Making your mark - How to build a stronger school
An effective and sustained approach to marketing and PR is a commitment to good practice across all aspects of a school's activity.'
Many schools wonder why children pass their gate every morning on the way to a school further away. Macia Grebot believes that effective marketing can change parental perceptions and recommends membership of a specialist association.
Schools assume all sorts of reasons for another's greater success the other school has better facilities, the other school gets better results, everyone thinks that that school is better than their school because they don't know how good theirs is.
Faced with the suggestion that their school could benefit across a range of outcomes through effective marketing and public relations, many schools respond with both suspicion and disbelief.
The right course
I have lost count of the number of times I have heard teachers say, as long as we get the teaching right, the pupils will come to us'. Sadly, that is not really the case.
A school's historically poor reputation will live on long after all the members of staff have worn themselves out, improving teaching and learning against all odds. It doesn't matter how good what you are doing inside the school is if nobody knows about it!
Doing the right thing?
Ah you may say, but we send out newsletters. Yes, to your existing parent body, mainly in the bottom of pupils' bags never to see the light of day.
Ah you may say, we send out press releases but the local paper has it in for us, so they only ever print bad news about our school yes, and when did you last invite representatives from the local press into school for a chat, to meet some pupils and find out what you are doing?
Ah you may say, but we have a website yes, and when did you last look at it? Has there been a new entry in the last 6 months?
What to do?
The association, keys2marketing, was born out of a growing recognition that those schools that were proactive with their marketing and PR have been successful in driving change and improvement as well as in changing perceptions of their schools in the community. But changing perceptions is not an end in itself why do it?
With changing perceptions comes pupil and parental engagement, improved morale among staff, an increase in first choice pupils and an increase in numbers on roll, leaving the school less vulnerable to casual entries, which make budgetary and day to day management less of a guessing game.
But, most of all, because pupils (and staff) want to be part of an organisation of which they can feel proud.
The keys2marketing board members are all educationalists with school experience, have a passion for supporting all schools to be excellent, and have experience of how successful effective PR and marketing can be in driving and supporting school development.
The effect on pupils
Schools often underestimate the impact on pupils of being part of a school with a poor reputation in the area; they don't care about it, their parents won't engage with the school and the pupils report feeling stigmatised when they apply for Saturday jobs, local colleges etc.
keys2marketing is a cost effective way for those schools who want to be proactive with PR and marketing to access advice, support and training and to develop and share best practice in PR and marketing in the maintained sector.
What's in it?
By becoming a member, each school receives direct access to resources and expertise in public relations, reputation management, school review and audit, organisational development and improvement, and sponsorship and grant opportunities.
Seminar sessions and training to date have included Best Practice in Staff Recruitment and Retention, individual case studies about school rebranding and small groups have focused on failing schools.
Annual membership includes an inaugural seminar, at no additional cost, as well as training at a reduced cost throughout the year. The association has attracted members from across the country and from across all phases of education as schools increasingly recognise how powerful a tool effective PR and marketing can be.
Evaluation has been carried out in order to gain a clearer understanding of what aspect of membership is most valued. Member feedback indicates the following as the most useful aspects of membership:
- access to training
- meeting people from other schools with similar responsibilities; and
- access to bespoke consultancy.
As a result of this feedback keys2marketing is offering members increased access to bespoke training targeted to their schools' particular needs and issues.
The research behind it
Research carried out by the Sorrell Foundation for the Building Schools for the Future Programme asked pupils what they want from their schools in order to be able to brief architects and designers of the programme. Three key things emerged:
- communication: they want to be able to tell the community how successful they are as a school;
- uniform : pupils want uniforms because they want to let everyone know which school they attend;
- reputation and identity : they want to be proud of their school and be sure of all that it stands for in the community; and
- pupils identified wanting to contribute to the vision for their school communication again.
Ahead of the game
Competition between schools is increasing, and will continue to increase academies, specialist schools, increasing numbers of children offered full scholarship places at some of the top independent schools in the country not just a few places, but thousands of places.
The climate in which schools operate has changed and all the indicators suggest that trends in policy, coupled with the falling birth rate, are likely to bring even more pressure.
Word of mouth
It is an interesting paradox that though we live in an information-rich world and parents have access to a range of quantitative information on which to make decisions about the choice of school for their child, the range they actually deploy is quite limited. Even though we all know that parents look at Ofsted reports, school publications and websites, by far the most powerful influence on their decision-making is the local network. In other words, the school's reputation in the local community!
The oldest and most powerful means of communication is word of mouth. Every school has a reputation. Parents and pupils, prospective members of staff and people in the community make comparisons between schools. None of this is a problem as long as the school recognises that it has to manage its reputation. Public acceptance and trust in the school is a fundamental condition for its success.
Change the profile
Remember that the school's profile can be managed the school is sending out image messages all the time. This image is being projected within and beyond the school gates via:
- the pupils themselves, and the uniform they wear;
- interaction between school and home, pupils, staff, community, feeder schools;
- school newsletters, prospectus, website;
- telephone calls to and from the school; and
New plans
An effective and sustained commitment to marketing and PR is a commitment to good practice across all aspects of a school's activity. It is about school development at every level because it recognises the users the parents, the pupils, the community as discernible purchasers.
keys2marketing could help and support schools with all aspects of PR and marketing, and it could do so without huge expense. The question schools should be asking themselves is: Can we afford not to do it?'
Marketing + PR Self-evaluation
Here are a few simple questions: the answers may help you start identifying the kind of marketing and PR strategy your school will need:
What, in your view, is the current reputation of the school?
Has this changed over the last 3 years?
What is the perception of the school among
Does your school receive positive/negative press coverage?
What areas of school life get positive press coverage?
Is your website up-to-date, full of the latest news and read by your pupils, parents and the whole community?
Macia Grebot is co-founder and director of Grebot Donnelly Associates. For further advice and/or consultancy Grebot Donnelly Associates (GDA) can be contacted on info@grebotdonnelly.com or by telephone on 020 8892 2242.
For more information about keys2marketing, please visit the website at www.keys2marketing.org.uk
Practical Funding for Schools , March 2007 Issue 75
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