MARKETING

Parents

1. Visiting

When parents visit your school it is vital that they should get a positive experience – whether they are visiting to look around prior to opting for your school, whether they have come for a Parents Evening, or whether they have come to complain. 

Follow the route that parents will follow and do what they have to do as they enter, perhaps unsure of where they should be and to whom they should be talking. 

Consider such issues as the signposting, where they wait, the environment they experience. Is there comfortable seating for them?  Is there a trophy cabinet to look at? Are there boisterous and noisy children near where they will wait? Do visitors have to bend over to speak through a window into the school office? Are they kept waiting at the door? Does the entry buzzer work perfectly and get answered quickly throughout the working day?  Does the receptionist give clear and helpful guidance as to what is going on?  Are visitors kept waiting without explanation?

(It may not be an issue in your school, but it is not uncommon for parents and other visitors to be kept waiting. An appointment for 10am is an appointment for 10am, and if the visitor has made an effort to be there on time, then it is unreasonable for the member of staff not to be on time also.)

2. Letters

Letters to parents sent via pupils may or may not arrive – and when they do arrive they may be crumpled from days in the school bag.  Sending letters via a child is not a reliable method of delivery.

3. Email

Although emails can get lost in spam boxes, email delivery of information to parents is infinitely more reliable than the letter sent via the child. It is also cheaper, and uses fewer resources. But if you are using email do tell the parents that this is what you are doing. While some people have their email systems on and working all day long, many others don’t turn the computer on from one week to the next – which is not much good if you are relying on email as a method of communicating urgent news.

Website

In a survey in 2007 the School of Educational Administration found that over 40% of school websites contained out of date information or were in some way unusable.  The most common problems were:

• Out of date holiday information
• Out of date information on other issues, such as school visits
• Out of date staff lists
• Mailboxes that bounced back mail either because the address was no longer valid or because the mailbox was full!

Having valid and up-to-date information on the website can help school administrators because parents can look up information on the website rather than phone the school. 

It is sometimes argued that parents will phone up irrespective of whether there is information on the site on not, and while this is true for some parents, there are many others who will use a site if they know the information is there and is valid.

One website, again run by the School of Educational Administration, contains links to tens of thousands of school websites, and hundreds of parents use the site each day to find out details of schools in their area.  It is worth checking that your school site is shown there and that the link is working.

To check, visit www.schools.co.uk, click on The Schools Directory in the menu on the left, and then enter the postcode or other details of your school.  If there is no valid link to your school’s site, click on Update in the Main Menu on the left side of the Schools Directory page.

Staying in touch

Ideas about school PR, marketing and fundraising are discussed on the School PR and Marketing news group.   Members of the group receive one or two emails a week with latest news and ideas about marketing, PR and fundraising in schools, and can also use the service to ask other subscribers questions or put forward new ideas.

The service is completely free – you can join by sending an email to pr@schools.co.uk and writing the word SUBSCRIBE in the subject line.   You can leave the group at any time by sending a further email with the word unsubscribe in the subject line.

Contact Information

Schools PR and Marketing Services

Telephone: 01536 399 000

FAX: 01536 399 012

Postal address: Hamilton House Mailings plc, Earlstrees Ct, Earlstrees Rd , Northants NN17 4HH

Hamilton House Mailings plc is a company registered in England and Wales with company number 2444392.