Connecting With SGDSB
Do you know how to connect with us and your child's school to "stay in the loop"?
Superior-Greenstone District School Board has multiple methods of communicating with our families and school communities. We use our social media platforms on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to celebrate our students and staff and to broadcast general news.
We also use Edsby to communicate directly with students and parents/guardians/caregivers directly and SchoolMessenger to communicate urgent messages and attendance absences.
We would like to know how effective our communication tools are in meeting the needs of our students and families. Please visit the ThoughtExchange link to complete the survey, and let us know how do you perceive the effectiveness of our digital communication tools, such as Edsby and SchoolMessenger and our social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, in maintaining and strengthening your connections with your children?
We know that our families are busy and that work, and life makes it a challenge to connect with our schools during regular business hours. Superior-Greenstone has adopted two communication tools that will allow us to share board and school news updates as well as provide updates regarding your child. For our main communication purposes, we support the use of Edsby and for our communication needs deemed as urgent and for all automated attendance update calls, we use SchoolMessenger.
Privacy and Information Management
Your child’s safety is important to us, both in our physical spaces and in our online environments. We have reviewed each digital tool to ensure that they meet the privacy and information management expectations that publicly funded school boards must adhere to.
Why Can’t There Just Be One Digital Communication Tool?
While both highly effective communication tools, Edsby and School Messenger each serve uniquely different purposes for our schools and families. We recognize that some of our needs cannot be met with just one tool. Edsby is our main communication tool that we use to share non-urgent board, school and class information. SchoolMessenger is used when we have urgent information that impacts students and families directly and requires immediate sharing. Like the tools we use in our kitchen to cook with or the tools we use to build something, each one of our digital platforms serves a unique purpose.
All About Edsby
Edsby is our main communication tool for all our non-urgent communication. It can be accessed using a browser (www.sgdsb.edsby.com) or with the free Edsby app. What can parents and guardians see and do in Edsby? Parents and guardians can:
- Schedule an absence;
- View board, school and class news updates;
- Locate learning resources;
- View assignments (when this feature is used by a teacher);
- Communicate directly with staff safely and privately.
All About SchoolMessenger
SchoolMessenger is the communication tool that we use for urgent matters that need immediate, mass communication with parents and guardians. Some examples of urgent communication could be:
- Safety concerns (lockdowns, hold/secure);
- Transportation emergencies;
- Building emergencies/closures.
SchoolMessenger Attendance
At Superior-Greenstone District School Board, one of our greatest priorities is ensuring that all our students arrive safely at school each and every day. We currently send out automated calls to our families informing them of their child’s absence via SchoolMessenger. Automated calls are made to our elementary families in the morning and our secondary families are informed of absences during the early evening hours. Automated attendance calls are only made if no prior absence information was provided to the school.
We encourage families to communicate a child’s absence as soon as possible using the following methods in order to avoid receiving an automated attendance absence call:
- Use the schedule an absence tool in Edsby;
- Download the SchoolMessenger app or navigate to SchoolMessenger (go.schoolmessenger.ca);
- Call the SchoolMessenger/SGDSB number: (833) 455-4117;
- Call your child’s school directly.
Personalizing the Notifications
Both Edsby and SchoolMessenger can be personalized by the account holder under account settings. Each individual parent/guardian can personalize their accounts to determine how they wish to receive alerts.
In order to be able to receive messages via text in SchoolMessenger, parents/guardians must text YES to 978338 in order to receive texts.
How do I Get Set-Up with Edsby and SchoolMessenger?
Please provide your email and phone number to your child’s school. Once that information is provided, you will have access to both Edsby and SchoolMessenger. Please contact your child’s school if you have any questions or require support with any of these communication tools.