What the agent handles
- Books tours and open houses
- Books entrance assessments
- Logs absences and late arrivals
- Answers tuition and bursary questions
- Relays messages to teachers
Education and child care
AI receptionist for private schools
Handles admissions enquiries, books campus tours and entrance assessments, and takes attendance and message calls from parents.
CallerWe're moving from Vancouver in the summer. Are there spaces in grade seven?
CallerMy daughter has a dentist appointment, she'll be late this morning.
CallerWhen's your open house? I saw something about it online.
Where calls go
AdmissionsFront officeStudent servicesBusiness officePrincipal
Warm transfer: When a parent calls with an urgent concern about their child's safety or wellbeing, the agent warm-transfers to the principal or vice-principal.
What it books
Campus tours and admissions assessments
Why private schools miss calls, and what an AI receptionist changes
A private school's front office takes two very different kinds of calls at once. From 8:15 to 8:45 it is the attendance line: dentist appointments, late buses and sick days. Through the fall and winter it is also the admissions line, with families comparing three or four schools, often calling from another province or another time zone. Admissions staff are leading tours, running open houses and sitting in on entrance testing, so an enquiry that rings out at 10 a.m. may not get a call back until the family has already booked a visit elsewhere.
A RealVoice AI receptionist answers both lines on the first ring. It books campus tours, open house visits and entrance assessments into the times admissions sets, and asks what admissions needs to know up front: the child's current grade and school, the year of entry, siblings applying, and whether the family is relocating. It answers tuition, bursary, uniform, bus route and before- and after-school care questions from your information, and it logs absences and late arrivals with the student's grade and homeroom.
When a parent calls with an urgent concern about their child's safety or wellbeing, it warm-transfers to the principal or vice-principal and reads them a short summary first. It doesn't decide whether a grade has space, doesn't discuss a student's records, and never predicts an admissions or bursary decision; those questions become notes for the admissions office.
Example call, start to finish
- CallerHi, we're moving from Calgary to Oakville in August, and I'm trying to find out if you have room in grade seven for my daughter.
- AI receptionistCongratulations on the move. Grade seven is one of the school's main entry years, and admissions confirms spaces once an application is in. Would you like to see the school first? Tours run Tuesday and Thursday mornings.
- CallerWe're flying in that week. Thursday the 16th would work.
- AI receptionistI have Thursday the 16th at 9:30 with Mrs. Okonkwo from admissions. What's your daughter's name and her current school?
- CallerHannah Lindqvist, at Westgate in Calgary. Actually, her brother would be going into grade three, and he has an IEP for dyslexia. Would he get support there?
- AI receptionistI'll add him to the visit and note that you'd like to talk about learning support. I can't say what support he'd receive before the school has read his IEP, so Mrs. Okonkwo will go over that with you and email the list of documents to send ahead.
- CallerThat's perfect, thank you.
- AI receptionistYou're booked for Thursday the 16th at 9:30 for both children. I'll text you the confirmation with visitor parking directions now.
After the call: Admissions gets a text and email with both children's names, entry grades, current school, the relocation date and the IEP note, so Mrs. Okonkwo can prepare before the visit. The tour sits in the RealVoice schedule, the family has a confirmation text, and the summary and recording are saved in the portal.
How it fits your day
- The attendance window
- Late arrivals and absences between 8:15 and 8:45 are logged with grade and homeroom, and the front office gets them as a tidy list instead of a full voicemail box.
- Open house season
- From October to January, families call to register for open houses and tours while admissions staff are walking other families through the building.
- Assessment and application deadlines
- In the winter, entrance assessments are booked, and questions about deadlines, bursary forms and re-enrolment contracts are answered from your published dates.
- Families in other time zones
- A family in Vancouver or overseas can call at their own evening and still book a tour, with the details waiting for admissions in the morning.
Your software
Today it books campus tours and entrance assessments into the RealVoice schedule in the portal, keeps every attendance call and admissions enquiry there with a summary and recording, and texts families a confirmation. If your school runs Blackbaud Education Management, Veracross, Edsby or PowerSchool, the team can set up a connection to it; custom integrations are quoted separately.
What a missed call costs
Private day school tuition in Canada can run past $25,000 a year, and a student who enters in grade seven may stay through grade twelve. If the front office misses a handful of admissions calls during open house season and just one of those families enrols at another school, that is about $150,000 in tuition over six years, before a younger sibling follows. Put your own tuition and entry grades into the missed-call calculator on our homepage.
Questions private schools ask
Can it book entrance assessments as well as tours?
Yes. It books assessments into the sessions admissions sets, notes the grade applied for, and texts the family the date, time and what the student should bring.
Can parents call in absences and late arrivals?
Yes. It takes the student's name, grade, homeroom, reason and expected arrival time and sends them to the front office. Once the team connects it to your student information system during setup, it records the absence there too, so the homeroom teacher sees it at roll call.
Will it tell a family whether there's space in a grade?
Only what admissions has told it, such as a grade that is full with a waitlist. It never makes or hints at an admissions decision.
Can it answer tuition and bursary questions?
It explains your fee schedule, payment plans, bursary deadlines and how to apply. It doesn't judge whether a family is likely to qualify; that goes to the business office.
What does it do when a parent is worried about their child's safety?
It warm-transfers the call to the principal or vice-principal with a private summary first. If neither can pick up, the message goes out by text and email right away.
Can families overseas call outside our office hours?
Yes. It picks up at any hour, and it can speak with families in English, French and many other languages, checking with the caller before it switches.
Hear it as your own private school's front desk
Request a free demo call and the agent will phone you, set up as a business like yours.