The Whittier Union High School District has launched a new electronic communication tool that will help strengthen engagement between students, parents, teachers and school administrators.
Already integrated into the District’s Aeries Parent Portal student information system, Loop supports one- and two-way announcements and messaging between any system users through phone calls, text messages, e-mails, text-to-speech and instant messaging.
While Aeries enables parents to check their children’s grades, attendance and test scores, Loop provides an easy way to receive urgent messages, stay up to date on school activities and contact teachers.
“This innovative tool gives teachers and administrators a direct line to students and parents, delivering simple reminders such as an upcoming test or alerts should an emergency arise,” Whittier Union Superintendent Martin Plourde said. “It’s in a format that most are familiar with, it’s easy to use and allows us to strengthen our efforts to engage parents in their children’s education.”
To access the Loop platform, users must have an account with the Aeries portal. Parents who are not already registered can visit https://aeries.wuhsd.org/parent to complete the setup. Parents will need the student’s ID number, home phone number and verification code – information provided to students at the start of the school year. It is also available at each school.
After registering, users can click the Loop icon within the Aeries portal, after which they will be presented with an onboarding process and platform overview. Much as with popular social media applications, users will see a timeline of announcements from teachers, the school and administrators.
Loop supports translations and can deliver messages in users’ desired languages. Users can opt in and out of notifications and specify the format in which they would like to receive messages.
An overview of the platform is available at www.wuhsd.org/LoopVideo. To see a tutorial on how to register for Aeries, visit www.wuhsd.org/ParentPortalVideo.