As my PA & myself now constitute the marekting team at St. Joseph’s In The Park, I took myself off yesterday to a Strategic Marketing Seminar run by AMDIS. I returned to base today full of phrases like “Key Buying Factors” and “Market Sector Segmentation” and “Blue Ocean Markets”. Naturally, my SLT looked at me as if I was off my rocker. But Marketing Strategy is the law of the Jungle in this day and age. Although I’m not going to jump onto the Credit-Crunch-Is-Bad-For-Independent-Schools bandwagon, I must admit I’m looking forward to interpreting my new found knowledge of Marketing Strategy in real-life terms.
In the BBC News article by Mike Baker writes:
The latest Ipsos Mori poll for the Independent Schools Council shows that 57% of parents would leave the state system if they could afford to do so. That is the highest figure since these polls began in 1997.
However, he concludes:
Despite what some say, though, I am not convinced the poll proves a dramatic loss of public confidence in state schools.
So if this means that there is increasing interest in Independent education, we have to ensure that we capitalise on that interest. However, I’ve discoverd as a Head that you cannot be all things to all people. We are, as a school, what we are and our community loves us for it. Maintaining the standards is the main thing, attracting new families to find out more about us is the next. Play to your strengths and develop your weaknesses.
I couldn’t sell cars or houses, but selling education at a school whose product (in a marketing sense) is easy to believe in is a simple task.
If you haven’t yet seen this, you will be astounded. Igor Falecki. 5 years old. Touched by genius. But more than that, there is sheer, analloyed joy in what he is doing. And for me, an educator and parent, it goes beyond Igor himself. Look at his face 40 seconds in. For his parents to have given him the opportunity to feel what he is feeling at that moment raises the hairs on the back of my neck. How would it be, in this world of our making, if we could give the children in our care the chance to experience it? How many children in this world will never feel it?
Having reread my last post, I’m in danger of sounding like a TES columnist. So I will beware.
I’ve begun to meet with groups of parents. I worry about being too open, but I judge that do start a dialogue with parents, allowing them to ask questions & recieve honest responses, is something that they deserve. I feel that, as educators, we have the children during the day and have a responsibility to lift the lid on the “black box” that is school as best we can. In return, I know that I have an incredibly commited staff who I can trust to speak with authority. Therefore we as a school are working on a position of strength where both teachers and parents have a common understanding.Â
Obviously this is not always going to be as realistic as we would like, but it is something towards which I believe we must strive.Â
Where does the week go. On the one hand it seems to have lasted an age, on the other to have passed by in a flash. It began, on Monday, with discussions about modernising our approach to school photos, meeting a former pupil who is now in her 80’s (wonderful lady) and a chance to take stock - it seems so long ago. It continued into Tuesday with my first tour of our school, staff concerns with children, meeting our lead LSA, discussing “branding” & marketing with a graphic designer. Wednesday started with an important parent conference, more graphic design, construction of a storage shed for Foundation Stage scooters & trikes and the chance to teach some PE & do cover - hoorah! Thursday was Child Protection training…
…and incase I get to full of how wonderfully well MY role as head seems to have started, I have nothing but admiration for colleagues in the maintained sector and the work that they do. My goodness it is so challenging. We are blessed in the Independent sector and with that privilage comes enormous responsibility…
 …Friday was Friday Assembly. Our weekly celebration of children’s achievement and since the parents are present a real opportunity to bring the community together.
So I felt as though I’ve had a full week’s work. Compared to some, its been light & there will be rockier times ahead. But its exciting to implement, or try to, ideas on how to bring about greater cohesion in the community. Support staff in carrying out their duties. Ensure the children have fulfilling experiences. Which, lets face it, is why we are educators.
Having started this blog 3 years ago under the guise of an “Aspiring Head” at Blogger, I guess I have now aspired! I even have my photo on the website.
On Tuesday, term started at St. Joseph’s In The Park. I’m the Head. The buck stops with me. And that’s about it.Â
Except I wasn’t quite anticipating just how exciting it is. Let me say at this point, however, I am fully aware how difficult it may get in the future. Indeed there are issues that are not pleasant to deal with right now. Yet overall, the sense of purpose and the delightful unceratinty of what may come is thrilling. I work with a diverse, dedicated set of people and their enthusiasm for what they do each day is clearly represented in the delightful children that leave the school each day.
Well I would say that, wouldn’t I? But its not because of me. I’ve only just arrived on the scene. These are the bare facts & it would be easy to march in & destroy everything by imposing a new regime. And that is the challenge & where the excitement originates. It is the process of personally absorbing what makes St. Joseph’s so successful and deciding what is necessary to move it forward.   Enhancing the learning experiences of the children and ecouraging the staff to develop in a direction with which they are comfortable.
I never got round to watching this when Peter Ford posted about the impact of the slam poetry of Taylor Mali.
From the star of my career I’ve been able to spend some time around the American education system and understand why there is this passion about the education of young people. Mali’s observation about what it is that a teacher does ought be the first thing that student teachers see at the start of their courses.
As a blog about the management of Independent Schools, this choice piece of news from the Guardian on the rise in school fees, is rather sobering.
Fees have become less affordable relative to average earnings, according to Mtmconsulting’s Independent Education Sector Report 2007. Between 2001 and 2006, average school fees rose by 39%, compared with an 18% rise in average earnings. The average pay of managers and professionals - the main customers of private schools - has risen by only 15%.
The report (which at £350 a pop, is not something to purchase anytime soon - I’d rather spend the money on school!) has a short summary which points to such factors the development of niche schools, federations, corporate school groups and the vulnerability of the 14% of parents from outside the business and management classes.
I’m not certain who comissioned this report. Certainly not the ISC, it seems, as it countered the report by stating:
The fact remains: numbers in the independent sector have risen in 18 of the past 20 years. Costs are an important factor but are not the key or only driver in the choice of independent education. Parents choose independent schools because they provide an outstanding education for children at all levels of ability
I would suggest an additional point to make about the future of independent schools and that is that they will develop a more social consciousness. There is a contradiction in that schools which require fees are exclusive. However, and partly because their hand has been forced by the public benefit test, schools will begin to look at their ethos and their curriculum and ask what can be done to ensure their pupils recieve a rich and rewarding experience?
In much the same way that the National Association of Independent Schools in the USA, the independent schools movement the UK has to band together with a clearer, universal set of goals which demonstrate that they are not a set of separate, self-serving entities. We have it in our gift to offer our pupils an incredibly enriching experience that will provide them with the foundation for a successful life as an active and socially conscious adult.Â
