SZ Insider - Edition 2

From the CEO's Keyboard

G'day Schoolzine Community! 

As we wrap up the year, I wanted to take a minute to reflect on what we’ve achieved and share some exciting plans for the year ahead. It’s been a year of progress, reflection, and setting the stage for an even brighter future at Schoolzine.

Helping You Get the Most Out of Your eNewsletters
This year, we've focused on fostering partnerships with values aligned organisations and creating tools and integrations that add even more value to your eNewsletters. A standout example has been our partnership with SchoolTV and the integration we developed, which allows you to share well-being resources with your community directly in your newsletter. These kinds of partnerships are all about helping you make the most out of your Schoolzine tools - engaging, informative, and tailored to your community's needs. 

Focusing on Our Local Schools
After careful consideration, we've decided to start the process to close our UK operations to focus more closely on the schools we serve in Australia and New Zealand. This strategic shift allows us to reinvest resources into product development and enhancements, ensuring our tools stay innovative, effective, and tailored to your needs.

Looking Ahead: Your Voice Matters
As we look to the year ahead, a major focus will be listening. We're planning to introduce customer focus groups to better understand how you use our products and services, and what we can do to make them even better. Your insights will drive our innovations, ensuring that Schoolzine continues to offer best-of-breed solutions for community engagement.

Thanks for being part of the Schoolzine community. Your feedback, collaboration, and trust, inspire everything we do. Here’s to a successful finish to 2024 and an exciting 2025 ahead!

Cheers, 

Dan Dawson
CEO/CTO Schoolzine

What's New At Schoolzine?

We’re proud to announce that Schoolzine has reached an exciting milestone in 2024—we’ve officially partnered with the Departments of Education in both the Northern Territory and New South Wales! This recognition cements Schoolzine as a preferred provider for schools in these regions, showcasing our commitment to delivering innovative solutions that simplify school communications and strengthen community engagement.

But there’s more to celebrate—these partnership also unlock Single Sign-On (SSO) for state schools in NT and NSW.

What is SSO, and Why Does It Matter?
SSO allows users to access multiple applications with one secure set of credentials. For schools, this means administrators, teachers, and even parents can log in seamlessly to the Schoolzine platform using their existing Department of Education credentials. No extra passwords, no hassle.

How SSO Benefits Schools

• Ease of Access: Logging in is as simple as using your Department of Education username and password. No need to juggle multiple logins.
• Time Savings: Say goodbye to resetting forgotten passwords or dealing with login issues. Less time on admin means more time for teaching and learning.
• Enhanced Security: SSO reduces the risk of password-related breaches, keeping school data and communications secure.

We’re thrilled to bring this level of convenience and security to our schools. If you’d like to know more about SSO or how Schoolzine can support your school, our team is here to help!

Spotlight On Success: Customer Stories

What a year it's been for the Schoolzine community! Together, we've reached an incredible milestone - over 21,000 eNewsletters published in 2024! That's 21,000 opportunities to connect, inform, and inspire across the 1,178 communities that utilise the Schoolzine eNewsletter platform. 

It's not just schools driving this achievement (though, you're absolute superstars!). From community groups to dioceses and everything in between, each organisation has played a part in making this milestone possible. Your newsletters are more than just updates - they're lifelines for connection and belonging. 

Special Mentions
A big shout-out to Diocese of Ballarat Catholic Education (DOBCEL) and Coomera Rivers State School, who led the way with the highest number of newsletters published this year. Your commitment to keeping your communities engaged is truly inspiring! 

As we celebrate this milestone, we’re already looking to the future. We’re working hard behind the scenes on some exciting new features and enhancements to make your newsletters even more engaging and easier to create. Whether you're a school, a diocese, or a community organisation, we’re committed to helping you connect with your audience like never before.

Here’s to the amazing Schoolzine community—21,000 and counting. Let’s keep the momentum going and make 2025 even more spectacular! 

Top Tips & Tricks

Let’s talk about border boxes and colour boxes—those trusty tools that add structure and style to your eNewsletters. Most of us think of them as perfect for highlighting text, but did you know they can do so much more? It’s time to get creative and see how these boxes can transform your images into eye-catching design elements!

Here’s how to take your border and colour boxes to the next level:

Boost Your Images: Add a border to frame a team photo or pop a picture into a colour box to make it stand out. It’s an easy way to grab attention and keep your layout tidy.

Mix Text and Images: Combine a photo with a caption, quote, or event details in the same box. It keeps everything neat, stylish, and super easy to read.

Get Creative with Colours: Use your school’s branding or colours that match your theme to add personality. A splash of colour can bring your newsletter to life.

Pro Tip: Keep your design balanced—don’t go overboard with boxes. Sometimes, less is more!

Border and colour boxes are like the Swiss Army knives of design—versatile, stylish, and oh-so-useful. Whether you’re showcasing images, text, or a mix of both, they can elevate your newsletter from great to amazing.

Ready to try it out? Let your creativity run wild and see what you can create. And as always, if you’ve got a newsletter design you’re proud of, we’d love to see it!

Check out this quick tutorial

The WINNER Is...

We’re thrilled to announce the winner of the $1000 Rebel Sports Voucher from our Sports Carnival Management Survey! A huge thank you to everyone who took the time to share their thoughts—over 100 of you!

The insights we’ve gained are eye-opening and will make a huge difference in how we support schools with their sports carnivals. For example, many schools shared that they’re still relying on spreadsheets or clunky systems—not because they’re ideal, but because they’ve always been used or because they think they have to use it because that's what rep sports use (that's not true btw!). Interestingly, a significant number of respondents weren’t sure if their current setup meets the cybersecurity requirements of their governing bodies. These are important takeaways that will help us shape solutions that truly meet your needs.

Your Voice Shapes the Future
But that’s not all! Later today, we’re sending out a Sports Tracker feature survey to our Sports Tracker customers. This survey is packed with suggestions straight from the community, and it’s your chance to help us prioritise what the team will be working on over the school break.

Our goal? To kick off next year with an even better Sports Tracker—one that’s designed with your needs at the forefront. Keep an eye on your inbox and let us know what features matter most to you!

 Together, we’re making school sports carnivals bigger, better, and easier to manage than ever.

Check Out Dan and Dion Having a Ball!

Team Highlight: Meet Holly

This edition of SZ Insider we get to introduce you to Holly! Holly describes herself as "the loud American", but that's just one of the many reasons we love having her as part of our Schoolzine crew! She's always up for a chat and a good laugh, and is getting a handle on the Aussie colloquialisms the team use on the daily! 

Role: Holly is one of our Account Managers and spends her days making friends with new customers and showing them the benefits of Schoolzine's tools. 

Fun Fact: Did you know Holly is a Yogi! Not the steal your picnic basket type Yogi, but the flexible type! Holly loves Yoga and Pilates to lighten her up. She has 2 primary school aged children and is questioning her decision to be that mum (Holly wrote mom in her answer, but we fixed it for her) who carts her kids to a million activities! Holly and her family love the outdoors, bike riding, beach days and camping with their pup, Zula. As if Holly needed any other extra curriculars to fill her schedule, she also loves the 80's past time of bowling and roller skating.  

Favourite Work Snack: Holly makes her own cashew bars, that she snacks on during the day, but also has a secret love of sourdough bread with butter and salt! 

Hidden Talent: Arm balances and handstands - check out the photo below - how is that even possible?! 

Favourite Things: Holly's favourite book is the Untethered Soul, she says "It's one that I can re-read throughout the years and still take some valuable lessons from." Holly has a love for slapstick comedy movies, but refused to tell us which one is her favourite. Holly's most cherished holiday destination is Siargao, in the Phillipines, because that's where she fell in love with an Aussie bloke and her life changed forever - awwwwwww! 

What They Love About Schoolzine? "What I love most about working with Schoolzine is the incredible team—I truly feel like I've hit the jackpot with such kind, intelligent humans. I’m also passionate about helping people, so when we hear that school staff or PE teachers are struggling, and we have a solution that makes their lives easier, it’s incredibly rewarding."

Holly Living Her Best Life!

What You've Told Us

Celebrating Wins and Owning Opportunities

At Schoolzine, we’re all about being transparent and accountable—it’s how we grow, improve, and make sure we’re delivering the best experience for our community. That’s why we’re sharing our recent Customer Satisfaction scores with you, the good and the not-so-good.

You’ll notice a sad face in the images below. We could easily cherry-pick the positive reviews, but that’s not how we roll. In that particular case, our customer was absolutely right. We reviewed what happened, contacted them, and changed our process to improve our services for everyone.

Feedback like this is invaluable. Without it, we might never have known there was an issue. That’s why we review every survey response—whether it’s glowing praise or constructive criticism. Our leadership team actively follows up on cases where we need to do better, using them as opportunities to learn and improve.

We’re proud of the wins and even more grateful for the moments that push us to step up. Your feedback helps us grow and makes us better for the whole Schoolzine community.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us. Together, we’re building something truly special.

We Wish You a Wonderful Holiday Season

As we approach the end of another fantastic year, we want to take a moment to thank each and every one of you for being part of the Schoolzine community. Together, we’ve achieved so much in 2024, and we couldn’t have done it without your support, feedback, and collaboration.

Now it’s time to unwind, reflect, and enjoy the holiday season. We hope you have a safe, happy, and relaxing break, surrounded by loved ones and doing the things that bring you joy.

Our Holiday Schedule
The Schoolzine team will also be taking some time to recharge. Our last day of operation for 2024 will be Friday, 20th December, and we’ll be back, refreshed and ready, on Monday, 13th January 2025.

During this time, some of our team will be working behind the scenes on backend improvements to ensure we hit the ground running in 2025. However, please note that we won’t be available for support during this period.

If you have any urgent matters or questions before we close, please don’t hesitate to reach out—we’re here to help you finish the year strong!

Thank you once again for a wonderful year. Here’s to an even brighter and more exciting 2025!