One email from a parent did more than a hundred of ours

Loek only works once the school switches on the connection to Somtoday. That is a single step for the school, and yet it has been our biggest barrier. The breakthrough did not come from us, but from parents themselves.

Our problem: without the school, a parent can do nothing

Loek pulls the timetable, homework and tests straight from Somtoday. For that the device needs the school data, and we only get that once the school switches on the connection through Somtoday Connect.

That boxed us in. You can only order Loek if the switch is on at your school. If it is off, a keen parent runs into an order button that does nothing. And we could not force schools. Our first effort was to approach school boards through LinkedIn and email. By now we have dozens of school board members as LinkedIn "friends" and have sent a good hundred emails to schools and boards, but this had exactly zero impact. And calling a school, getting through to the right person, having the administrator flip the switch, is simply not doable for us: it takes time that we, as two fathers with a day job, do not have.

The breakthrough came from parents

Smartphonevrij Opgroeien knows this problem from the inside. It is a movement of parents who agree together to delay the first smartphone. They shared Loek in their own parent groups, and there something happened that we could not pull off ourselves.

Parents picked it up, and asked their own school to switch on the connection instead of waiting for our order button.

A parent who emails their own school has an edge on us. It is their school, their child, their story. And the ask is small: switching Loek on costs the school nothing and is a single step for the Somtoday administrator. We made a sample letter for it, so a parent does not have to start from scratch.

That is how the first schools came in: not because we convinced them, but because a parent did.

Why this works

A school that takes one parent seriously opens the door for every other parent at that same school. Once the switch is on, everyone there can order Loek. One conversation, and the barrier is gone for the whole school.

That makes every parent who dares to ask valuable to the rest. The first parent does the work, the school flips the switch, and after that everyone at that school simply has the choice.

How we want to keep this going

We do not want to leave that to chance. So we are building the moment parents now create themselves into a fixed part of Loek.

The first parent at a school becomes the pioneer. You claim your school, we hold your spot, and you ask your school for the connection. If your school then goes live, we make it count: the pioneer gets a reward as thanks for the work that moves the whole school forward. Other parents at that same school can sign up already and hear about it as soon as it is possible.

And because it travels best between parents, every parent who has a Loek at home gets their own discount code and invite link. Share it, for example in the class app, and the next parent gets money off their Loek, while you get free license months back. That is how one parent brings in the next.

The idea stays the same as what the parents of Smartphonevrij Opgroeien showed us. Parents convince parents, and parents switch schools on. We just make that easier.

Will you join in?

Does your school use Somtoday and Loek is not there yet? Ask the school. It costs them nothing and it is quickly done.

Become your school's pioneer - claim your school, and we send you a letter and an explanation and hold your spot until the school goes live.

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Loek helps students focus on learning by showing school information without the distraction of a smartphone. With thanks to the parents of Smartphonevrij Opgroeien.