Empowering parents and reducing admin with Schoolcomms

Overview 

John Shelton Community Primary School in Coventry set out to become a fully cashless school, with an initial focus on dinner money and trips. The school adopted Schoolcomms, including the School Gateway app, to streamline payments, reduce office footfall and empower parents to manage bookings and payments independently. 

Objective 

• Become a completely cashless school 

• Reduce admin workload and improve payment tracking 

• Empower parents to become more self-sufficient 

Solution 

• Selected Schoolcomms based on peer recommendations and pricing comparisons 

• Enabled online payments for dinner money, trips, nursery places and wraparound care 

• Used Schoolcomms for all parent communications via text and email 

• Provided training for wraparound club staff to manage bookings independently 

“Parents wanted a way to track their payments. This system gave us something concrete to track things on.”
— John Shelton Community Primary School 

Impact 

• Parents now manage bookings and payments independently 

• Cash handling reduced—collections now fortnightly instead of weekly 

• Admin time saved across payments, receipts and club management 

• All payments now processed online, expanding beyond initial scope 

• Improved communication with parents across multiple channels 

“We were surprised by the amount of things we could use Schoolcomms for and how much easier it made everything for us.”
— John Shelton Community Primary School 

Parent engagement 

• Parents adapted to the system with support from school and Schoolcomms 

• Online booking for before and after school clubs now fully parent-led 

• Text and email communications ensure timely updates and reduce paper 

Support experience 

• Liaised with Schoolcomms for troubleshooting and setup 

• After-school club manager received tailored training to configure the system effectively 

• Ongoing support helped staff and parents adjust to the new platform 

Conclusion 

Schoolcomms has helped John Shelton Community Primary School become a fully cashless, parent-empowered environment. The system continues to reduce admin workload, improve payment tracking and support efficient communication across the school.