Donald Hiscock | Articles | The Guardian
Schools need to be savvy about PR," says David Carter, principal of John Cabot city technology college in Bristol. "One thing I learnt in my previous headship is that there is a real need to manage the message that goes out into the community."
Carter is not alone in this view. All heads are conscious that putting a positive spin on what is happening inside their school can equal column inches of good publicity in the local press. To this end, some schools appoint marketing coordinators and even buy in expertise from outside.
Why are schools so keen to court the press? As websites become more sophisticated and brochures glossier, some state schools are becoming more like businesses in their approach to marketing. But who are they competing with? "We are not in competition with other schools," maintains Carter, "but we do need to drip-feed positive messages all the time."
Although a city technology college relies on its partnership with business, John Cabot sees its marketing strategy as being more about communicating with parents than drumming up sponsorship from the private sector. Even though the college builds sites for other schools and colleges and has an impressive web presence of its own, Carter claims the website is primarily an information link with home.
"The website is critical, but we make sure it's just a marketing tool," he says. "It's refreshed every day with current information about the college." With hundreds of hits received each day, it is also seen as an increasingly effective way of making information available, while avoiding the cost and waste of paper being sent out to parents.
Hugh Burkitt, chief executive of the Marketing Society, is well placed to judge the effectiveness of school campaigns. He is currently on the lookout for a secondary school for his own children.
"The private schools in my area have very professional-looking websites but the state schools don't appear to have a web presence at all," says Burkitt. "This is not surprising as there is more obvious competition in the private sector and parents need to know they are getting a good deal.
"Good marketing is always about both identifying and providing what customers want and then communicating those benefits effectively. Competition is usually the key stimulus to better marketing."
Richard Schofield, headteacher at Redbridge community school in Southampton, is also an advocate of electronic marketing. "I doubt whether it has any real impact on parents in this part of the city" -Redbridge is a specialist sports college in an area that is in the bottom 10% of social deprivation in the country - "but having a web presence allows us to spread our tentacles wide," he says.
Burkitt was impressed with the websites of both John Cabot and Redbridge. "From the pupil point of view, I thought Redbridge was the better because it was graphically more lively, with more movement and a more attractive layout," he says. "John Cabot was, however, very clear and logical."
He is aware that some state schools, like their private sector counterparts, are chasing particular types of students and therefore their points of contact with parents need to have im pact. "We believe all organisations should be run for the benefit of the customers rather than the staff or any other controlling body," he adds.
For Schofield, the polished website designed by one of his science staff is aimed more at the businesses engaged in school sponsorship. "Our sponsors want to be associated with the right product and image," he says.
Did he really say "product"? For Schofield there is no reservation about citing a business model. Since doing an MBA, specialising in marketing, he sees no problems in using this model in education. "It's appropriate because business principles have to apply.
"I make sure the press is involved in all events," he says. "There is not a single thing we do that doesn't become part of our marketing." For the evidence, you have only to look at the framed press cuttings that fill up the walls around the recently built campus (courtesy of the private finance initiative).
"It's not about competition," he maintains. "We actively collaborate with other schools and we are over-subscribed. It's about providing a positive message for parents."
Schofield wants to make parents proud to send their children to his school. For them and the pupils it is all about self-esteem. The regular features in the local newspapers are good for morale and act as confirmation that they are all members of a community with a lot going for it.
Stuart Greenfield, of the advertising agency LeePeckGreenfield, agrees that improving communication between schools and parents is important, but he has reservations about spending public money on the type of marketing strategies usually associated with private businesses. "There has to be a level playing field," he says. "It would be wrong if by using the press and direct mail, for example, that one school is able to convince parents that they are better than others."
Others share his concerns about the way schools are marketing their "brand identity". Bob Carstairs, assistant general secretary of the Secondary Headteachers Association (SHA), is concerned that the pressures of school performance tables are making marketing a priority. "The league tables mean that schools are chasing after the 'right' kids and inevitably the parents are chasing after the 'right' schools," he says. "More schools are now employing bursars who are really marketing people."
He cites a case where one school was actively pursuing an aggressive marketing campaign in order to gain pupils from another school. "And there was another school that was out to pinch staff from elsewhere," adds Carstairs.
"School marketing underpins a culture of competition," says the acting general secretary of the NASUWT, Chris Keates. "It's at variance with what the government claims to be a spirit of collaboration among schools. This can't exist if one school is pitted against another." Keates feels that while league tables exist, collaboration will always be limited. "Schools will always have an eye to do something extra to attract publicity. And in a situation of falling school rolls this becomes a serious issue."
Joe Pajak, principal of Ernulf school in St Neots, Cambridgshire, has a firm objection to schools competing with each other for pupils. "But why shouldn't children be proud of their school?" he asks. "Competition is healthy; it's not about trying to cut each other's throats. Let's learn from others' successes."
One of Pajak's first appointments at the school eight years ago was publicity officer Ian Narin. "It's clear that we are in a radically changed education world. We need to promote our image to succeed. Ian works full-time for us and other schools. Every week he gets three or four stories in the local papers."
In a small town where parents have to choose between two schools, using the local media is very important. Inevitably, the race is on to gain the lion's share of the coverage. "We've had a huge increase in the number of applications," adds Pajak. "We've addressed the issue of perception among local parents. Our marketing has been part of this."
Coverage in the press costs nothing, but some schools choose to spend on advertising. At Park View community school in Chester-le-Street, Co Durham, the school produces its own newspaper three times a year and distributes it inside the local free newspaper to 28,000 homes.
"It costs quite a lot of money but is one-third funded by the school's community association," says Park View's assistant headteacher, Kevin Reynolds. "We don't advertise the lower school but we do aggressively market the sixth form. We face competition from a nearby college."
But what do parents think of their children's schools adopting such business-like strategies? "Parents generally find marketing material quite useful when choosing a school," says Margaret Morrissey, of the National Confederation of Parent Teacher Associations. "But we need to make sure that costs are balanced. A parent needs to ask just how much the money spent on a glossy brochure is affecting their child's education."
Problems arise, according to Stuart Greenfield, if parents start to assume that a school that does not go in for glossy marketing practices is somehow inferior. Schools, therefore, will be dragged into competing with each other. "Overt and aggressive marketing in schools is unfair," he says. "If there are schools that employ managers with marketing experience, what happens to those that don't?"
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