School Enews is a solution that allows you to manage lists of parents and then effortlessly send bulk emails to these parents. You still create your newsletter as you have always done in Microsoft Word or Publisher (for most schools) and then instead of printing it, you simply send it out via email. You send it by writing a single email and sending it to our automated system on email@schoolenews.com.au. School Enews then formats your email by adding your school logo and contact details at the top and bottom, and then sends it out to your list of parents.

The cost of School Enews depends on the number of subscribers that you have for your newsletter. A subscriber is anyone that has signed up to receive your newsletter via email (eg. parents). We offer four plans starting with our "Free Forever" plan which is 100% free for up to 1000 subscribers. See the Pricing page for more information.

Our office hours are Monday to Friday, 9:00am till 5:00pm (NSW time zone). We offer support 50 weeks of the year. Please call - we are happy to answer your questions.

We make money by selling our services to schools that have more than 1000 subscribers - see our Pricing page. We also make some money from setup and training services if schools request these services. We also make money by selling our solution to other companies (not schools).

Importantly, School Enews considers itself a "social enterprise" and therefore does not act in exactly the same way as other businesses. See this page for more information.

Sending out your newsletter via email has the following benefits: Saves paper, time and money; newsletters can be in full colour, the newsletter can't be lost or forgotten and parents can receive the newsletter when their child is away sick; and it is separated and extended family friendly.

Separated Family Friendly means that fathers, mothers, grandparents and other family members who don't live with the child, can still receive the newsletter and take a more informed interest in their child's education. In a society where separated families are commonplace, this is of particular importance.

No. Even though you are sending out just one email via School Enews to all the parents/people on your list/address book, each parent still can not see the email addresses of the other parents on the list. School Enews automatically stops this from happening.

Yes. This allows the parent to click the "Reply" button and send an email back to the school if they wish to do so.

In our free "How To" guide to implementing email newsletters at your school (which we will send you when you sign up), we discuss how to handle this issue.

In short, we recommend still offering printed newsletters to parents who specify that they still want a printed newsletter. The number of parents who request this varies based on your school communities socioeconomic status, however, in many schools this is less than 5% of parents.

Most certainly, although you must send out your school newsletter using School Enews. You can use School Enews to communicate with any group relating to your school. For example, teachers, P&C, sporting groups, music groups etc.

Yes, however, School Enews has unique features that you might wish to consider. These include the ability to add a subscribe form for your website where parents can sign up to receive the newsletter, an automatic unsubscribe feature so parents don't have to call the school to be taken off your list, your website will automatically update with a copy of your newsletter when the email is sent to your parents, and; a header image with your school name and logo and your schools contact details are automatically added to every email you send. These are just some of the benefits.

Importantly, School Enews works on any computer system that can send and receive emails including PC, Mac, Linux, PC laptop, MacBook, iPhone, mobile phone, Internet tablet etc.

School Enews is as reliable as systems from larger companies like Google's Gmail, which the NSW DET has chosen to provide email accounts for all teachers and students.

We use reliable enterprise grade software, hardware and fibre-optic internet connections. We use a cluster of mail servers to send out the email which has proven reliable over the past 3 years for thousands of business clients. School Enews can send out tens of thousands of emails per minute.

Sending a bulk email is almost as easy as sending a normal email! After your list/book of parents is setup, open your email program and create a new message. Type in the "To:" field "email@schoolenews.com.au". Then in the Subject field put in the "{pw} -send" command (replace the {pw} with your real password/PIN), then a space, and then what you want the Subject of your bulk email to be. Now write your email body and then attach any attachments. Then click Send. After the send is complete, you will be sent back a confirmation email that shows you who your email was sent to.

No. The unsubsribe link must stay on all emails sent. This complies with anti-spam laws that are in Australia.

We call this a "header". This header is an image that you can make active on your account that will automatically appear on all emails sent via your account. In most cases this would be your school name and logo. To setup your header image, open a new email and type "email@schoolenews.com.au" in the "To:" field. Then in the Subject field put in the "{pw} -header" command (replace the {pw} with your real password/PIN) and attach or insert your header image. Then click Send.

You can remove a header by typing the command "-header delete" in the Subject field.

Yes, most certainly. This then allows you, for example, to send out emails to your lists from your school email account and your home email address. To add a new authorised email address to your account, open a new email and type "email@schoolenews.com.au" in the "To:" field. Then in the Subject field put in the "{pw} -register" command (replace the {pw} with your real password/PIN) followed by the email address you want to register. Then click Send.

You can remove an authorised email address by typing the command "{pw} -unregister" in the Subject field.

When you send an email to your list, your email will come from an email like name@schoolenews.com.au. For example, Sample Public School would be: sampleps@schoolenews.com.au. We always use an @schoolenews.com.au email address because we have "registered" our email account with anti-spam systems which improve the delivery of your email. However, when a parent clicks "Reply" to your email, it will be sent back to your schools email address.

If you have sent out an email to parents, then it will be automatically displayed on your school website (if you have setup the "History List" website feature). If you need to delete this email, open a new email and type "email@schoolenews.com.au" in the "To:" field. Then in the Subject field put in the "{pw} -history" command (replace the {pw} with your real password/PIN). Then click Send.

You will receive an email back to you showing you a list of your recent activity on School Enews. In the "Sent Bulk Emails" section of the email, you will see your email that you sent. To delete, click the Delete link in the email and then send the email that pops up on your screen. This will be received and then the email will be deleted from your website. Please note: The email can not be retracted back from the parents email addresses.

When you sign up for your free account, we will send you our free "How to" guide to implementing email newsletters at your school which will explain the two different methods you can use.

You can either manually receive parents names and emails by asking them to fill in a piece of paper, or the better way is for parents to register themselves on your school website.

You can put a subscribe form on your website that parents can fill out with their name and email address. We provide you with the code that you need - just cut and paste it onto your website. When a parent subscribes by entering in their name and email address and clicking Subscribe; they are sent an email and they must click "Activate Now" to confirm their email address and that they wanted to sign up to the list. When this is completed they are automatically added to your list/book.

To view the names and emails on your list(s)/book(s), open a new email and type "email@schoolenews.com.au" in the "To:" field. Then in the Subject field put in the "{pw} -show" command (replace the {pw} with your real password/PIN). Then click Send. You will be sent back an email from School Enews with the names and emails that are in your list(s).book(s).

All parents have to do is click on the unsubscribe link that is displayed at the top and bottom of every email you send out via School Enews. When they do this, they will automatically be taken off your list/book. Parents don't have to call the school and you don't have to manually take them off the list which would be a waste of time for school staff.

Use your email program or webmail that you normally use to send email. To use School Enews, type "email@schoolenews.com.au" in the "To:" field. Then in the Subject field put in the "{pw} -add" command (replace the {pw} with your real password/PIN) followed by the email you want to add. Then click Send. When adding an email address manually, the parent DOES NOT have to confirm their email address by clicking "Activate Now" in the confirmation email - they are not sent a confirmation email.

Use your email program or webmail that you normally use to send email. To use School Enews, type "email@schoolenews.com.au" in the "To:" field. Then in the Subject field put in the "{pw} -delete" command (replace the {pw} with your real password/PIN) followed by the email you want to delete. Then click Send. If you wish to delete multiple emails, you can do this also. Just put a space in between each of the email addresses that you type in.

Use your email program or webmail that you normally use to send email. To use School Enews, type "email@schoolenews.com.au" in the "To:" field. Then in the Subject field put in the "{pw} -import" command (replace the {pw} with your real password/PIN) and then attach your spreadsheet file. Then click Send.

No. School Enews automatically removes duplicate email addresses from your lists.

School Enews allows you to put a "Subscribe Form" and "History List" on your website. For more information on these features and how they work, see: Website Integration

We provide you with the HTML code that is required. All you need to do is cut and paste this into your website. To use School Enews, type "email@schoolenews.com.au" in the "To:" field. Then in the Subject field put in the "{pw} -help" command (replace the {pw} with your real password/PIN). Then click Send. School Enews will send you back help information and all the information you need for your Subscribe Form.

We provide you with the HTML code that is required. All you need to do is cut and paste this into your website. To use School Enews, type "email@schoolenews.com.au" in the "To:" field. Then in the Subject field put in the "{pw} -help" command (replace the {pw} with your real password/PIN). Then click Send. School Enews will send you back help information and all the information you need for your History List.

"White listing" is the opposite of "black listing" and refers to configuring your email server to automatically accept certain emails. You don't have to do this to receive emails from School Enews, however, it may help. You should white list the entire schoolenews.com.au domain name and optionally the IP addresses: 202.77.91.194 and 202.77.91.195.

Yes. We have already setup and registered all emails from @schoolenews.com.au to use SPF, Sender ID and Domain Keys / DKIM. This helps to improve the delivery of your email without the hassle of your having to setup authentication yourself on your own account. This is why all emails from School Enews are sent using @schoolenews.com.au email addresses.

Every time you send an email to the School Enews system, it must come from an authorized account and have a matching PIN / password in the Subject field. The addition of the PIN / password stops people from being able to spoof your account.