7 Ways in which Better Communications Can Boost Your School s Intake. Getting your message out to the parents of your future pupils

Transcription

1 7 Ways in which Better Communications Can Boost Your School s Intake Getting your message out to the parents of your future pupils

2 Ambitious Minds 7 Ways in which Better Communications Can Boost Your School s Intake The focus on admissions is now a year-round challenge. The admissions process starts at whatever point and on whatever platform prospective parents choose. Perhaps the parent of a Year 5 pupil looked at your school s website at the weekend, or Googled to see what information is online, or tried to find out about the admissions process and what they should do. Did they find the information they were looking for? More importantly, did they find the information you want them to? Families enjoy increasing freedom to choose the school they feel best suits their needs what can you do to persuade them to choose your school? It s simple: better communications. The vivid and fast-changing life of a school is a hard thing to communicate to those outside its daily life. By conveying in the most compelling way you can all of the great things that happen in your school via your website, your media relations, your other regular school newsletters and social media, you can make your school an irresistible option. It requires a plan and dedicated resources to be able to communicate with purpose and to ultimately achieve your goals. In simple terms, this will be seen by an increase in interest in the school, better attendances at open days and ultimately more parents choosing your school. It s in everyone s interest to boost the intake, or to maintain being over-subscribed, but there is often a poor understanding of how it is everyone s responsibility. The link between writing up a piece for the school website or newsletter about the dance show, the author s visit or cricket team s win and improved numbers in next year s Year 7 isn t immediately obvious but it exists, and as parents increasingly understand the wider choice they have, it requires everyone to do their bit to sell the school. The 7 Ways 1. Start influencing your parents of the future before they start looking 2. Publications: know your audience 3. Admissions ABC 4. Collect data and communicate regularly 5. What parents will find out for themselves 6. A strategy for success 7. Call in the experts 2

3 7 Ways in which Better Communications Can Boost Your School s Intake 1. Start influencing your parents of the future before they start looking People gain their impressions of a school from a whole range of sources. It is unlikely to be directly related to Ofsted s assessment (although that may form part of the package), and usually they won t be able to pinpoint the reason for their view. But they will have formed an opinion long before they have first stepped into reception. They may, in fact, never get as far as the school gates if they believe it is not a good school. For people with no existing relationship with a school, there is one source which gets there first: the media. Whether good news or bad, people will absorb the information and soon will have established in their mind whether yours is a good school or not. Be active in seeking media coverage The positive thing for schools is that the tone and frequency of the media coverage you receive is something you can influence (albeit not control). If the rival school down the road is getting in the media more often, it will simply be because they tell the local newspaper and radio station what is happening. While the bad news will find its own way of coming to their attention, the good news needs a helping hand to find its way into the newsroom. That needs to come from you. Highlight the breadth of your school s activity and achievements A regular feed of news, as part of your overall communications strategy, can reinforce the values of the school in the minds of prospective parents. Variety is the key here make sure that you are promoting a balance of arts, sport, competitions, extra-curricular and, of course, educational achievements to demonstrate the breadth of opportunity and activity and also to avoid being pigeon-holed as the, for example, the school for rugby players (if it could put off non-rugby players). By all means, promote your strengths, but make sure it isn t all about one subject or theme. 3

4 Ambitious Minds 2. Publications: know your audience Printed material, particularly the school prospectus, are often about what the school wants to say, rather than what the parents want to know, or are too vague. Read more than one prospectus and it is likely you have already started to see the same phrases: cater for all students, ensure that each child achieves their potential (or even maximum potential ), some of the best facilities in, 21 st -century school and so on. Be specific and give specifics It is too easy to fill a prospectus with platitudes and forget to include the detail. Providing evidence and examples to support what you are saying, and where possible use students and alumni as case studies, makes it more readable, but also more effective. They bring it to life, which will prevent the prospectus reading as a dry, corporate document, but they also give parents, and the children, reason to engage with the material, and ultimately the school. It may be the performing arts workshop to Disneyland Paris, the would-be scientist going on a residential weekend to Oxford University, the football team s cup final win played at the nearby Premier League ground they are all much more powerful than general phrases about extracurricular activities and providing pathways to success. Be relevant and forward-looking Some parents will like the history and traditions a school has, or its alumni, but most are going to be far more interested in the plans for the next five or seven years than the past 50 or 70. But be careful to target the information so that it is relevant to your audience who are the parents of current primary school children. That may mean you talk about, for example, the transition schemes you have in place with partner primary schools, or the pastoral support that Year 7 students can utilise. Don t assume that parents will know that these things go on tell them, and explain what the benefits are. 4

5 7 Ways in which Better Communications Can Boost Your School s Intake 3. Admissions ABC The schools admissions process can appear bewildering so it is important that you make it as clear as possible. Good communications will achieve that. Look at your website and see if you can quickly find the following information: - The date of the next open evening - The deadline for applications - The criteria on which applications are judged - Contact details for a named person who will be able to answer any questions - Downloadable versions of forms that need to be completed And, most importantly: - Reasons why parents should choose your school Too many school websites just point people to the local authority and add a link to the school prospectus. The moment someone is looking at your Admissions section on your website (and if you don t have one, add it as a priority), it is the equivalent of them walking into your shop. Even if you can t make them buy there and then, your aim is to persuade them that they don t need to carry on shopping around. Make it clear and easy The information prospective parents need should be in one place, or at least signposted from a central point. As a minimum it should cover the areas mentioned above. Your entire website, though, is an online prospectus because each page should add additional detail that portrays the school positively. A comprehensive section on the admissions process will make your website more appealing than the competition and will demonstrate the school is organised, structured and makes an effort to make things as easy as possible for parents. It will show you care and parents will be much more likely to return to your website, and visit your school, because of it. 5

6 Ambitious Minds 4. Collect data and communicate regularly A really good admissions section will enable you to do one other, crucial, thing: collect data. Every opportunity you get should be exploited for data about future pupils, so that you can communicate directly with the parents who will be making a decision that will affect your Year 7 intake. Start today It is rarely too early to start bringing this information together. Data about siblings, from open evenings, from requests for a prospectus, from any events held at the school get into the habit of asking whether they have children of primary school age, get the names and ages, and get contact details. Be positive and enthusiastic Recording the data only lays the foundation, it then must be used to communicate regularly with parents to make them feel part of the school community before their child joins the school. Tell them about what is going on in the school via your e-newsletter, invite them to come and look round, let them know when you are running sessions with the relevant primary school, send a birthday card to the child in question. There is an awful lot that can be achieved by having a plan and executing it well. The drip-drip effect is invaluable as this avoids the need for a hard sell at any point. By keeping in touch and enabling a conversation, even if most of the contact is from you to them, you will be more likely to be the school of choice when the times comes to make the decision about secondary education. 6

7 7 Ways in which Better Communications Can Boost Your School s Intake 5. What parents will find out for themselves There is now a huge and ever-growing part of the population who won t book a table in a restaurant without first checking it out online to try to ensure the steak won t be overdone or the red wine overpriced. Given that, you can be sure that Google will be interrogated by prospective parents to find out everything there is to know about the schools they are putting under the spotlight. This is where the importance of PR comes in, because newspapers score highly on Google rankings. Typically a story about the school from a local newspaper will be one of the first three or four entries, behind the school website and sites like ratemyteachers.com or Wikipedia. Use your networks Beyond that, there are sites controlled by the local authority or aggregates such as the Archdiocese or Academy sponsor which can rate highly and can include details about the school. Make best use of those sites, by providing engaging content and making sure there are links through to your website. It is a worthwhile task to spend time going through a range of searches imagining you are a prospective parent: - what information do you find which does not portray your school as you would wish it to be (and what can you do about influencing or changing it)? - what information about other schools was particularly impressive or eye-catching (and what can you do to match or surpass it)? If you find something that is out-of-date or inaccurate on another site, it is always worth getting in touch with the site owner to ask for it to be changed. Use your social networks The ideal situation is for parents to find the information that you control or influence including the school website, the Twitter and Facebook accounts, as well as the good news in the local media. A higher profile that is actively promoting the school will create momentum and open up opportunities that would otherwise be closed to the school. 7

8 Ambitious Minds 6. A strategy for success Communications work best as part of an integrated, co-ordinated plan. This plan should have clear goals. In this case, to maintain or increase the number of people applying to enter Year 7, and it should use a variety of channels and methods to reach your audience. Each channel your website, newsletters, social media, open evenings, direct communications and prospectus should each support and reinforce this goal, although the content and tone may vary. The benefits of a coherent communications strategy The main reason to have a coherent strategy is because it creates less work, not more. It prevents duplication so that information is only generated once and then utilised for your website, newsletter, press release and so on. It also helps to plan future content, and highlights the times and areas which require more thought and effort to generate material. Take time to look at the events and activities that take place during your school year and consider how you can incorporate them into your plan of activity about admissions. This will allow you to promote things ahead of time, for example your open evenings or the application deadline. Maintain momentum Make sure you maintain momentum by it becoming a regular part of school life so that it is discussed at staff meetings, and is at the forefront of everyone s thoughts when people are planning and reviewing activity. 8

9 7 Ways in which Better Communications Can Boost Your School s Intake Ambitious Minds is the right partner for you 7. Call in the experts We are education specialists and we understand schools, so we will not treat you like a run-of-themill business that wants better communications so it can sell more widgets. Success in the education sector is not measured in the number of tweets you send or the number of hits you get on your website. It is about portraying an accurate, holistic and positive image of the school, across every aspect of the school's life, and throughout all of its communications. We take the burden of the planning and execution off your shoulders, which lets you get on with the job of running the school, while we work tirelessly to spread the news of the good work that is going on in your school, day in and day out. Our experience and expertise, from years spent in journalism and managing media relations, means that we will provide a communications solution that is tailored to your needs and executed to produce the outcomes you desire. Working in partnership with you, we will shape your message and then we will spread your message. Take your first step and call us Call us now to arrange a meeting during which we can explore how Ambitious Minds can help to boost your intake through better PR and communications call Alex Turner on or alex.turner@ambitiousminds.co.uk If you have any comments or questions on any aspect of Ambitious Minds, we would also be delighted to hear from you. To find out more about who we are and what we do, please go to and let us know what you think. 9