St Catherine’s British School is an inspiring international school based in Athens, Greece. Teaching over 1200 children and young people from across the world, the school is the heart of a global alumni and parent community who now have the opportunity to engage and network on their new online digital space. StCatsConnect, powered by ToucanTech, is a private portal for members of the school community to create online profiles, connect with other members, seek or offer career support, and stay up-to-date with all the latest school news.

The Development team has worked together with the community to create a space that will enable all the different groups in their school community, including parents, alumni, staff, governors,and senior students to come together in so many different ways.

"It is a dream come true to be able to provide a digital space to connect our whole global family. This year especially during COVID, StCatsConnect played a vital role in keeping our community connected.  In just one year, it has been an amazing journey of the minds of all our community coming together and engaging with each other, all we did was to provide the tools to make this possible.  We have had so many wonderful compliments, especially on how so many new friendships have been made and old friends found, this is what is important to us as a school.”

Deborah Eleftheriou, Head of Development

Catering for different audiences with one platform 

They recently launched their private community portal; over 700 members have joined the platform already, with many final year students joining prior to leaving the school. As part of their continued efforts to engage alumni, they have created a dedicated alumni ‘hub’ to share news, events, alumni spotlight for achievements and successes, and photo galleries of so many memories.

Peer2Peer works every time!  

As an international school, their final year students will soon be heading to universities all over the globe. This year they made an extra effort to provide them with a support network in universities, as many students had not visited their ‘soon to be new homes’ due to COVID and set up mini communities for popular alumni locations and universities.  They shared an article of the university destinations of their class of 2021, and encouraged all the alumni to join. Each group has a feed to start discussions which proved really popular with the graduates and created a network of support uniting generations of St Cats alumni.

Working collectively to add value for students & the wider community

E-mentoring, now a student-led project linking senior students to alumni for careers and university advice, is always a popular programme for alumni to engage with the students. StCatsConnect has now widened the opportunity for parents, alumni and staff to become mentors/mentees. They believe ‘everyone has a passion and expertise to share’ and have created guides to help different members of their community understand how they can support others and take advantage of the mentoring programme. 

“Keeping our alumni connected with the school is important to who we are and strive to be. We love to share and celebrate alumni news, achievements and successes.  Alumni students, staff and parents give back in so many ways in support of the next generation; including mentoring,Careers Day, events and so much more. 

Thank you to the ToucanTech team who have been a valuable source of support in ensuring a smooth transition.” Deborah Eleftheriou, Head of Development 

It is a work in progress and they learn everyday how they can best evolve and support their community by giving them the opportunity to give feedback. The community appreciates the investment by the school and implementing so many best practice initiatives continues to build a thriving international school community for their alumni. We have full confidence that they will reach the 1000 community-member mark in the very near future!

To find out more about how St Catherine’s British School and other ToucanTech customers are building engaged digital communities that give back, speak to a member of the ToucanTech team.