School SMS and communication system
A bulk SMS tool does not know who paid this morning. Your message quotes the live balance, and you see what was delivered.
Enaton sends messages from inside the system that already knows who owes what, who is in which class and whose child was absent. That means a message can be accurate and specific instead of a blast to everyone, and you can see what was actually delivered.
Reminders, Term 2
Balances are live| Learner | Class | Billed | Paid | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kevin Mutua | Grade 3 | 34,500 | 9,500 | Reminder queued |
| Brian Otieno | Grade 5 | 36,000 | 36,000 | Paid, skipped |
| Faith Chebet | Grade 7 | 40,000 | 31,000 | Reminder queued |
| Amina Hassan | Grade 8 | 42,000 | 42,000 | Cleared |
| Wanjiru Kamau | Grade 6 | 38,500 | 38,500 | Cleared |
- Kevin MutuaGrade 3KES 25,000
- Brian OtienoGrade 5Cleared
- Faith ChebetGrade 7KES 9,000
- Wanjiru KamauGrade 6Cleared
What it does
Enaton sends messages from inside the system that already knows who owes what, who is in which class and whose child was absent. That means a message can be accurate and specific instead of a blast to everyone, and you can see what was actually delivered.
Ways to send
- From inside a module, for example messaging the parents of one class or one route
- Quick send to an individual, from wherever you are looking at that learner
- Bulk send from a list where you genuinely have one
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- Scheduled campaigns for a specific push, running inside your send window
Getting it right
- Templates, so the wording is consistent and nobody writes a fee reminder from scratch at speed
- Quiet hours, so no parent receives a school message at ten at night
- Your own sender name, so the message shows the school rather than a shortcode nobody recognises
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- Messages address the parent properly and name the learner
Knowing what happened
- Delivery reporting, not just a sent count
- A record per family of everything they have been sent
- Which messages actually get a response, so the next one is better
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- Message credits topped up by M-Pesa, with the balance visible before you send
Beyond SMS
Announcements, the diary and notifications reach parents inside the portal as well, which costs nothing per message. Most schools use the portal for routine communication and keep SMS for the things that genuinely need to arrive on a phone.
Parents find your school on their phone
Admissions, fees and enquiries on one site, always in step with your records.
See the school website
Who it helps
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Front office staff stop exporting and uploading lists.
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Bursars send fee reminders that are correct.
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Class teachers reach their own parents without going through the office.
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Principals can prove what was communicated and when.
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How it works
Pick who to message from inside the module you are in
Use a template so the wording stays consistent
The message goes out under your school’s own sender name
Check delivery reporting and the record for each family
Read the full story
Bulk SMS tools do not know anything about your school
A standalone bulk SMS service can send a message to a list. That is all it can do. It does not know what a family owes, which class a learner is in, or whether that parent paid this morning. So somebody exports a list, edits it, uploads it, and sends a message that was accurate when the export ran.
It also cannot tell you much afterwards. You get a count of messages sent, which is not the same as messages delivered, and no way to see what a particular parent has been told over the term.
How Enaton handles it
Messages are sent from the place that holds the information, so a fee reminder carries the balance as it stands at that moment, and an absence message names the day. No export, no upload, no stale list.
Every message is recorded against the family, so when a parent says they were never told, you can see exactly what was sent, when, and whether it arrived.
Related modules
Questions we get about this
Will messages show the school name?
Yes, your own sender name rather than an anonymous shortcode, which makes a real difference to whether parents read them.
Can we stop messages going out at night?
Yes. You set the send window and quiet hours, and they apply to everything, including scheduled campaigns.
Can we see whether a message was delivered?
Yes, delivery reporting rather than only a sent count, and a full history per family.
2 more questions
How do we pay for messages?
Message credits, topped up by M-Pesa, with the balance visible before you send so you are never caught short mid campaign.
Can a class teacher message their own parents?
Yes, if the school allows it. Permissions decide who can send what and to whom.
Bring your own numbers. We will show you this working
Thirty minutes with your classes, terms and fee structure. No slides.