TxtStream (for Schools)

Does your school need an easy way of checking with caregivers about absent students?
Do you want to communicate easily with the Board of Trustees, PTA or other stakeholder groups?
In an emergency, do you need to quickly contact all caregivers?

We provide a powerful and cost-effective range of services from TxtStream that allows schools to easily and cost-effectively communicate with their stakeholders (especially caregivers) by SMS text.  We’ve worked with local company TxtStream for many years and their services are widely used and appreciated throughout the education sector.

So, if you answered Yes to any of the questions above, then TxtStream is the solution.  And, if you have TxtStream already, perhaps you didn’t realise what else it could do!

TxtStream has a base service and then optional add-on services:

Base Service

Early Notification – a well-established Ministry of Education accredited service (in conjunction with your School Management System) to advise caregivers by SMS txt or email about students that are absent without permission.

General Text Messages – for sending standard SMS txt messages in conjunction with your School Management System to caregivers, etc

Microsoft Outlook plug-in to communicate via SMS txt from Outlook using your contact lists.  Once installed, click on the new button (or link) in the Outlook menu bar to send SMS txts to mobile numbers from your existing contacts (and others that you may enter); mobile replies will come back into Outlook as an email.

Add-on Services

Email Direct – this service allows your school to send an email to  (eg 0274466027@sms.txtstream.co.nz) which is then forwarded on to the mobile (eg 027 4466 027) as an SMS txt; this is a particularly useful service if you don’t use Microsoft Outlook and therefore can’t use the Outlook plug-in

Keyword – this allows your school to use the school’s name (or any other word) to receive incoming texts; for example, a Snells Beach School parent could text the word “Snells” to 3255 (a dedicated shortcode for TxtStream), followed by their child’s name and the reason for their absence, and this information would come through to your school as an email.

Easy Message – this is a web-based bulk messaging tool which allows your school to send emails (eg a newsletter) as well as SMS txts to pre-loaded contact lists; it also has the Emergency Broadcast feature which allows your school to send a message to any or all caregivers in times of emergency (or an unexpected event), either from a web browser or via a text message.

So what are the key benefits of TxtStream?

A powerful range of services to easily and effectively communicate with caregivers, BoT, etc

Well-proven in New Zealand schools and accredited by the MoE for early notification of absentees

Modest monthly charge and very competitive SMS txt and email charges

No contract!  If your school doesn’t like the service then you’re welcome to unsubscribe.

You can read more about TxtStream at their website www.txtstream.co.nz and, if you’re technically inclined, here’s a diagram of (roughly) how TxtStream works: