Question 1

Why did The Marist School first adopt Involve?

Accepted Answer

Darren said the school initially adopted Practice Pal, Involve’s former name, to schedule peripatetic music lessons. It could avoid taking students out of specified lessons, such as English, and connected to iSAMS for student and parent data. After a few weeks, peripatetic teachers were using it to schedule lessons and communicate with parents.

Question 2

How did the school move from one application to a wider school platform?

Accepted Answer

Darren said the school expanded in phases, starting with performing arts and then adding the calendar, clubs, trips and parents’ evenings. The aim was to replace fragmented systems and give parents one place to find information. He said the former calendar product alone cost £2,500 and that replacing separate systems had saved the school thousands of pounds.

Question 3

How were parents and staff brought on board?

Accepted Answer

The school gave parent class representatives an early look at the app; they became points of help for other parents. For staff, Darren recommended involving the people responsible for each existing process as it moves into Involve. He said a whole-staff introduction took about 20 minutes, with help sheets for details such as calendar categories.

Question 4

Should a school roll everything out at once?

Accepted Answer

Darren recommended starting with a specific problem, settling that process, and then moving to the next. Stu said a whole-school launch can work where departments are ready, but he generally finds a phased rollout cleaner. At The Marist, duties, cover and staff absence were described as upcoming phases, not completed rollouts.

Question 5

Does Involve support full boarding as well as flexi-boarding?

Accepted Answer

Stu clarified that the existing functionality was built for occasional or flexi-boarders. Full boarding would require additional development. Darren showed configurable booking packages, including weekly, nightly, half-termly and termly options, but The Marist’s boarding provision had not yet opened.

Question 6

What did The Marist’s boarding setup look like?

Accepted Answer

Darren demonstrated draft booking packages in a boarding ‘care pod’. Booking and cancellation cut-offs, eligible groups and available beds could be configured. He said the school expected to adjust its settings when boarding went live.

Question 7

How was the boarding functionality developed?

Accepted Answer

Darren and Stu worked together on the requirements, booking flow and payments. Darren estimated that the more complex boarding work took a couple of weeks. Stu said larger features are built incrementally with a school that has a clear need and plans to use them; the first version may work without yet being the easiest version to use.

Question 8

How is the booking functionality being used while boarding is delayed?

Accepted Answer

Darren said parents use it for care packages such as breakfast, after-school and homework clubs. They can check spaces, book and pay in the app. Staff can then see bookings and take attendance.

Question 9

How does The Marist manage clubs?

Accepted Answer

Darren said the school runs 127 co-curricular clubs. It releases places for the next half-term through Involve; he reported that more than 900 places were filled within an hour of one release. Club sessions, eligibility, capacity, waiting lists, registers and messages to the relevant families can be managed in the platform.

Question 10

Are students allocated a club immediately when they sign up?

Accepted Answer

Darren said The Marist uses first come, first served booking. Stu described a second, preference-based option: families submit ranked choices, an allocation is run, and staff can review the result before making it final. Schools can also configure booking for individual sessions or a longer period.

Question 11

Can preference-based allocation rules be tailored?

Accepted Answer

Stu said schools can configure eligibility and spaces, including by year group. He did not confirm that Bradley’s particular proposed process would work unchanged; he said the team would need to review its details.

Question 12

How can a school request a change to Involve?

Accepted Answer

Stu said schools using the school or parent portal can submit a request through ‘Pippa’, which gathers the underlying problem and requirements. The team then reviews whether it is a small iteration or needs a larger discussion. He said Involve aims to solve the need while keeping the product’s design consistent, rather than necessarily copying a school’s current workflow.

Question 13

Are development requests from new schools considered, or only those from long-standing customers?

Accepted Answer

Stu said new schools on the school or parent portal can submit requests too. For larger projects, he selects a small number of schools with a strong need and a commitment to roll the functionality out.

Question 14

What was The Marist’s experience of that request process?

Accepted Answer

Darren said Pippa could take time when it did not understand a request, but its follow-up questions helped clarify what the school did now and wanted to do next. He also gave direct feedback: completed changes were sometimes first noticed in release notes rather than communicated back to the requester. Simeon acknowledged that this communication could improve.

Question 15

Could a school buy just one part of Involve, such as parents’ evenings or trips?

Accepted Answer

Stu said Involve was experimenting with a point-solution approach, so a school might start with one function and replace its existing product for that task. He did not present separate purchasing as an established, generally available option; Simeon said further information was expected soon.

Involve Discovery Session with The Marist School

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