NEWS STORIES

News stories happen around us every day, and yet quite often we don’t do anything about them.  This section contains ideas for a number of scenarios in which you might find you are sitting on a really good story which your local media might well welcome.

Research

If your school ever does research then it is generally worth reporting the findings to the local press. You might research into the parking facilities, the number of students who are wanting to take sociology A level, where last year’s leavers ended up, the number of days absence the average child had last year…   If there is a positive story coming out of any of this research, tell it.

Exams

If your school gets decent exam results,  then these should be publicised and the students and the teachers praised for their efforts. There is surely nothing wrong and everything right with acknowledging success on both sides.  With the press release get a few quotes from teachers and pupils, and parents too if possible.

Trips

Every school visit is an opportunity for positive PR. Encourage the teachers on the trip to take a digital camera and gather as many pictures as possible. Then write up the story immediately (it can’t be left for a week or two, as then it is no longer news) and forward the write up with the pictures to the local newspaper.  

If at all possible, find an exciting headline to go along with the story. For example, “Children visit Iron Age Fort” is all right in itself, but “Children travel  2000 years back in time” is better.  

“Children see scene of brutal murder” might not be to everyone’s taste, but that headline followed by the story that, “history is not always about kings and queens, as Year 8 from Singleton High School discovered when they visited the ruins of Dronfield Castle last week.  For it was here that…”

Such a headline attracts the journalist, and ultimately the reader.

Technology

Many parents who read your website will not have much idea as to what ICT in schools is all about, but they will generally feel that it is a good thing.  You can develop this feeling by showing a photo of children or students working on computers in a computer suite, and giving details of some of the work that they do.  

For example if you state that, “this year we purchased a new set of laptop computers which enable our year 8 classes to participate in a start of year Computer Familiarisation course” everyone will be impressed, even if no one is quite sure what a Computer Familiarisation course is all about.

It is worth returning to the ICT department each year to find out exactly what new equipment the school has got and what new story you can tell – not least because ICT stories that are exciting one year can look very ordinary two years later.

Finally it is worth putting up a short piece defining IT, ICT and Computing.  Not everyone is clear of what the difference is.

Arts

Music, drama, theatre, art, film making… the creative arts are for many parents the public face of the school, and you need to make the most of them.  Photos of the current round of productions should be on the website, along with individual shots of pupils playing instruments, dressed in costume, working on a film, in a drama workshop and so on.

What’s more, if you can locate them, photos from productions of years before will also have a novelty value, might contain images of past pupils who are now the parents of children or students in the school, and give a feel of historic continuity.   If the school is more than a few years old it is certainly worth putting out an appeal to parents asking if you can borrow any old photos to scan in.

Finally, remember that you are the keeper of the records of public performances. Include photos of the audience, a page from the programme – anything and everything that is part of what the school is doing. The reader who is just flipping through the website won’t worry too much – but anyone seriously interested in the school will certainly take note, and such material can make your site “sticky”.  This implies that you capture the interest of the reader, and a reader who stays on the site becomes more and more interested, and ultimately becomes an ambassador for your school.

Remember that parents visiting the school for the first time will probably have no idea of the range of activities you undertake – so do choose some photos to put on the school noticeboard where visitors will see them.

Buildings

If your school is fortunate enough to have new buildings going up (and old ones coming down) do get some pictures of the work, and put them on the site as work in progress – moving them to a history of the school section later.  Write a short piece about the changes being made, and explain the benefits this will bring.

If you can find historic pictures of the buildings, add these as part of the backdrop, for those who are interested.  Your past pupils may not all still live in your part of the world and be waiting to send their children to the school – but they will have an interest – and generating an interest in the school is what your work is about.

To give but one personal example – the secondary school I attended was knocked down soon after I left (no connection) and the school moved to new premises.  The website of the school has no pictures of its history at the previous building – although a separate website created by one group of ex-pupils has managed to gather together a huge collection of pictures from a by-gone era.  The ex-pupils who created this second site even offered copies to the school for its main site – but there was no interest.

Sports

Sports Day is the perfect opportunity to record photos and express the school’s philosophy – whether it is one of encouraging excellence or encouraging global participation.   Don’t forget to get information on past pupils who have gone on to excel in some aspect of sporting life, whether it is as an athlete, club manager, or indeed as a local enthusiast who has worked for years to promote on particular sport in your area.

Once again, historic photos can be of great interest, and many will be available from local papers and magazines – not to mention private collections.   All such documentation can give a greater feel of the school having a sense of history.

Funds

Fund raising events involving parents should always be recorded on the school site – and once you have put up this year’s fete or other event, you should tell the parents that the photos are on the site.   Also, record details of how much money was raised through the event.   You may feel that the parents were all informed after the event – but many will have missed the detail and this is a chance to create a permanent record.

Events

Don’t forget to create a file on your website of events that have been arranged.  You will have a list of forthcoming events – speech day, sports day, school BBQ, parents evenings etc.   But don’t just delete these days once they have passed.  If you have some pictures or a report of speech day (recording who gave the speech etc) it is worth writing it up and keeping it.  

Thus you might have a list of past speech days – and the list is going to look rather dull if it just reads, “Speech Day: 2008”; “Speech Day: 2007”.   But if you can expand on this each time, that could make the list a little more interesting…

Speech Day 2008:  Ex-pupil Sir John Robertson on being at school in the 1960s.

Speech Day 2007: Celebrating 50 years of the school.

Photos of events are also worth placing on school noticeboards where visitors to the school will see them.

Photos of children

There is no law about putting pictures of children and parents on the internet, but good practice dictates that you ask the permission of parents for this to take place.   The simplest way of doing this is to write a note to all parents which says that you do record the events of the school on the school’s website and this might include pictures of individual children – particularly those children who win prizes or have other noteworthy achievements to their names.

News update

You should have on your website a news section – and there should be news within it.  If you have no news you have to go searching – for almost everyone says that “people never tell me what they are doing.”   There might be a music festival on, two children might be playing in the under 12’s for a local team, a new approach to on-line personalised learning might have been introduced.  

In any organisation something newsworthy happens at least every month – and it is your job to find it.

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