Communication with parents, children, and staff ensure everything runs smoothly and comfortably in environments such as daycares and preschools. While this goal can be achieved without the use of digital signage, this technology makes it a lot easier. It’s also quite comfortable on the eyes, if utilized properly! While there are arguably more important uses than décor, it gets pushed into the spotlight when talking about digital signage in daycare.
We’ll cover some great content uses in this environment, but always keep in mind that it should pop. Daycares are cheerful, fun, and inviting places. Even if the topic on display is not entirely exciting, you can make it special and exciting through design.
Greeting and welcoming new students
Digital signage in daycare can help to make the environment appear more friendly and welcoming for everyone. This is most important for parents who still haven’t decided on a particular daycare. They will begin taking mental notes right at the entrance. The perception of the attending children is equally important as they’ll be happier to spend time at a fun looking and inviting daycare. This is something every parent will consider.
Build colorful greeting messages on entrance displays. Alongside these greetings, consider providing information a new visitor wants to know. We’re talking about first impression information. Direct them to staff desks, notify them of any policies which are in place, as well as operating hours. Use colorful layouts with lots of visuals, flowers, animals, or cartoon characters. With digital signage software, you can construct such visuals beforehand, then overlay them on content you build later on.
Now, let’s talk about the most important bits.
Highlight the best parts to parents!
Parents face many challenges in ensuring a daycare meets their expectations. Create a visual demo of the best parts of the daycare to quickly show new visitors what you have to offer. The environment is among the most important factors. Show a quick walk through the area as a virtual tour. Numbers in feet or meters are great, but visual impressions really demonstrate the ambiance and décor of the space.
Apart from pricing and space, parents will want information on safety and education. Include information on employees, as parents often worry daycares or preschools are understaffed. Most importantly, parents want to know their children will be treated well, have a fun time, and learn something. Include feedback from parents and children, with permission, of course, on how they feel about their experience at the daycare and what new students may look forward to.
Daily schedules
When the schedule is well-organized, it’s simple to draw up digital signage in a daycare or a preschool around it. This information is most useful for parents and staff to stay in the loop on the daily schedule and activities taking place. Highlight meal times, breaks, rest times, and educational periods.
Educational content
The core of educational material is handled by teachers. While digital displays should never compete with the teacher for attention, they can be used as a helpful tool to make it more engaging and exciting. Teachers may show pictures or demonstrate things in a more vivid way. The use of colors and themes specifically designated for learning periods can create a sense of consistency.
Meanwhile, educational content can also be directed at parents in the waiting areas. Share information on suggested nutrition, daily activity, or other recommendations you might have for parents. Here you can for example include which meals the daycare provides and the nutritional values therein.
Birthdays and celebrations
Digital signage software such as OnSign TV has birthday app templates which have all the visual components at the ready. As you provide dates and names, these apps will display who is celebrating a birthday on the given day. These apps can be used to highlight staff birthdays as well, which gives yet another positive note for the day. Since the data on birthdays is readily available, it’s a simple matter to include them in these apps and let them be displayed automatically.
There are tons of opportunities throughout the year for other celebrations. St. Patrick’s day, Mother’s day, Father’s day, Halloween—they’re all great times to build visual themes for digital signage displays. The best part is you can schedule these changes to happen automatically in advance. The first time you set them up, make them repeat annually and soon you’ll have a permanent setup that never needs tweaking!
Health and safety (and emergencies)
Inform about hygiene practices, such as use of hand sanitizers, frequency of cleaning, as well as general cleanliness guidelines for children and staff. If you feel there is a need for it, you may include information about the presence of common allergens in the daycare environment, policies regarding medication, as well as highlighting staff members trained in CPR and first aid.
This is just one example of a data package you can prepare for your displays. You may include it on occasion in the main rotation, or set up a QR-code in the corner of a display that can be used to trigger this content on demand. This leaves more space for other content and also prevents it from becoming repetitive. After all, health information is unlikely to change much as time progresses.
Emergency data is another thing you can trigger on demand. If there is any type of emergency taking place, digital signage can be set up to display messages with directions to exits and behavioral guidelines, depending on the type of emergency.
Real-time updates
As visitors get accustomed to digital signage in a daycare or preschool being well-organized and accurate, they’ll check on it more frequently. For instance, a change in upcoming operating hours, staff availability, or daily schedules can all be highlighted as needed on digital signage in waiting areas.
Lastly, the presence of digital signage itself is a great benefit. It tells parents that the establishment is well-organized and modern. There are plenty of other boxes you’ll need to tick, of course, as digital signage alone cannot carry that burden. But it supports you being perceived as such nonetheless! Try out all the apps, layouts, and compositions OnSign TV has to offer, for free!
Cover image by Gautam Arora.
