We’ll use this space to highlight some of the things you need to know about your Our Kids membership, such as new profile updates. We’ll also use it to highlight items of more general interest, including what we and our members are involved in, projects we’re working on, developments in the marketplace, and ideas we think you’ll be interested in.
May 2023
In this month's Insider, we'll deconstruct the Our Kids School Report and uncover its persuasion secrets.
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April 2023
We go through extended-problem solving every day, why should choosing a school be any different?
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February 2023
THE TWO LEGGED STOOL: What’s holding up your school marketing strategy?
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November 2022
Two web traffic referrers. Both cost the same, but one is driving more traffic than the other. Which would you choose? What would you do next? ...
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October 2022
So far in this series we’ve talked about a few core truths unique to school marketing ...
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September 2022
In the last two Insiders, we focused on the importance of brand and how it fits into a typical family’s research ...
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June 2022
Last month, we talked about how families research their options through “extended problem-solving,” ...
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May 2022
As a marketer, I was taught to define my ideal target market through a top-down approach ...
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April 2022
I’ve been talking to schools about their marketing strategies in the last 3 years. While each school has its own approach to marketing, there are a few areas where many schools struggle. ...
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March 2022
When parents tour potential schools, they get to interact with lots of different stakeholders. They meet with administration, and often students ...
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February 2022
“We don’t have a huge marketing team,” says Teralee Brunn, principal at Sunnybrook School in Toronto. ...
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January 2022
“It was an incredibly interesting process, and not one that I’ve experienced before,” says Elyane Ruel, head of school at Académie Westboro Academy in Ottawa. ...
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December 2021
“The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day.” The poet Edith Lovejoy Pierce said that many decades ago, but it feels particularly apt this year ...
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November 2021
“I call it the gravy,” says Isabel Sankaran-Wee, director of advancement at Stratford Hall in Vancouver. “That’s how you have to market the schools. We very much live by what we say ...
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October 2021
You’ll notice some changes on the Our Kids site, one being a redesign of the Feature Reviews ...
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September 2021
I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Marc Seaman, VP, Education Segment, Microsoft Canada. Since he started in that role eight years ago, a lot has … um … changed ...
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August 2021
I was listening to a radio spot the other day where the host and a guest were talking about the idea of “back to school.” It used to mean a shopping trip—new binders, a new pencil case, a couple reams of lined paper...
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July 2021
It’s a truism that video is an essential part of any marketing program, something that’s becoming increasingly evident.
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June 2021
We’re delighted to have recently partnered with Chartwells Canada, a sector of Compass Group Canada, the country's leading food and support services provider...
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May 2021
A lot can happen in a year, and, certainly, a lot has. That’s particularly true in the world of marketing...
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April 2021
"It was hands down the most incredible experience of my life." That’s what Kate Rowan wrote to us about her experience with her alma mater, UWC Canada in Victoria...
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March 2021
We’ve been working with schools a long time—next year will mark a quarter century—and something we’ve taken from them is that it's always about a relationship...
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February 2021
We’re delighted to share with you the launch of a powerful new school-choice resource: The Our Kids Insider Perspectives Video Series...
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January 2021
We are prone to thinking that all the changes we’ve seen aren’t lasting, and that someday everything will be like it was, the vaccine serving as a time-machine taking us back to 2019...
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December 2020
I called David McBride, Vice Principal of Enrolment Management at UCC, to ask for his candid thoughts on the Admissions Pathway, and he didn’t disappoint. Going in he admits it was hard to know what to expect. There simply weren’t any reference points beyond the live expos...
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November 2020
You may have noticed a new child-suitability filter on our school profiles. This is part of a vital addition to our platform—one which connects school and child information—what we’re calling “Child-School Insights.”...
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October 2020
Dyslexia is the most common learning difference affecting students in educational environments, yet many educators feel unsure and unprepared to meet the needs of these students...
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September 2020
“It’s what you cobble together when you try to figure out this current situation,” says Elena Holeton with a knowing chuckle. I had complimented her on the virtual events she was hosting for St. Clements...
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August 2020
This is a telling moment, one fast becoming an inflection point not only within the pandemic, but within education itself. Parents (as outlined in gritty detail in a piece this week in Toronto Life) want real measures and clear, well delivered protocols...
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July 2020
"It is now exactly eight weeks, eight short weeks until the first of September," Robert Mitchell, a PEI Liberal MLA, said last week when pressing the provincial minister of education...
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June 2020
As you are (perhaps painfully) aware, things have changed. Some of the changes will be major and lasting, though often it’s the smaller ones that really shed light on what we’re facing....
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May 2020
How private schools have worked through the coronavirus quarantine to date has been frankly impressive. It’s not a race, of course, and to be fair, everyone was caught off guard...
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April 2020 (2)
“This too shall pass” is a phrase from a Persian adage first voiced more than a millennium ago, and it’s been repeated for lots of good reasons ever since. People prone to see the glass as half empty say it like a sigh, implying “what next?”...
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April 2020 (1)
When I was interviewing for the York School feature review, David Hanna, director of university counselling, described his role as this: to help students “find the best soil to plant their aspirations into.” Love that...
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March 2020 (2)
Schools are rightly turning to technology for solutions around course delivery and completion. To support that transition, Microsoft—with whom we’ve recently partnered—has developed a frankly impressive suite of resources ...
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March 2020 (1)
When I was interviewing for the York School feature review, David Hanna, director of university counselling, described his role as this: to help students “find the best soil to plant their aspirations into.” Love that...
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February 2020
“What’s it like?” says astronaut Buzz Aldrin, is the “most obvious, inevitable question” he’s been asked in the 50 years since Apollo 11. He also grumbles that it’s the hardest to answer. “What did it feel like? What were your thoughts and feelings as you walked on the moon?”...
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January 2020
What does “more” mean to you? — A few years ago Microsoft partnered with the McKinsey Global institute to ask some big questions: What do today’s students need from their teachers? What do they need from their schools? How can we best address those needs?...
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December 2019
Since we began the user reviews, the responses have been a lot of things: funny, surprising, informative. They’ve also been personal in all kinds of telling ways. Reading through these can feel like being with friends gathered in a coffee shop talking honestly about their experiences...
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November 2019
There’s a different look to our report this month, which marks a slight shift in focus. We’ll still use this space to highlight some of the things you need to know, such as the note below about new Our Kids updates...
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