On Sunday we will send out our last ever Parent PING. Following 14 months of data collection we have taken the difficult decision to close the Parent Ping app. Since it started in July 2020, nearly 7,000 parents have contributed to this unique experiment into building a window into family life throughout the pandemic. Those efforts have significantly amplified the voice of parents and made sure parental concerns were put in front of policy makers. Opinions of parents were quoted by the media, used by government for their lockdown roadmaps and are, right this second, being used to form future academic research.
We have particularly enjoyed getting to know our regular Pingers, especially those that contribute to our Facebook Group. You have inspired our questions, and we’ve been astonished at the generosity you’ve shown in your time, feedback and enthusiasm. In return, we hope that you’ve been assured that everyone found home learning tough, that you want teachers to use your actual name when they speak to you, and that hardly anyone really does Elf on the Shelf (so please don’t feel guilty if you can’t be bothered!)
Why is the app closing?
Parent Ping is part of a larger endeavour to improve educational research by making it fun, quick and easy. Our first app was Teacher Tapp, and then we expanded out to parents in response to the pandemic and the demands of home-schooling. Now that schools are slowly return to something closer to normal (we hope!), we looked again at how we might best continue improving education research and realised that our expertise, and the resources of our small team, will achieve the best outcomes for education research if focused at school-level activities right now. We know how important parents are to education, so this is not goodbye… more, a see you soon 😉
What will happen to my data?
The data we collected in the past year is a vitally important snapshot of family life during the pandemic. It has already been used in academic reports and government documents and our weekly blogs, which will remain as the Parent Ping legacy. Beyond this, we are also working with the National Data Archive to securely store an anonymised version of the data so that future researchers can access and use the information free of charge. Maybe one day there will be a PhD in Parent Ping!
What will happen to my app?
The last question will be asked on Sunday 12th of September. After this date, no new questions will be added to the app and you will no longer receive notifications. The app will remain on your phone until you manually delete it.
Thank you for all your support, we’ll leave you with our best bits, in numbers!
2,420,155 questions answered
57,000 page views of the Parent Ping website
6,861 parents signed up
3,535 reads of our top blog
2,352 responses on 25th of February
2,199 Twitter followers
1,025 questions asked
At least 1,000 responses per day throughout 2021
At least 58% of parents stayed on Parent Ping 1 month
419 parenting Daily Reads
280 members in the Parent Ping Facebook Group
42 print media mentions
5 podcasts
3 broadcast media mentions
2 citations in government publications
1 new law