Managing your image

Have you ever had that feeling that the school down the road seems to enjoy a better image than your own? Or that parents form inaccurate opinions about your school, often based on scant evidence, that make it difficult for you to harness community support? Perhaps you’re one of those schools which has experienced some negative publicity in the press and is finding it hard to build a more favourable profile?
Whether or not one of the above questions gets you nodding, it’s clear that we are entering into a new era in terms of how schools actively manage their image. There are so many good reasons for enjoying a positive image that carefully promoting your school is now seen as an essential step for all. Even if your school currently enjoys a favourable image, it’s vital to maintain it and to enhance it further. But how can schools manage their profile and what does this mean on a day-to-day basis for your staff, students and the wider community?
There are a number of reasons why you can’t afford to ignore your school’s image:
• there is a link between a school’s image and the achievements of its students
• a positive image allows you to attract and retain high-quality staff
• healthy recruitment of students is key to balancing your school’s finances
• external funders are not interested in being associated with schools who have a poor public profile
• promoting your image is a vital means of addressing more general school improvement issues in a focused way.
Creating a robust vision
The modern leadership of schools requires that head teachers are clear about their vision for the future. The most powerful vision for a school is one which is led by the head teacher and the leadership team, but reflects fully the views of the staff, students and the wider community.
A school vision should articulate a ‘preferred future’, setting out the features and attributes of the school in three to five years’ time. A robust vision is something that may take some time to be developed, but once in place can be a powerful point of reference for all staff. A vision can be summarised in a mission statement, which encapsulates what the school is about, for example:
• ‘Thinking and learning together.’
• ‘Do different, today and every day.’
• ‘Motive, aspire, transform.’
• ‘Lifelong learning for all.’
• ‘Working together to enhance opportunities for all.’
By clarifying your vision, you will be able to identify the positive messages about your school that will form the core of your marketing and PR work. The exercise will also remind you of the things that bind you together as a school and the more general school improvement initiatives that staff will be working towards over the coming years.
Recognise what you already do well
Your vision will help to clarify that things need to change in order to become a more effective school. These can form central elements in your action plan for the future and the key messages that need to be sent out about your school in the future.
Equally, however, it’s important to recognise that you already do many things well and you should make the most of these positive features. In common with most schools you will have ‘unique selling points’ that can be harnessed to gain a more favourable image.
Moving things forward
Your vision and the positive features of your school that you have identified will provide a firm platform for your work to promote your school’s image. But in order for your efforts to be maximised it’s important to give the work high status by putting together a marketing/PR group. This should be led by a named coordinator, with some protected time to carry out the role, and should ideally also comprise:
• a member of the leadership team
• a governor
• a member of the wider school community who is supportive of your school (eg church official, councillor, business leader etc).