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Warning: Just to keep the January blues away for a little longer, this article should be read alongside this specially chosen blog playlist – a blend of resolutions, leadership and marketing views.

Which came first? Great question! It’s that age old riddle that has sparked many arguments and debates.
The same great riddle can be posed around the term ‘teacher recruitment and retention’ – or should that be retention and recruitment?

The stakes have never been higher and the maelstrom continues around leaders in our education system, particularly new headteachers. It’s halfway through your first term, in a new role, probably in a new school, all in the midst of a pandemic.

In our experience of working with new headteachers, the priorities in terms of marketing and communications are at their height in the autumn term. There is also the balance of establishing credibility and promoting yourself to internal and external stakeholders whilst communicating and embedding yours, and your school’s culture, vision, values and key messages.

As the debate continues on the conversion of schools to academies, growth of MATs, financial efficiencies, school improvement….. our take on it is that there are a raft of additional opportunities - if only they were viewed from a strategic marketing and communications perspective. There is no getting away from the statistics and the ever-greater number of schools that have converted to become academies; half of all pupils in England attend an academy, over 33% of schools are now academies and over 75% of academies are part of a MAT (S, M, L, XL)!

In our view, a successful Trust (whatever its size), and its ability to establish a quality reputation, is directly linked with the success of its schools – and in most cases a Trust’s reputation will only be as good as its weakest school(s).

The staff room is typically the central hub of a school pulsating with everyday trials, tribulations and jubilations along with chocolates, biscuits and cakes! This autumn term the key priorities of communications, pupil recruitment and managing the school’s reputation continues at a pace with the same deadlines but complicated by new and additional problems and challenges. With a whole new world ahead of us, rather than looking to overcome these challenges is it time to face them head on? Is it time to adapt and do things differently? How ready is your school in dealing with these key areas that will ultimately impact on the school’s future?

Who doesn’t love a motivational quote – and moreover a sports motivational quote, in fact a ‘Yogism’ from Yogi Berra, an American professional baseball catcher of the 1940s-60s. This quote is particularly relevant to the autumn term and the strategic marketing of secondary schools.

Who would have thought that open event season 2020 would feature empty corridors, classrooms and playgrounds? As a society, we are creatures of habit and we like patterns, regularity, familiarity…but this is the year we have to do things differently, starting with your school’s traditional open mornings, days, evenings, tours… We can no longer run the same events that we have for years, tweaking here and there, in the hope that when we open our doors hordes of prospective pupils and their families will come

Schools may have had to shut their doors, for now, but that doesn’t mean engagement with your current and prospective families can come to a standstill.

In our experience, schools are generally good at communicating with their internal stakeholders however, some lack an awareness when it comes to key external audiences - be aware that with the pace of change that is happening in society - there is now a need for change and for schools to be extrospective and to embrace how this can support their brand enhancement and reputation management.

The need for schools to have a clear vision and a core set of values that underpin all that they do, and a concise communication strategy aimed at all key stakeholders is more important than ever.