Picky parents pose a challenge for schools

Students from LCC’s BA Advertising course designed posters to promote a South London school to local families.

Choosing a school for their child is potentially one of the most important choices a parent can make: it could effectively shape what type of person they will become.

Schools themselves know that families are becoming increasingly picky when it comes to making the right choice for their kids. For many parents, simply sending them off to the one round the corner and hoping for the best is no longer a viable course of action.

Mums and dads want to know about Ofsted reports, SATS results and teaching facilities; they need recommendations from friends and family members; they look for good news stories about schools in the local media. In short, it’s imperative that schools put their best face forward, and this means knowing how to market themselves to attract enrolments.

In order to do this, St Andrew’s Church of England Primary School in Stockwell, South London, worked with staff and students from London College of Communication to spruce up its image and get the message across to local families that it is a welcoming, supportive, inclusive and academically solid place to send their children.

Opened in 2001, St Andrew’s is a voluntary-aided primary school which partnered with nearby Christ Church School in 2016. It was rated as ‘Good’ in January 2019 following an Ofsted inspection, with 80% of pupils are expected to reach at least the average standard for reading, writing and maths.

Students from LCC’s BA Advertising course, led by Steve Spence, were given a brief to come up with a series of posters for St Andrew’s with the aim of creating a fresh wave of applications for places ahead of the new school year. To begin with, they went to the school and interviewed parents and pupils to get a feel for its sense of community.

Valentin Crisan, a student who worked on the project, said the goal was to make “the school more visible in the local community and increase the number of applications [to the school]. We included real testimonials from real parents on the posters.

“Our research found that local parents will predominantly choose a school based on word of mouth – recommendations from family or friends. So we decided to use that in our campaign – show real people talking about their experiences of St Andrew’s.”

Headteacher Jayne Mitchell said: “LCC’s students produced some lovely posters to promote our school in the local community.  The posters were then used in our own digital marketing campaign.  As a result, we had over 100 applications to join our reception class in September 2019.”

So what makes a good school?

A Parentview survey coincided with the January 2019 Ofsted inspection, a few months after the poster and digital marketing campaign had been rolled out.

It found that the school has improved in the eyes of parents. In a 2013 survey, 79% parents felt they were getting enough information about their child’s progress, and 72% felt any concerns had been dealt with. Both figures have now improved.

Parents like to be in touch with the school about their child’s learning, and 82% parents now feel they get enough information about their progress from teachers, while 87% believe their child is being taught well at St Andrew’s.

The reputation of any school is crucial for its future, and 94% parents surveyed said they would recommend St Andrew’s to fellow parents, with 87% saying Stockwell is a safe area and that the school provides a secure environment for their children.

Photos and poster courtesy of St Andrew’s Primary School.