ARTICLE [Our Kids]
How Polish non-public schools are dealing with COVID-19
How have schools pivoted to distance learning? We interviewed 20+ schools from throughout Poland on how they’re managing. Here’s what each of them is doing.
Our team is actively working to collect and share resources, best practices, and examples to help private and independent schools effectively manage marketing, communications and admissions during the COVID-19 outbreak. If you have a resource or example you’d like to share, please email [email protected].
How Polish non-public schools are dealing with COVID-19
How have schools pivoted to distance learning? We interviewed 20+ schools from throughout Poland on how they’re managing. Here’s what each of them is doing.
How Canadian schools are teaching during COVID-19
A snapshot of what schools from across Canada are currently doing to continue their programming in this time of physical distancing.
Watch our webinar recording for insights and ideas on how to transition to online learning quickly, efficiently, and effectively.
School Marketing trends for 2021
When parents choose a non-public school, they’re looking for more than just curriculum and rankings. Watch this short 30 minute webinar and learn how to plan promotional activities that will shape a coherent and lasting image of your school, and how schools have seen success during uncertain times.
The common phrase “if I can get the family to visit my school, I can get them to enroll” no longer works during the COVID-19 pandemic. So what happens now, when they can’t get to campus?
Prospective families are going to be turning to online sources, such as your website and any other information they can find online, particularly OurKids.net, to determine what they should do next. For prospective families, your approach to how you handle this crisis can have a significant impact on how a family perceives your school.
Add a message on your homepage letting families know your ‘virtual’ admissions office is open and how to contact you.
In this example, De Smet Jesuit updated its admissions landing page with a fun video and a "Virtual A Day" schedule using photos. The school also included a homepage pop-up to direct visitors to two key pages: Virtual Visit for prospective parents or the News Hub for current parents.
Update the admissions section of your website or direct to a new ‘virtual admissions’ hub. Although you’re creating this as a result of the current situation, it definitely makes sense to consider a "virtual visit" page not just a short-term solution, but a long-term strategy to reach more families.
What to include:
Akademia High School lets families know their recruitment weekend is moving forward virtually, complete with interviews and tests.
Make use of available free technology. Allow families to easily schedule a virtual meeting with you through calendar tools such as calendly or picktime and allow them to choose which form of communication they are most comfortable with: Skype, Zoom, WebEx, Google Hangouts or Gruveo.
Prepare a list of topics you’d like to cover on the call (or share your screen and walk them through a presentation or your website): history, key features, a short bio of the classroom teacher, information about the head of school.
Now more than ever, the authentic perspectives of your current community will play a key role in enrollment and re-enrollment. Add testimonials to your Our Kids school profile which ranks #1 in Google for Reviews of private schools in Poland, or create a testimonial wall with Padlet a free tool which allows you to crowdsource content easily without much work from your team.
Now more than ever, It’s important to keep the channels of communication with both current and potential parents open. The parents need to feel that the school is ‘in control ‘ and knows what it’s doing, as well as who to turn to for answers or help.
Here are some best practices for marketing and communications during the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic.
1. Be transparent
Send currently enrolled families mailing about the current situation & how the school is reacting and organizing its work, information about your distance learning plan, along with how & where they can reach the school or get help with virtual learning when needed.
2. Continue with schedules where possible
Continue with your regular communications schedules where possible, or add to them to stay in close contact with families. Some schools are sending an abridged form of their weekly newsletter/bulletin to families via email and post it online with a link.
1. Showcase your remote learning activities
For prospective families, your approach to how you handle this crisis can have a significant impact on how a family perceives your school. If you’re offering remote learning, share highlights of the best with prospective parents via email, social media and your third-party partners.
In this example, Polish British Academy of Warsaw shares what their physical education lesson looks like and provides prospective parents with an opportunity to ‘meet’ the teacher and student body.
We’ve created a few feature articles to highlight how schools across Poland and Canada are managing the crisis and have quickly turned to effective online distance learning.
The agility demonstrated by the quick, multi-layered response of non-public schools is emblematic of other, more fundamental characteristics of what you offer: committed, motivated staff; freedom to innovate on the fly; and an unwavering sense of accountability to key stakeholders such as your students and their parents.
2. Be seen where parents are
Leverage trusted third-party outlets you know parents turn to to further share your school brand and messaging. Update (or create) your school profile on OurKids.net/pl - the first and only non-public school platform in Poland used by all families researching and considering a non-public school. It also allows for parents to easily compare different schools due to the way that all school information is organized in consistent categories.
During this uncertain and financially difficult time, families will be looking for school information outside of just your own website, and OurKids.net is consistently returns as a #1 source of information in Google searches.
In this example, Monnet International School invites families to their Virtual Open House event with run using ClickMeeting.
3. Review your messaging
Double-check your messaging, visuals and tone. It’s a difficult time for everyone. Speak with more empathy and sincerity, and avoid the extremes of being too light-hearted or too scarcity-driven.
Also look at the images you’re using. Professional videos and images of crowds seem out of place and almost offensive in a world where most people are physically distancing. Sharing ‘memories’ is one way to showcase ‘regular’ school through photos or videos.
4. Focus on target audience expansion
Not all families are interested in non-public school, or have the means to afford it. Focus your marketing on audience expansion within your target. Now is an ideal time to grow your list. People are in information harvesting mode right now, because when uncertainty blends with spare time, what else are we left to do? So, now is not the time to slow your marketing efforts. Now is the time to tweak those marketing efforts to be even more visible than you might have been before.
For Akademickie Liceum Ogólnokształcące przy PJATK, they know people won’t be able to visit now, so their digital presence with OurKids.net plays an even more important role in their for marketing and admissions.
It’s important to continue communicating with both prospective and current families. Keep up your daily facebook and instagram posts and send information through email. Use video where possible to make your message more personable.
Hashtags are a great way to aggregate content during the normal school year — and now that students and faculty are remote, it can be a great way to provide a sense of community. Schools around the world are coming up with unique hashtags to keep their community in the loop and connected during this time. Examples: The British School Warsaw: #virtualschoolexperience or American School in Paris: #RebelsGoRemote
Gain some inspiration from this gallery of examples: