Families are the best and most effective promoters of your school

For sometime now I have been working with schools who have been quick to make the connection between effective Family Engagement in Learning, word of mouth and the school's positive reputation and subsequently growing enrolments

A school’s good reputation is an extremely fragile asset, something that can be won or lost by neglect, mis action, complacency as well as true and false narratives. Our good reputation lives or dies on the activities of the school and the word of mouth of our communities and stakeholders.

Put simply often “the light on the hill” has gone out and the school has begun to decline in reputation and hence enrolments. A good reputation depends significantly on positive and clear self-definition and it is this light that is often extinguished when schools no longer are clear about;

1. Who they are
2. What they stand for and....
3. Who they serve

Building your schools’ enrolment is an incredibly difficult and slow process, one that cannot be achieved by the actions of a single leader or principal. It is simply about enhancing the school’s reputation in the community. In my experience schools that have success do so because they have.

1.    Engaged in strong consultation and listening to their community.

2.    Formulated a  deliberate and well thought through reputation strategy.

3.    Gathered and formed a team of people (stakeholders) coordinating and acting.

4.    Enunciated a clear understanding of the  significance of “word of mouth”.

5.    Activated  a strong, coherent family engagement in learning strategy to spread the good news of learning at the school.

6.    Ensured adequate resources to support the initiative.

Enhancing or Re building a School’s reputation

There are many reasons why a schools reputation wanes and thus enrolments decline. Demographics, community perceptions , leadership, communication failures, the school fails to tell its own good stories, a new competitor (bigger, better and shinier) or simply for one reason or other "the light on the hill has gone out" (check your school light bulb)

Whatever the reason for the loss of reputation and enrolments, schools often typically respond with a blitz of advertising , self promotion and public relations, efforts which are usually very expensive, not very strategic and predominantly not yielding the results schools are looking for.

In working to support schools rebuild their reputation and enrolments I consider the following steps in a process;

1. Define and classify your stakeholders (in some workable way)
2. Spell out explicitly the reputation you want.
3. Identify and name the key measures (drivers) of reputation for each stakeholder audience.
4. Activate “word of mouth”-achieve this through a strong and clear plan for family engagement in learning in your school.
5. Identify the channels by which your various stakeholders gather information about your school and communicate their opinions about the School.

This quote to the left is on the staff room wall of one of my schools and is there to be a constant reminder to all of the vital importance of family engagement

Families at schools that are well connected and engaged in their children's learning are the greatest source of positive "word of mouth" about the school.

Word of mouth is what builds and spreads the positive messages about your learning community, the relationships and the great service your school provides for families. Money cannot buy comparable messaging in newspaper advertisements, fancy open days, billboards and other gimmicks used to create an image of a great school. What your own people say about your school is the determinant of you schools reputation and hence enrolment.

Just what is your schools reputation? what is the "word of mouth " about your school?"

If I can help your school in any way contact me through my Linkedin page