Improving communication and streamlining payments with Schoolcomms

Overview 

Part of Pele Trust, Ponteland Community High School sought a fully integrated, user-friendly system to streamline payments and improve communication with families. The school adopted Schoolcomms, including the School Gateway app, to consolidate messaging, bookings, payments and pupil progress updates—all linked seamlessly with their MIS and catering systems. 

Objectives 

• Streamline parent payment options 

• Send regular pupil progress updates 

• Reduce reliance on paper, printing and postage 

Solution 

• Selected Schoolcomms for its usability and integration with MIS and catering systems 

• Enabled messaging, payments, bookings and reporting through a single platform 

• Provided parents with real-time access to balances and payment history 

“We chose Schoolcomms as we wanted a system which offered an integrated solution for all the things we needed… which would also be user-friendly for staff and parents.”
— Ponteland Community High School 

Impact 

• Significant reduction in paper, printing and postage costs 

• Fewer weekly bank trips and reduced cash handling risk 

• Parents now make payments at their convenience 

• Fewer calls to the finance office 

• Improved communication with parents and pupils 

• Staff admin time significantly reduced 

“We’ve made significant savings in staff admin time as a result of implementing online payments—this has been a real game-changer for us!”
— Ponteland Community High School 

Parent engagement 

• Messaging module ensures communications reach parents reliably 

• Parents access lunch balances and outstanding payments instantly 

• Letters no longer lost in school bags—updates delivered directly via School Gateway 

Trust rollout 

• Benefits of Schoolcomms shared across Pele Trust schools 

• Internal training enables fast onboarding 

• Rollout described as straightforward due to system ease-of-use 

“It has been relatively easy to sell the benefits of Schoolcomms to schools in our trust… we tend to train colleagues internally which means we can be up and running very quickly.”
— Ponteland Community High School 

Conclusion 

Schoolcomms has helped Ponteland Community High School reduce admin workload, improve communication and deliver a more efficient experience for families. The system continues to support trust-wide adoption and operational clarity across messaging, payments and pupil progress.