New South Wales Department of Education and Training
Leadership Fellowship 2006–2007
Jim Harkin Award Report
Promoting and marketing your
school effectively:
A guide for principals
Jeff Bromage
Principal (1996–2008)
Lisarow High School
New South Wales, Australia
Published 2008
Leadership Fellowship 2006–2007
Jim Harkin Award Report
Promoting and marketing your school effectively:
A guide for principals
Contents
Page
Executive Summary
3
1. Overview of the research study
5
2. Background information
5
3. Key research questions
6
4. Research methodology
6
5. Findings
8
6. Recommendations
9
Bibliography
10
Appendices
11
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Executive Summary
The aim of the research study was to impact directly on the principal’s effectiveness
as a leader in promoting and marketing their school as a quality education provider in
all senses of the term. The list of the 20 Best Practice Promotion and Marketing
Strategies included on page 8 came from the study findings and recommendations.
The list will contribute to the body of knowledge and therefore can build greater
capacity and resilience within the leadership capabilities of principals (and their
schools) to enable them to function more successfully in a highly competitive school
education market.
I believe that the New South Wales (NSW) Leadership Capabilities Framework is a
valuable but largely underutilised diagnostic tool in NSW schools. It was clear from
this study that the principals interviewed were highly effective and confident in their
own abilities but had not undertaken a comprehensive analysis of their own
leadership capabilities. As such, their professional learning plan to develop these
capabilities had not been informed in any structured or formal way. I have proposed
that the NSW Department of Education and Training consider linking principal
leadership capability analysis to complementary professional learning through the
Principal Analysis Review Schedule.
The research study findings and recommendations have the potential to better inform
the training of principals and other school staff in the need to become a client
focused educational service provider. It was apparent from the study that the
Promotion and Marketing Professional Learning provided to principals (and their
schools) by the Department and NSW Secondary Principals’ Council is far more
comprehensive than that provided by other governments or professional
associations. The appropriate professional learning of NSW principals in the areas of
promotion and marketing of schools will enable them to gain the skills, knowledge
and confidence to more effectively support the NSW Secondary Principals’ Council
and NSW Primary Principals’ Association “Sustaining Quality Schools” joint project in
the area of public school advocacy. This learning will also enhance principals’
leadership capability to access and more effectively utilise the growing pool of
Department and Sustaining Quality Schools resources being developed to promote
and market public schools and public education generally.
The research study findings and recommendations have the capacity to add value to
effective professional leadership within public education. The study focused on
schools which are in high demand for enrolment that is, showing sustained growth or
full enrolment capacity through high demand. Previous studies have identified these
schools as having good communication with their community and a high level of
parental and community involvement. They also have high quality leadership which
values and fosters effective communication, productive relationships and motivating
others. The leadership also successfully builds a shared vision and culture and plans
creatively and strategically. Through skilled advocacy they engage the support of
stakeholders throughout their school community.
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I believe the research study findings and recommendations can translate directly to all NSW
Public Schools and have the potential to:
o
enhance the leadership capabilities of principals, particularly targeting the strategic
and interpersonal domains.
o
build greater capacity and resilience within principals and their schools to function
more successfully in a highly competitive school education market.
o
better inform the training of principals and other school staff in the need to become
client focused, educational service providers.
o
enhance school communication within and beyond the school’s community.
o
build community confidence in that school and in the public education system
generally.
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1
Overview of the research study
This research was undertaken by Jeff Bromage a principal of a large high school
in New South Wales, Australia, as a recipient of a Leadership Fellowship 2006–
2007, awarded by the Minister for Education and Training.
The aim of the research study was to investigate how principals can enhance their
ability to be better advocates for public education generally, and their school
specifically, by further developing skills and knowledge in the area of school
promotion and marketing.
I visited schools in Australia and New Zealand to talk to principals and school
executives about promotion and marketing within their schools, the skills of school
personnel and professional learning in this area and the support schools receive. I
included schools from New Zealand because in the Role of the Principal Project
researched by the NSW Secondary Principals' Council in 2004 it was found that the
organisational arrangements within New Zealand schools were similar to other
Australian states. New Zealand had also devolved school management to the local
level concept of the “self managing school” as early as 1989. The competition
between the integrated (“state”) schools and the non-integrated (“private”) wealthy
schools is similar to the situation in New South Wales.
I particularly wanted to look at schools that had been identified as “high demand”
comprehensive schools. These were schools which, despite competition from other
selective or non-government schools, had been able to achieve consistent growth in
the number of students attending the school.
2
Background information to this study
The NSW Secondary Principals' Council and the NSW Primary Principals'
Association are undertaking a joint project known as “Sustaining Quality Schools”.
The project explores some of the issues of the current education landscape that
schools have to operate in as they strive to provide quality education for all students.
It raises issues of government policy which do little to promote the concept of equality
and equity for all students. This project arose from the NSW Secondary Principals'
Council research publication, “The Leadership of Secondary Education in NSW
Public Schools”, in which the preferred future of the “Role of the Principal” was
articulated.
One of the key elements of the Sustaining Quality Schools Project is “public school
advocacy”. Council research provided clear evidence that public education in NSW
had poorly communicated its strengths to the public at large.
As the biggest education provider in Australia and one of the biggest in the world, we
essentially kept our world best practice outcomes to ourselves. We failed to capitalise
on the strength we could gain from effectively celebrating our achievements and in so
doing reinforce the confidence of our loyal public education advocates and re-build
confidence in those with whom we had become disenfranchised.
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The value of promoting and marketing the best of our “brand” has been poorly
understood by principals generally and, until recent years, poorly supported by the
Department of Education and Training. As a consequence of this oversight and other
issues, the public education market share of school enrolments has been declining
over many years.
At the school level, principals and their staff divert valuable resources and energy
away from the core business of teaching and learning into reactive projects which
they hope will stem the decline of student numbers in their school.
The Sustaining Quality Schools Project recently launched a “Principal’s Media Kit”. It
provides principals with a guide as to the resources available to support promotion
and marketing at school level. It also provides examples of good practice in how a
school could respond to a range of promotion, marketing and media circumstances.
Having previously studied the “Role of the Principal” in schools across Australia and
New Zealand, the NSW Secondary Principals' Council has directed many of its
professional learning initiatives to preparing principals to be more effective leaders in
our “future schools” as defined by the Role of the Principal Project. The Sustaining
Quality Schools Project has identified a relatively unchartered area for principals and,
as such, presents principals with new challenges in terms of leadership capabilities.
3
Key research questions
From the knowledge and experience gained as Leader of the NSW Secondary
Principals' Council Corporate Marketing Reference Group and member of the
Council’s Sustaining Quality Schools Project Team, I developed the following focus
questions to solicit answers which should better inform professional learning to
support promotion and marketing schools:






How important is promotion and marketing to your school in maintaining your
status as a high demand/continued growth comprehensive school?
What emphasis is given to promotion and marketing in high demand
comprehensive schools in Australia and New Zealand?
What form does promotion and marketing take in these schools?
What practices are the most effective?
What Professional Learning needs to occur to enhance the capacity of
principals to be more effective in the promotion and marketing of their
schools?
What is the role of the principal in promoting and marketing?
4
Research methodology
4.1
I applied the study to 17 high demand, consistent growth schools across
Australia and New Zealand, of which 16 were comprehensive and one single
gender. The shortlist of 12 Australian schools was selected from the report
“High Demand Government Schools” published by the Department of
Education, Science and Training, 29 September 2005. The five schools in
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New Zealand were selected on the basis of information provided by New
Zealand’s Ministry of Education and Education Review Office. Christchurch
was chosen because of the highly competitive school education environment
in the city and its suburbs.
SCHOOL NAME
LOCATION
HIGH
DEMAND
X
X
CONSTANT
GROWTH
Bundamba State College
Calamvale Community
College
Kenmore State School
Beaumaris Primary School
Rossmoyne Senior High
School
Shenton College
Kent Street Senior High
School
Como Secondary College
Richmond Primary school
Salisbury High School
Northland Secondary College
St Helena Secondary College
Chisnallwood Intermediate
School
Christchurch Boys High
School
Burnside High School
Infinity
Discovery One
Queensland
Queensland
X
Low socio-economic school
Rural
Queensland
Western Australia
Western Australia
X
X
X
X
X
Outer metropolitan
Outer Metropolitan
Metropolitan
Western Australia
Western Australia
X
X
X
Metropolitan
Metropolitan
Western Australia
South Australia
South Australia
Victoria
Victoria
New Zealand
X
X
X
New Zealand
X
New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
FEATURES
Metropolitan
Inner city
Low socio-economic school
Low socio-economic school
Outer metropolitan
Metropolitan
Metropolitan
X
X
Metropolitan
Metropolitan inner city
Metropolitan inner city
4.2
I contacted the principals of these schools, detailed the nature of the research,
confirmed visit dates and requested comprehensive “information packs”.
4.3
I forwarded the research questions, the diagnostic survey and a brief
descriptor of the research purpose to each principal.
4.4
On the day of the visit and during the set interview time (approximately one
hour), I asked the survey questions and noted the responses.
There were two sets of questions to be completed during interviews with the
principals. The key questions listed above in section 3 were intended to
provide general discussion points on a variety of aspects of promotion and
marketing within each school.
The diagnostic survey had the purpose of providing more specific basic data
about:
o
the school and the principal (See Appendix pages 12 and 13),
o
each principal’s self rating on some of the domains of the School
Leadership Capability Framework identified as being most closely
related to this research project (See Appendix 2 page 14).
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4.5
I collated the response data looking for:
 overall patterns
 similarities and differences
 links between leadership capabilities and the development of marketing
strategies in each school.
The methodology enabled me to gather data from the schools in a consistent manner
such that the data was relatively free of irregular factors and variables which may
have contaminated the results.
5
The findings
5.1
Promotion and marketing had become so much part of what the principals and
their schools did every day that a significant number initially responded that
little emphasis was given to promotion and marketing. As the interviews
progressed they qualified their response to indicate that overt promotion and
marketing campaigns had little emphasis in school operations. Whatever was
being done was embedded into current school practice and whatever changes
had and were occurring to promotion and marketing were an evolutionary
consequence of continuous school evaluation practices.
5.2
It became clear as the survey progressed that a diverse range of some 20
inter-related activities played a part in the promotion and marketing activities
of these high demand schools to maintain their high demand status. These are
listed with comments in Appendix 3.
5.3
The following factors seemed to play no significant part in how successful
promotion and marketing had been or was within the high demand school:
o
principal gender, years as a principal, experience or formal training in
promotion and marketing
o
geographic location, the socio-economic status of the school or cultural
mix within the student population.
5.4
The following factor appeared to play a significant part in how successful
promotion and marketing had been or was within the high demand school:
o
Effective use of a support person or persons to either assume
responsibility for promotion and marketing or to provide professional
support to the principal so that the principal can devote more personal
time to directly and actively engage in promotion and marketing
activities.
5.5
Seventeen principals in the survey stated that promotion and marketing were
of high importance to their school in maintaining their status as a high
demand/continued growth comprehensive school.
5.6
There were about 20 forms of promotion and marketing identified in total
across the schools in the survey.
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5.7
The most effective form of promotion and marketing identified by every
principal was “word of mouth”.
5.8
The majority of principals were self-taught in their knowledge and skill of
promotion and marketing. Four had attended short courses by their employer
or a private provider. One had extensive experience as a senior executive
member of principal professional associations. Two had extensive experience
in overseas students marketing (New Zealand).
5.9
All principals believed that their role in promotion and marketing was critical in
maintaining the status of their school as a high demand, continued growth
school.
5.10
On average the principals in the survey believed that they currently
demonstrated their capabilities (as identified by the NSW Department
Leadership Capabilities Framework) in the high to very high range. The
principals were far less certain that their professional learning had been
influenced by their self-rating of their leadership capabilities. Their results were
more varied and their mean was in the average to high range.
5.11
It was evident during the face-to-face survey that principals had given little
previous formal thought to rating their leadership capabilities and even less
formal consideration as to how this rating may have guided their professional
learning in these areas.
6
Recommendations arising from the research study
6.1
That the NSW Department of Education and Training and the NSW
Secondary Principals’ Council continue to provide professional learning
associated with the promotion and marketing of schools through their Schools
Promotion training program and the Sustaining Quality Schools Project
respectively.
6,2
That the NSW Department of Education and Training consider the Leadership
Capability Framework as a tool to use in Principal’s Analysis Review schedule
visits. Self-rating by the principal and check-rating by the School Education
Director could prove to be a strong guide to the ongoing Professional
Learning Plan of the principal which could be then supported by the School
Education Director.
6.3
That the NSW Secondary Principals’ Council extend an invitation to the NSW
Secondary Deputy Principals’ Association to include Sustaining Quality
Schools training as part of their professional association’s activities.
6.4
That the NSW Department of Education and Training and NSW principal
associations raise the awareness of principals to key promotion and
marketing activities by asking them to outline their current promotion and
marketing strategies. This could be assisted with the provision of a checklist
of best practice strategies (see Appendix 3 for an explanation of each
Leadership Fellowship 2006–2007 Report Jeff Bromage
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strategy). The list could also be included in the professional learning activities
mentioned in Recommendation 1.
6.5
That principals evaluate their current promotion and marketing strategies and
then prepare a promotion and marketing plan.
6.6
That principals give strong consideration to establishing promotion and
marketing as a cost centre within the school budget and allocate appropriate
funds to cover their promotion and marketing plan.
6.7
That principals consider the establishment of a promotion and marketing
support person or team in the school. This person or team should have a
demonstrated interest and commitment to this area of school organisation.
The investment of school resources in this role has the capacity to bring major
benefits to all of the school community. This person or team can also allow the
principal and leadership team to make more effective use of their time in
promotion and marketing activities. This person could be a Community Liaison
Officer or School Administrative Officer acting in a personal assistant role. The
team could share the roles, but effective communication within the team could
be an issue. It would be desirable that any promotion and marketing
coordinator have good word processing, communication, organisational and
interpersonal skills as well as being self-directed and display a good level of
self-confidence.
Bibliography
1. High Demand Government Schools, Commonwealth Government of Australia, Dept of
Science, Education and Training 2005
2 http://bundambassc.eq.edu.au/
3 http://www.burnside.school.nz/
4 http://www.beaumarisps.wa.edu.au/
5 http://www.calamvalecomcoll.qld.edu.au/
6 http://www.chisnallwood.school.nz/entrance.html
7 http://www.cbhs.school.nz/
8 http://www.como.wa.edu.au/
9 http://www.discovery1.school.nz/Discovery_1
10 http://www.kenmoreshs.eq.edu.au/
11 http://kentst.wa.edu.au/
12 http://www.northland.vic.edu.au/
13 http://www.richmondps.sa.edu.au/
14 http://www.rossmoyne.wa.edu.au/
15 http://www.salisburyhigh.sa.edu.au/
16 http://www.shenton.wa.edu.au/
17 http://www.sthelena.vic.edu.au/
18 http://www.unlimited.school.nz/
Leadership Fellowship 2006–2007 Report Jeff Bromage
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APPENDIX 1
Proposed timeline and itinerary
The purpose of the visit to each school was to meet with the principal, discuss the
promotion and marketing strategies used by the school, gather and note any
additional promotional material and complete the set interview questions with the
principal. If it were deemed appropriate by the principal, I met with other staff
member/s responsible for school promotion and marketing strategies. Each school
was allocated one day to complete the scheduled tasks. Christchurch was chosen
because of its competitive educational environment. NSW schools were not included
because the operational administrative structure of NSW schools was too dissimilar
to the schools selected and the fact that the NSW Secondary Principals’ Council had
already identified schools with best practice promotion and marketing strategies.
DAY
SCHOOL
DATES
Name of PRINCIPAL
1
2
3
Bundamba State College
Calamvale Community College
Kenmore State School
QLD
QLD
QLD
July 25/07
July 26/07
July 27/07
Janette Klotz
Sue Bremner
Wade Haynes
4
5
6
7
8
Beaumaris Primary School
Rossmoyne Senior High School
Shenton College
Kent Street Senior High School
Como Secondary College
WA
WA
WA
WA
WA
Aug 8/07
Aug 9/07
Aug10/07
Aug 6/07
Aug 7/07
Tony Misich
Peter Klifunis Bothams
Pauline Coghlan
Rod Beresford
Ross Sweeney
9
10
Richmond Primary School
Salisbury High School
SA
SA
Aug 20/07
Aug 21/07
Lindy Brooke
Helen Paphitis
11
12
Northland Secondary College
St Helena Secondary College
VIC
VIC
Aug 15/07
Aug 16/07
Raffaela Galati-Brown
13
14
15
16
17
Chisnallwood Intermediate School
Christchurch Boys High School
Burnside High School
Infinity
Discovery One
NZ
NZ
NZ
NZ
NZ
Sept 10/07
Sept 11/07
Sept 12/07
Sept 13/07
Sept 14/07
Richard Paton
Trevor McIntyre
Ron Noordijk
Vince Dobbs
Daniel Birch
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Trudy Thompson
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APPENDIX 2
Results of diagnostic survey used In principal interviews
Gender of principal
Male
8
Female
9
(Note: The principal at the time of my survey was not necessarily the principal when the Department of Education, Science and Training “High
Performing Schools” survey was conducted in 2005.)
Number of years as principal
1–3 years (5); 4–5 years (3); 6–10 years (3); 11 years + (6)
School location
Rural Town
Regional Centre
Outer Metropolitan
Metropolitan
0
1
10
6
Socio economic status of school
Low
3
Average
6
Above average
8
Significant student enrolment
Aboriginal Torres Strait Islanders
Non English Speaking Background
Maori/Pacifika
Other
– mostly no students; one school 20%; another 7%
– mostly no students, two schools 10%; two schools 20%; one 40% with 20 cultural groups
– one New Zealand school with 10% of each group
– two schools South African 10% and British 30%; two schools Asian 15%.
Leadership Fellowship Report by Jeff Bromage
12
Principal’s marketing and promotion experience
Tertiary training
0
Short course training
2
Self Professional Learning 13
Other: two New Zealand principals had extensive overseas marketing experience
If other person – their experience
Tertiary training
– Teacher with professional marketing background
Short course training – Publicity officer/Promotions officer (2); Community liaison officer /School Support Officer (2); Consultant paid for by
school (1); All 15 schools had a Principal’s PA plus a Bursar/Business manager; International students
director/manager (3 in New Zealand); Self Professional Learning and interest by Deputy Principals or other staff
members (6).
Other
– Website managers (11)
Outsourced Marketing and Promotion
Some
4 Banners; 3 Marquees; promotion and marketing Consultancy (1);
promotional PowerPoint/Slide show (4); promotional DVD (1)
Most
11 website; 16 Signage; 12 Photography
All
17 Printing
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13
RECORD OF INTERVIEW WITH:
All Principals
SCHOOL:
QUESTION
All Schools in Survey
DATE: 2007
RESPONSE
SPECIAL NOTES
How important is promotion and marketing to your
school in maintaining your status as a high
demand/continued growth comprehensive school?
All principals (15) regarded promotion and
marketing as very important.
o
o
o
o
o
What emphasis is given to promotion and marketing
in your school?
All principals (15) believed promotion and marketing
required strong emphasis and were a key part of the
school’s continued success.
Promotion and marketing had become so
much part of what the principals and their
schools did every day that a significant
number initially responded that little emphasis
was given to promotion and marketing. As the
interviews progressed they qualified their
response to indicate that overt promotion and
marketing campaigns had little emphasis in
school operations.
What form does promotion and marketing take in
your school?
Prospectus
Newsletter
DVD………
School Tours
o
o
o
o
o
12
15
1.
4
Web Page
15
Enrolment Kit 15
Orientation day 12
Open Day
15
Visits to primary 11
Newspaper
11
Radio
3
TV
7
External Signage 4
Students on show9
o
o
o
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14
Need to show off your product
High quality public image vital
Strive for excellence in all we do
Quality control is a key factor
Staff professionalism within and
beyond school hours
Welcoming informative foyer
Informative interactive website
Quality signage inside and out
Immaculate grounds
Well maintained facilities both old and
new
Students being showcased within and
beyond the school
Full school uniform
Traditional values, good discipline
What practices are the most effective?
o
Word of mouth (15)
o
o
o
o
o
o
What Professional Learning did you need to undergo
to enhance your capacity as a principal to be more
effective in the promotion and marketing of your
school?
Short courses run by Education Dept or private
provider (2)
Extensive experience in overseas students
marketing (2 x NZ)
Extensive experience as a senior executive member
of principal professional associations (1)
What is the role of the principal in promoting and
marketing in your school?
All principals (15) believed that their role in
promotion and marketing was critical to the
continued success of the school.
o
o
o
o
Leadership Fellowship Report by Jeff Bromage
15
Effective and regular communication
with the school community
Personal interaction with families and
community on a regular basis within
and beyond school
Building and maintaining a strong
professional culture within the staff
Maintaining a high standard of school
image
Being a visible, articulate principal
who always “talks up” the school
Students being showcased
Good stories in all the media
Being accessible, visible, articulate
and positive
To gain and build respect for the
school and self
Constantly promote the image of a
highly
professional,
welcoming,
inclusive and caring educational
institution
To constantly monitor and quality
control the brand
RESULTS OF PRINCIPAL DIAGNOSTIC SURVEY
The following items seek your views on how well you believe you demonstrate these capabilities.
Then you are asked to score the extent to which your professional learning has focused on each
item.
Score:
1 Very Low, 2 Low, 3 Average, 4 High, 5 Very High
ITEMS
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
Understanding
my
personal
strengths and limitations
Wanting to achieve the best
outcome possible
Having the ability to empathise with
and work productively with people
from a wide range of backgrounds
Willing to listen to different points of
view
Being able to motivate others to
achieve great things
Being able to use ICT effectively to
communicate and perform key
work functions
Being able to manage my own
professional
learning
and
development
Being able to make effective
presentations to a range of
different groups
Knowing how to manage programs
into successful implementation
Having a clear, justified vision for
where the school must head
Having
sound
financial
and
resource management skills
Knowing
how
to
effectively
disseminate good practice across
the school
Being able to identify from a mass
of information the core issue in any
situation
Having the ability to trace out and
assess the consequences of
alternative courses of action and,
from this, pick the one most
suitable
Being able to see how apparently
unconnected activities are linked
and make up an overall picture
Having the ability to recognise
patterns in a complex situation
How well do you demonstrate this
capability in your performance?
1
2
3
4
5
12
5
1
1
1
Extent to which your PL has
focused on each item
1
2
3
4
5
3
11
3
6
11
1
2
12
2
1
7
9
3
3
97
2
3
2
12
3
4
7
2
2
8
7
3
12
2
2
8
6
3
3
6
5
7
4
6
1
2
7
5
2
10
7
1
3
8
4
1
4
7
6
1
4
13
2
6
9
3
11
3
5
9
3
8
3
3
1
11
4
11
6
3
3
11
1
2
12
2
2
12
3
1
2
11
3
4
9
4
5
8
4
3
11
2
2
8
6
1
3
1
Denotes group average
Leadership Fellowship 2006–2007Report Jeff Bromage
16
APPENDIX 3
Best practice promotion and marketing activities as observed and ranked by the
fellowship study survey of 17 schools across Australia and New Zealand
Word of mouth
17/17
The comments made by individuals and groups about the school were instrumental in
building an image and reputation of the school within the community.
Website
17/17
The school website was noted as being the key point of first contact by most “visitors” to the
school. An attractive, professional looking, easy to navigate, interactive website with
comprehensive information about all aspects of the school was viewed by all principals as
being a key feature of their school’s promotion and marketing activities. All schools
commented that their website was a key feature for international students and families.
Indeed a significant number pointed out that their preliminary enrolment procedures were
completed on-line by prospective students from country areas, interstate and overseas.
Newsletter
17/17
Every school distributed a printed newsletter at either weekly, fortnightly or three weekly
intervals. Many of these newsletters were professionally published and were high-class,
glossy, coloured publications which reflected the status which the school held. Many
published their newsletters on their website as well. A significant number had a newsletter
archive feature on their website.
Open Day
17/17
All schools ran an Open Day (or Days) and/or Information Evenings.
Enrolment kit
17/17
All schools had enrolment kits which ranged from a professional booklet style prospectus to a
promotional folder with a variety of books outlining features of interest to the prospective
students and their families. Some also included accessories such as school “branded” key
rings, rules, pens, mugs, badges, and even jellybeans in the school colours.
Role of school staff
17/17
Staff informal talk in the immediate and wider community was seen by many principals as a
major factor in school promotion and marketing. They stressed the need to build within their
staff a culture and ethos which supported the desired image and reputation of the school
through being positive with their comments about the school, remaining professional at all
times, whether it be in professional settings or just simply barbecue talk. The building and
maintenance of high staff morale played a vital role. It was important to recognise and
celebrate staff success. Staff communication with parents (in person, telephone or email)
needed to be appropriate, timely and effective in resolving matters.
Role of the principal
17/17
All principals saw their role as critical to the promotion and marketing process. The principal
needed to be visible, accessible, involved personally with the community and able to
professionally articulate the virtues of the school. Community contact should be constant and
directed towards community groups, area networking, professional groups as well as
business and industry links and partnerships. One principal suggested that, as the Chief
Executive Officer, the principal should quality control the school “brand” and image by
regularly checking for best practice in all that the school did.
Involving the community in the school
17/17
Inviting parents and families into the school regularly to join in celebrations at class, group,
year or whole school level was important. Schools need to acknowledge and celebrate
success as often as possible, personalise celebrations with awards, refreshments and
individual acknowledgements, invite the community to have their say on school practices and
planning through surveys, questionnaires and meetings and publish their comments and
survey findings. Community run support groups were present in many schools to support a
diverse range of programs such as language, performing arts groups, sporting teams,
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science, indigenous group activities, ex-student support groups and whole school community
social activities. Parents and Citizens, Parents and Friends, School Boards and Councils
were featured in all schools.
Traditional values
16/17
All but one principal commented on the need to articulate the importance of the traditional
values of good manners, respect, responsibility, firm but fair discipline and full school
uniform. These are the basic standards that parents believe should be embedded into school
practice. This was not the view of the principal of an “alternative education” school in New
Zealand.
Well presented school facilities
16/17
It was summed up by one principal that the school facilities, old and new, need to be
presented immaculately. Of the schools visited, 16 did exactly that. Only two of the schools
were less than 10 years old and yet the presentation, inside and out, reflected and
celebrated their successful high demand status. New Zealand schools were the best
presented and maintained schools of all and their facilities were first class. This is because
the New Zealand Ministry of Education makes provision every five and 10 years for facilities
upgrade and backs that up with sufficient money to accomplish the task. One of the schools
was in an inner city, high-rise building. The one school which was not well presented
externally had been recently re-opened after closure by the Government. Its internal facilities
to support education were old, but of high quality. A welcoming, informative foyer was
observed as a feature of every school surveyed.
Prospectus
13/17
All of the schools visited had a printed prospectus. The New Zealand schools printed a wide
range of materials to include inside their promotional folders. Some of the publications were
small books. The photography was professionally done as was the printing. All were glossy
productions.
Orientation day
13/17
The majority of the schools indicated they ran an Orientation Day (or Days) for incoming
students and their families. A number of these schools had student enrolments over 1500
and as high as 2300. Multiple Orientation Days were needed to cope with the high visitor
numbers.
Visits to primary schools
13/17
Even though the majority of schools acknowledged that contact did occur with primary
schools only four of these schools saw it as vital to their promotion and marketing strategies.
Newspaper
13/17
The majority of schools actively sought regular contact with newspapers and indicated that
good press was very important to the image of their school. Community newspapers were
more accessible than the metropolitan press. Five schools indicated that because of their
reputation in the community, the press was more likely to seek them out for a story. Only a
couple commented on school-funded advertising in the press.
Students on show
11/17
The majority of schools indicated that it was imperative to have students on show in the local
community and beyond as a key activity in the promotion and marketing of their school. In
fact, every school visited had performing art groups as a feature of their school. Every
secondary school had multiple bands/orchestras/ensembles and/or dance and drama
groups. These performing art groups regularly gave community performances at their school
or at other community venues. Indeed the musical groups travelled interstate and even
overseas to perform with significant success. One school had a travelling road show.
Television
9/17
A significant number of schools actively sought regular contact with television stations and
indicated that good press was very important to the image of their school. Six schools
indicated that because of their reputation in the community, the television stations were more
likely to seek them out for a story. No school commented on school funded advertising on
television.
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School tours
6/17
A few Australian schools ran school tours all year round. One ran booked tours every two
weeks. All tours were by appointment only. Tours were run by a Deputy Principal or the
principal in three schools. In one school student ambassadors acted as tour guides as part of
a school leadership program.
External signage
6/17
All schools had quality external and internal signage, but only four acknowledged the
importance of the signage to promotion and marketing.
Radio
5/17
Only a few schools spoke of use of the radio as a promotion and marketing device. Contact
was initiated by the radio station/s in two cases. One school only commented on the value of
having students regularly on local radio to showcase the school. No school commented on
school funded advertising on radio.
DVD/power point/slide show
5/17
One Queensland school had a professionally produced promotional DVD of their school.
Four others had PowerPoint /Slide Shows however, a significant number of schools included
video clips on their website.
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