Teachers, students and parents from EB Fontainhas school in Portugal, Santarém enhanced their collaboration and improved their digital skills with Kinderpedia
The Fontainhas EB school in Santarem has always been a very close community where there is a strong relationship between parents, students, and teachers. It was the perfect place to carry out a pilot study to determine the value that the platform can bring to close-knit, family-centred schools in Portugal.
The Kinderpedia team started this pilot study by talking to the teachers and coordinators about the aims of the pilot and also which modules would be used most during the pilot study so that the implementation would be as personalised as possible.
"The Kinderpedia functions we use the most are the quick messages, surveys, and live chat to communicate with parents, the media albums to share photos with families, family management to see information about the students, and also the newsletter on class projects," later shared Margarida Pinto, School Coordinator and Head Class Teacher.
OThe onboarding was done via face to face trainings at the school, where the Kinderpedia team had the opportunity to meet the educators and some members of the community. An excellent working relationship was established from the start and the educators were able to understand the platform and work with it quite quickly. This personalised onboarding process was one of the many positive aspects highlighted by Margarida:
The technical support and onboarding we received from Manuel and Diogo was essential and extremely attentive and kind.
A secure and intuitive all-in-one platform for the development of teaching practice
The teachers at Fontainhas EB had a very positive experience with Kinderpedia. They felt the tool was easy to use and that it encompassed all the personal and academic needs of a school community in one place.
"The pilot study we carried out at Escola EB Fontaínhas, in Santarém, revealed that Kinderpedia is a very useful tool for developing teaching practice. Its wide range of functions allows the whole school community to be united and feel involved in the school, whether they are teachers, students, parents or members of the Parents' Association. The ease and speed in managing the platform are definitely an asset today," summarises Margarida Pinto, School Coordinator and Head Teacher.
The educators also praised the platform for two key reasons. First, they felt secure when sharing information, and they were impressed by how quickly it could be done. Second, the platform's intuitive design and user-friendly interface were also greatly appreciated by the educators.
"In today’s world, when communication has to be transmitted quickly and safely, having a platform like Kinderpedia brings greater safety in communication, as well as the speed necessary to communicate with families.”
Teachers concluded that the platform is intuitive and can be used to develop some twenty-first century soft-skills through it.
"Even those who have little digital literacy can access and improve their skills by using Kinderpedia," shares Margarida Pinto.
Kinderpedia brought all members of the community closer
The platform has helped parents, students, and teaching staff to communicate and exchange information more easily.
“Kinderpedia brings us more freedom in parental communication. In one simple step, I can communicate with parents and get feedback from them,” says Sandra Fernandes
Parents really valued the communication modules and felt that the platform helped them to keep track of and give feedback on the projects and tasks that were developed in class. /p>
"Kinderpedia is an easy-to-use application for parents. Everything arrives in real time and the interaction with the school and with the activities the students are developing is fast and effective. We can even respond in real time. I really believe that Kinderpedia helps create a united school community. The information comes to us easily and we can even make comments."
The students from Fontainhas EB also had the opportunity to participate in the implementation of Kinderpedia. Not only did they do some research for a newsletter to share with their parents but they were always curious to see the platform and what was being placed there:
"I saw my mother installing it on her mobile phone and checking it showed what was done by us at school and my parents liked seeing it and so did I. The teacher also put messages there. I liked doing the research for the newsletter and building it with Manuel and Diogo," says Bernardo Silva, Student of EB Fontainhas.
More about EB Fontainhas
EB Fontainhas is a school with two primary school rooms and one preschool classroom. It has a total of 70 students and belongs to the Alexandre Herculano School Group, in Santarém. It is a family school where the community is very involved in its various educational activities.
