use the system. This resulted in a high volume of support requests for Sarb's team, typically handling 70-80 queries in the first few weeks.

It was clear that Brentwood needed a more user-friendly and efficient system to address these challenges.

Unfortunately, we encountered significant issues with the previous payment system, both technically and from a user experience standpoint for parents.

Technically, there were frequent data transfer problems between the payment system and the cashless catering system, causing disruptions.

Additionally, new parents or those unfamiliar with the system faced significant login difficulties at the start of the academic year. My team typically handled 70 to 80 queries from parents during the first two to three weeks addressing these login issues.

Learning from experience: A more collaborative approach

Sarb, determined to avoid past challenges, acknowledged that limited IT involvement in their previous cashless system selection process led to problems. Focusing solely on a finance perspective resulted in a product that didn’t meet expectations.

Brentwood addressed this by implementing a collaborative decision-making process. Now, IT is included in discussions from the outset, ensuring both financial, technical and user considerations are addressed. This new approach fosters early-stage discussions among senior leaders from various departments, leading to a more cohesive selection process. 

How Brentwood use MSP as a ‘One Stop Shop’ for parents’ cashless system

Brentwood encourages parents to use the software in the following ways:

• Parents with multiple children can log in to MSP with a single account.
• Within MSP, they can top up each child's account for the tuckshop (school store).
• The money is then transferred to the child's card, which they use for purchases at the tuckshop.
• Parents can also see their child's spending history in MSP.
• Purchases are automatically updated overnight, so parents can see what their child bought (coffee, hot chocolate, etc.).

This process has brought with it increased efficiency for the school. Previously, all top-ups came directly to the school. So, if a parent topped up £10, the school would receive the full £10, regardless of what the child actually spent. This caused significant management challenges for the finance team. If a child left the school or a parent requested a refund, it was difficult to track the remaining balance and process the request efficiently.

On talking specifically about refunds, Sarb notes that it was double the hassle. “We had to track the remaining balance in the child's account (separate from school fees) and then process the refund through the school fees system. This involved multiple steps”.

Now, with unspent funds staying in the parent's account, refunds are simplified. Parents simply request a refund from the payment provider, and the provider can easily issue it from the same system. This eliminates extra work for the finance team and ensures they only receive the amount spent at school.

How has MSP ensured a timely and seamless collection of payments?

Thanks to MSP’s advanced technology, collection of payments is now a breeze for Brentwood school:

• Faster top-ups: Parents can top up their child's account, and the funds appear within 30 minutes, eliminating the frustration of insufficient balances experienced with the old system. This improves the experience for students and tuck shop staff who no longer face daily syncing issues.
• Streamlined operations: The finance team benefits from automated weekly reports and reconciliation, making the process truly touchless after setup.
• Smooth onboarding: New parents are introduced to MSP through an internal video guide before their child starts school in September, ensuring they’re fully prepared to use the software come the start of term.

Overall, clear communication with parents keeps them informed and satisfied, while the streamlined system minimises IT involvement, requiring attention only for rare high-level issues.

The benefits of MSP across the school

Since adopting MSP, Brentwood has experienced significant benefits across the school. Both the IT team and finance team have seen a lighter workload thanks to successful parent logins and reduced support requests related to the system.

Reconciling weekly payments is now a streamlined process compared to the previous bi-weekly system, freeing up the finance team's time for more strategic financial tasks.

Parents also enjoy a more user-friendly experience with MSP. A single login and reporting through the school portal make managing their child's account simple and convenient. Overall, the implementation of MSP has resulted in a more efficient and simplified system for the entire Brentwood community.

The one-stop-shop nature of MSP definitely improves communication and coordination. My team and I have been pushing for this because we know parents are busy, sometimes with several children at the school. Logging into separate platforms for top-ups was cumbersome. MSP simplifies the process significantly, making things easier for parents.

Beyond communication: Streamlined operations

The benefits of MSP extend beyond improved communication with parents. It has also significantly streamlined internal processes at Brentwood.

Furthermore, the scalability of MSP has proven invaluable. Prior to the implementation of the system, Brentwood experienced a remarkable increase in student enrollment, particularly within the prep school (from 280 to 580 students). Despite this growth, the system's efficiency has allowed the school to manage this influx without needing to proportionally increase its administrative staff.

Enhancing the MSP experience

Brentwood isn't stopping with the improvements they've seen from MSP. They're actively looking to enhance the experience for everyone involved. In the works is a unified school hub within MSP, integrating the school calendar to create a one-stop shop for parents to access all relevant information. Additionally, a "Child's Day" feature is under development, offering parents a daily snapshot of their child's activities and upcoming events.

Communication is also a key focus. While MSP currently has a messaging system, it doesn't fully meet Brentwood's needs. The school will keep a close eye on its development, with the potential to integrate it and replace SchoolPost by September 2025, contingent on the desired functionalities being available.

Overall, Brentwood is committed to continuous improvement. They're pushing the boundaries of MSP's functionalities to further enhance processes and improve convenience for both current and prospective parents.

Inspired by Brentwood's success with Access My School Portal?

Brentwood School's experience with My School Portal demonstrates the significant improvements possible in parent communication and operational efficiency.

Ready to explore how MSP can benefit your school?

• Discover how Brentwood School embraced My School Portal to enhance parent communications with a unique engagement hub for parents in this customer story.
• Schedule your live demo for a firsthand look at how MSP can streamline your school's processes.