Comms for Schools

This event will upskill staff so schools can increase pupil numbers. The fundamentals of marketing applied to a modern British state school setting.

How to Increase Pupil Numbers at your School Early Bird rate - £150 pp | £195 pp after the Early Bird tickets are sold

We are looking for a finance manager to support our network of fantastic schools. We support large city secondaries, small Church of England primaries and all schools in between. The right candidate will be able to choose between part-time or full-time working. Full-time salary is between £39.5K and £42.5K, with 29 days' holiday. https://www.tes.com/jobs/vacancy/finance-manager-kidlington-oxford-1613222

This school is rated Good in all categories by Ofsted, but it is still shutting...

Hertfordshire: Wareside school with 18 pupils to close The education authority decides to close a village school with "a heavy heart".

Early assessment of the relationship between the COVID-19 pandemic and births in high-income countries Drawing on past pandemics, scholars have suggested that the COVID-19 pandemic will bring about fertility decline. Evidence from actual birth data has so far been scarce. This brief report uses data on vital statistics from a selection of high-income countries, including the United States. The pandem...

We are very proud to have worked on the project to open The Swan School in Oxford. Great news that it was one of the winners at the Oxford Preservation Trust Awards 2021.

https://www.brightonandhovenews.org/2021/11/04/primary-schools-may-close-as-pupil-numbers-plummet-report-warns/

Primary schools may close as pupil numbers plummet, report warns One in five reception places will have to be slashed from Brighton and Hove's primary schools by 2025 - and some schools may close. A council report out today has earmarked seven schools for a reduction in numbers, and says more will be needed. Pupil numbers are continuing to fall and Brighton and H...

'A spokesman for the trust has stated low pupil numbers “show no prospect of improving for many years ahead”, with predictions for demand for school places showing a steady decline until 2031/32.'

https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/19642274.stay-execution-plea-baldersby-st-james-primary-school/

Calls for a rethink over closure of village primary school with just 19 pupils A LOCAL education authority which has come under fire for failing to arrest a stream of village school closures is urging the Education Secretary to…

Getting a key message across to a carefully selected audience with a 30-second video on Facebook. The video then drives the right people to the school website where the full video plays through from YouTube and where, if you have set the site up properly, you provide or clearly signpost all the key information about outcomes, vision and values, admissions etc.... https://lnkd.in/d_TMRftA. See more about us here https://lnkd.in/dXpnbFx

Home - Comms for Schools We're Comms For Schools - A communications, design and marketing consultancy, exclusively serving the education sector.

A company that simply provides a school with a new website, a new prospectus, a new video, banners, a 360 tour and a new logo might call itself an education marketing agency. But that company is a design agency. That company has simply provided a school with the assets required to market itself. It’s like someone giving you a pile of bricks and telling you they are builders and they have built your house. A specialist education marketing agency will identify prospective parents. It will identify several types of parent – they might live in catchment, a certain part of catchment, just outside catchment or some way away, work in catchment or nearby, or commute via your catchment. It will tell you which medium to use to reach each audience, what to say to each audience, where to take them when you have delivered each message and what to tell them and provide for them when they get there. A specialist education marketing company will politely push back and explain when you say you ‘just want A, B or C’ or you ‘don't currently do X, Y or Z’. They will do this because they know that assets alone have little impact. It’s hard work and it’s a million miles away from the fluffy spivery of repute. It’s work that we do at https://lnkd.in/dmGFy_2

There's nothing fundamentally wrong with this school – it's being merged with another primary in the MAT because there aren't enough kids to sustain both of them. Worryingly, both schools concerned are rated Good by Ofsted and the Medway area has seen a lower than average fall in the birth rate over the last decade..... https://www.kentonline.co.uk/medway/news/anger-over-decision-to-close-primary-school-248626/

Anger over decision to close primary school MP Kelly Tolhurst says plans to merge two primary schools are short sighted, but Trust leaders say Stoke Primary Academy is not sustainable.

The first drop in private school numbers for a decade should be seen as an opportunity for state schools to make sure their classrooms are full. Not all schools are positioned to capitalise on the economic fallout from the pandemic and Brexit. But if your school has decent outcomes, a good Ofsted and extra-curricular provision, then now is the time to look at selling yourself to parents who might be wavering on whether to go or stay private. It doesn’t require a fundamental change in your school’s vision or values – it just requires you to identify the right people and to reach them with the right message. The really good bit? You don’t have to feel guilty about taking pupils from other local state schools.
https://lnkd.in/dmGFy_2
https://lnkd.in/dYr3M_6

First drop in independent school student numbers in a decade - Independent Education Today UK independent school fees have grown at their slowest rate on record, while the number of students enrolled has fallen...

When did you start thinking about which primary school to send your child to? I can guarantee that it wasn't the day the admissions process formally opened in the autumn. Ideally, schools that were disappointed by their numbers for Sept 2021 should have started doing something about numbers for Sept 2022 a couple of months ago. In the real world, a million and eleven other things have been occupying heads and MAT leaders. However, parents all over the country are making up their minds about school places right now. Don't wait until September to start thinking about raising your numbers for 2022-2023. The clock is ticking if you haven't yet identified prospective parents by analysing admissions data, catchments, birth rates, other local demographics, commuting patterns, local employers, and planning frameworks, as well as made sure your website, messaging, physical assets and social media channels are fit for purpose. https://commsforschools.co.uk/services/student-numbers/

Student Numbers - Comms for Schools We aim to increase the intake of students in your school. Our solutions, tailored to each school, help make sure there are no empty chairs.

MAT leaders….. Step 2 in boosting numbers at a school. Having already structured and created content for the school website so that it talks to prospective parents rather than existing ones, you now need to identify your audience and work out how to reach them. These people are out there, and finding them means looking at your character and catchment, other schools (their outcomes, character, catchments and admissions trends), planning frameworks, employers, commuting patterns, and your use of social media, traditional media and old-fashioned physical triggering in the form of large and small printed material. It’s hard graft, but we love it. https://commsforschools.co.uk/services/student-numbers/

Student Numbers - Comms for Schools We aim to increase the intake of students in your school. Our solutions, tailored to each school, help make sure there are no empty chairs.

Now, this isn't a chart you want to be topping. Birth rate fall of the day.... At 10, and with around 250 medium-sized primary schools set to have no new pupils in 2023, it's LONDON, where the rate has fallen 11.4% between 2010 and 2019. (London is actually rather mid-table in terms of the proportional fall, but the number of 'lost' pupils this translates to is STAGGERING).
Some 133,111 children were born to people living in London in 2010, when current Year 6s were most likely born. In 2019, when people looking for September 2023 places were most likely born, that had fallen to 117,897.
This means that, not counting migration, there will be 15,214 fewer kids looking for Reception places for September 2023 than were looking for reception places in 2014.
That is the equivalent of 507 empty classrooms. That means 253 two-form entry primary schools that were full in Reception when their current Year 6s arrived would not have a single pupil starting school in a couple of years’ time.
You can check here and also check your local birth rate fall.... https://lnkd.in/dNDK-vw

This is such a great tool for finding out how falling birth rates are likely to impact on your school numbers. Type in your local council and you can have the good/bad/extremely bad news in less than a second. I am a little obsessed with it, quite frankly... https://commsforschools.co.uk/check-birth-rates/

Check Birth Rates - Comms for Schools We have collated birth rate data for England in every administrative district (county, district, unitary authority etc).

It's heading your way....

Brighton's school woes will spread Brighton is a harbinger of a place. Things tend to happen first in that cool bubble on the South Coast before catching on everywhere else.

A victory for the schools involved, but a serious blow to other primary, junior and infant schools in the Brighton area. In a nutshell, the birth rate has crashed in Brighton and pupil numbers are falling as a result. Nine schools had their PAN cut by the local authority to avoid the Government stepping in and closing a school. Two of those schools are really popular and always hit their PAN, so they appealed. And they won. Which is great for them but it just increases the pain for other schools.
https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/19301301.brighton-hove-schools-wont-cut-pupil-numbers/

Schools win battle over cuts to pupil numbers TWO popular primary schools have won their fight against cutting pupil numbers.

This report on fertility trends is light reading for school leaders. Its conclusions? 1. ONS predictions that the falling UK birth rate might be levelling out were wrong. 2. Covid is likely to lead to further falls in the coming years because economic uncertainty leads to lower birth rates in developed countries and higher birth rates in developing countries. This means fewer kids coming into our schools and emptier classrooms for the next decade. Comms for Schools runs student numbers campaigns to help.https://www.cpc.ac.uk/docs/WP_95_Recent_trends_in_UK_fertility.pdf

www.cpc.ac.uk

Small rural schools are the canary in the coal mine when it comes to the issue of falling numbers of children seeking primary school places. The problem is that these schools usually don't have the resources on their own to invest in doing the work needed to save themselves. It is why they need to get together with other schools of their ilk to share the financial burden of that work. Anglican diocesan education trusts are the best example of bodies that might facilitate this. But are they doing it? https://www.countytimes.co.uk/news/19298031.south-powys-school-closure-consultation-period-extended/

South Powys school closure consultation period extended CONSULTATION on a proposal to close a south Powys primary school has been extended.

The clock is ticking on admissions for primary schools for September 2022. It's 180 days until most local authorities start taking applications. That means 180 days to have forensically analysed your local area to identify people living and working there who might want to send their child to you. That's 180 days to overhaul the content and structure of your website so it doesn't fall into the traps that school websites fall into. That's 180 days to start using the right social media channels to support your admissions process. That's 180 days to get your prospectus designed and other assets (videos, 360 tours, photos) in place. 180 days is plenty of time if you are just putting up a banner at the gate. But if you are a headteacher and thinking of doing something that has an impact – and not just doing something that gets the governors or your MAT senior leadership off your back – then 180 days is no time at all.
https://commsforschools.co.uk/services/student-numbers/

Student Numbers - Comms for Schools We aim to increase the intake of students in your school. Our solutions, tailored to each school, help make sure there are no empty chairs.

The clock is ticking on admissions for primary schools for September 2022. It's 180 days until most local authorities start taking applications. That means 180 days to have forensically analysed your local area to identify people living and working there who might want to send their child to you. That's 180 days to overhaul the content and structure of your website so it doesn't fall into the traps that school websites fall into. That's 180 days to start using the right social media channels to support your admissions process. That's 180 days to get your prospectus designed and other assets (videos, 360 tours, photos) in place. 180 days is plenty of time if you are just putting up a banner at the gate. But if you are a headteacher and thinking of doing something that has an impact – and not just doing something that gets the governors or your MAT senior leadership off your back – then 180 days is no time at all.

More and more councils are waking up to the numbers crisis in our primaries. We are hearing from schools and MATs that local authorities are now holding emergency meetings to examine the issue and look at solutions. The baffling thing is that they are only doing it now and only making education leaders aware of the severity of the problem at this late stage. To be clear.... anyone with free access to birth rate data should have seen this coming years ago. FYI.... EVERYONE in the UK has free access to birth rate data, so there is no excuse for this failure on the part of local government to keep school leaders informed and allow them to plan properly for what, for many, is going to be an existential crisis. https://www.hackneycitizen.co.uk/2021/01/19/town-hall-poised-close-schools-falling-pupil-numbers/

Town Hall 'poised' to close schools in response to falling pupil numbers - Hackney Citizen Primary schools in jeopardy as demand for reception places continues to drop

Obvious Tip No 267: If your outdoor space is a selling point, then shoot a promotional school video when that space is looking its best, which is early summer.... https://youtu.be/HVekbPap6oo

Wheatley Park Primary School Clip