Sir Terry Leahy Invests in Parentapps

Sir Terry Leahy invests in Parentapps, a Liverpool school-to-parent app.

22:29 09 October 2018

Sir Terry Leahy, the former chief executive of Tesco, has invested in Parentapps, a Liverpool-based venture that aims to connect parents and schools. Founded in 2015 by Kevin Clayton, the company creates a bespoke app for each client school and allows parents to communicate with the school directly about sickness or absence from school.

 

Clayton said: “The traditional form of communication is giving children letters to take home to their parents,”

 

“Those letters contain all kinds of important information about school trips, changes in policy, consent forms, events and so many more things.

 

“Such important communications are often put in the hands of very young children who would often stuff them at the bottom of their school bags and forget about them – it is a serious weakness in the chain.

 

“Our app, which can be individualised for each primary and secondary school, and nurseries, does away with that process in an instant saving the school time and money and reducing its carbon footprint.”

 

Explaining why he invested in the company, Leahy said: “I think the education sector is an untapped market,”

 

 

 

“Digital technology is revolutionising the way we live our lives. But if you look at a schools today, they are quite conservative around IT. They haven’t been able to fully embrace all the potentials of digital technology.”