The MAT communication challenge
Multi-Academy Trusts face a structural challenge that individual schools do not: how to achieve consistency of communication standards across a group of schools while each school retains its own identity, parent community, and local context.
If every school in the trust uses a different system — one uses letters, one uses a legacy email list, one uses a consumer messaging app — the trust cannot monitor communication quality, cannot enforce GDPR compliance centrally, and cannot produce meaningful data on parent engagement across the portfolio.
A unified platform solves the governance problem without eliminating school autonomy.
Central governance, per-school identity
MySchoolUpdate's MAT model operates at two levels:
MAT central administrator
- Sets communication templates and approved message formats
- Enforces data governance standards across all schools
- Views aggregated engagement analytics across the trust (not individual parent records)
- Can broadcast trust-wide messages to all schools' parent communities simultaneously
- Reviews compliance with communication policies
Individual school administrator
- Sends messages to their own school's parent community
- Uses the school's own name and branding in all communications
- Cannot access other schools' parent contacts
- Operates within the communication standards set by the MAT
MAT-wide reporting and analytics
A MAT communications director can view across all schools: message send volumes, delivery rates, open rates (push and email), parent engagement rates over time, and comparative data across schools. This identifies schools with communication gaps — low push registration, poor message open rates, or infrequent communication — that may indicate wider parent engagement issues.
| Metric | What it tells the MAT |
|---|---|
| Push notification opt-in rate by school | Which schools have strong vs weak digital parent engagement |
| Message open rate by school | Communication relevance and parent trust at each school |
| SMS fallback usage by school | Schools where digital push has not yet achieved high penetration |
| Unsubscribe rate by school | Potential over-communication issues at specific schools |
Pricing for Multi-Academy Trusts
Standard single-school pricing is £385/year per school. MATs with 3+ schools qualify for trust pricing:
- 3–5 schools: Contact us for trust pricing — typically 20–25% below standard per-school rate
- 6–10 schools: Further reduction — contact for a trust proposal
- 10+ schools: Full trust contract pricing — single invoice, one renewal, central billing
- SEND schools within the trust: £99/year (regardless of trust size)
Frequently asked questions
Can we roll out to all schools in the trust simultaneously?
Yes. MySchoolUpdate's implementation team can onboard all schools in a MAT concurrently, with a phased deployment starting with pilot schools if preferred. The Wonde MIS integration connects to each school's individual MIS — even within a trust where different schools use different MIS systems.
What happens when a school joins or leaves the trust?
New schools can be added to the MAT account without disrupting existing schools. When a school leaves the trust, their account can be transitioned to an individual school subscription without data loss. Parent contacts and communication history transfer with the school.
Book a MAT-specific demo
Tell us how many schools are in your trust and which MIS systems they use. We will show you how the central governance and per-school autonomy model works in practice.
Book MAT demo Learn moreRelated guides
Parent Engagement Strategies · Guide for Governors · Ofsted & Communication