Boost Your School's Pupil Numbers: A 3-Step Plan 📈

She stood up and she said, our reception numbers are critically low.

And this is at St.

Augustine's Primary School here in Kent.

It's my kids school.

And it wasn't just reception.

Families across the year had been leaving and the role had fallen from 210 pupils to, to under 155.

So my daughter at the time she was in year one, her two best friends had left and you know how it goes.

One parent mentions that they're considering leaving and suddenly everyone is questioning whether they should stay.

We live literally two minutes from the school.

We absolutely love it there.

But we were even thinking as Harrison, our son, was about to join reception.

Is there something wrong here?

Should we change our mind?

Should we be looking elsewhere?

And for Sarah, the head teacher, she had some really difficult decisions that she was considering.

So she was looking at potential class mergers, she was thinking about maybe potential redundancies and she was already running a deficit budget and she had to show the trust some signs that actually she could turn this around.

But at that parent meeting in the school hall that day, Sarah stood up and she told everyone she had a plan.

She had a plan for how to showcase that this school really was special.

And she had a plan that she hoped would get more people in in the future.

But she desperately needed some help to get the word out.

And so I put my hand up and I volunteered.

So my name is Chris Norfield.

My background isn't in schools, actually.

for years I have helped sports clubs, small businesses, local, authorities, the nhs, all organizations that needed to get a message out to a local population.

And I thought that some of the tactics that I've used with those might just help out a school like St.

Augustine's so after that meeting and with the head teacher, with Sarah, we worked together to create a simple three step pupil numbers recovery plan.

And here's what happened.

Sarah went from running open days where hardly anyone showed up to three fully booked open days and regular weekly school tours.

In that first year her reception intake jumped from 15 up to 27 and in total she had another 39 extra children join from other year groups.

Now this absolutely was not done by us bringing in a fancy agency campaign.

It wasn't about us rebranding.

We didn't buy a new system, it wasn't a complicated marketing setup.

We created a system that is easy for a busy school leader to implement and roll out.

And because of that I believe it's a system that any school can use.

Now Sarah wrote about this in the last edition of Headteacher Update.

So it came out in Sept, September.

You might have seen it.

Sarah wrote about the three steps, and the impact it's had at St.

Augustine's and what we did is take that system and actually it's starting to be installed across primary schools across the country.

So Hollingwood Primary implemented exactly the same three step system.

They went from 35 first choice applications last year.

This year they've had 56.

St Mary's Primary in Dorset they jumped from 18 applications up to 35.

And Paulsbrook, a small kind of, primary school which has a pan of 15, they went from regularly getting 4, 5 joining reception through to 13 this year, all by implementing the same three step process.

So in the session today, what I want to make sure is I can communicate to you really clearly one the three biggest mistakes that schools make when trying to promote themselves.

The three things that actually make an impact on first choice applications based on actual schools where we've had real results.

And I want to give you a clear plan for what to do now before the next admission cycle starts so you're not scrambling in autumn again.

And at the end of this session I want to introduce 90 day pupil numbers fix program.

It's my offer to personally help a small number of headteachers make an impact before the end of the term.

Now what I don't want you to think is I'm just going to go through this and it's kind of a sales pitch where I'm just building up to announcing something at the end.

I want to tell you up front, if you want some help at the end, then my offer is available.

But I want to make sure that in this session today I give you enough value, enough learning that actually you don't want that learning to stop.

So sit back, relax and let's go through and learn a Little bit more about how you can make an impact on your pupil numbers.

So when I was talking to Sarah, it became really clear the difficult situation that she was in as a headteacher with so many priorities and the stress of pupil numbers starting to fall.

Here's a little bit about how she was feeling about promoting her school.

And I'd love, if you recognise this situation, to pop it in the chat or to start typing in the chat.

What is your situation in the school as it stands.

At the end of an interview, there's always that moment where they say, do you have any questions?

Bear with me one second.

And what I.

On the other side of the table is people either ask questions.

Let's try that again.

All right, Sarah?

At the end of an interview, there's always that moment, right?

YouTube's messing me around.

Pair with me one second.

Right, let's try to sit one more time.

Sitting on the other side of the table is people either ask a question they don't really have because they feel like at the end of it.

Okay, I've abandoned that.

YouTube is not working for me with that.

Sarah was talking about St.

Augustine.

So she said, we started the year far under pan.

155 pupils.

It should have been 210.

She was feeling anxious and she said to me, look, I know the school is special, but I just don't know how to get it out there.

She said to me, I, wear so many hats as a headteacher, I don't have time or the skills to become a marketing expert.

So I'd love to know in the chat from yourselves, what's the situation in your school?

What are you struggling with when it comes to promoting your school and your numbers?

Let's see what we're getting in here.

So Emma's saying they've got a deficit budget as well and now falling numbers.

So, yeah, so that capacity, yeah.

One of the things that we've definitely picked up on when I talked with Sarah and other schools is a real struggle with capacity in the school to actually do it.

Let's have a look.

Lily, reception intake, maintaining that high intake into sixth form.

Liz is saying you've got a small rural score reduced pan, only four coming in instead of 18.

Okay.

And, yeah, a few more talking about low birth rates coming up.

What's really clear and what's been clear from when I started talking to Sarah, when I've worked with other schools and even in the chat here is that you are absolutely not alone.

This is exactly the situation that many Heads are finding themselves in.

And, that difficult environment you're working in has three kind of core capacities here.

So I know you do not have enough time in the day.

Your day is absolutely packed.

So squeezing in promoting your school feels like the thing that just always drops to the bottom of the list.

As Sarah said to me about wearing so many hats, marketing is not one of those kind of core competencies that you want to be spending your time suddenly learning how to become, ad writer or a designer or an expert on running paid ads.

And, that local context of falling birth rates is probably the biggest driver in change that we're likely to see here.

And here's that picture.

So births in England have been falling.

And what you can really clearly see here is how that actually might be manifesting itself across your year groups.

So your current year six, year five, even year four, the birth rates nationally were relatively high in the kind of range they had been for about 10 years.

And then slowly they've been falling each year for the current year are.

There was actually a slight little boost last year, but if you are seeing smaller numbers coming in for September, that's because these birth rates here have dropped.

And so likely also in your school, you might be seeing that translating into Fuller Key Stage 2.

And actually those lower numbers are, in the key stage one area.

And so therefore, each year that a year six leave and are not replaced fully that pupil number.

And that gap just increases significantly year on year, on year.

And when we take this and look forward into the next few years, that small fall that we've had in the last year actually gets significantly worse the following year and the year after that.

And, a troubling misconception that I'm hearing is that some schools have been told by the local authority, this is a low birth year.

Hopefully it should pick up next year.

But actually this is a significant demographic change over the next five, ten years at least.

And so as the numbers fall and there are less pupils, this means there are much more difficult decisions that have to be made.

And it's not just in places like London, where there's a kind of a known trend for moving out and where it makes it particularly difficult for primaries.

Actually, across the country, really difficult decisions have to be made.

And one of the key problems is as soon as numbers start to fall and there starts to be talk of mergers or closures, your.

Your challenge gets even harder.

So the question is, if we have a much smaller pool of local families available to reach and you have a team who have limited time, limited expertise in marketing and promotion.

What can you actually do to reach local families and help them see what makes your school special?

So let's go back to St.

Augustine's I'm going to tell you exactly what we did to discover this.

So Sarah, when she was standing up on stage and she was talking to us about her plan for the school, it was all built around the idea that she was going to invest in some new Forest School provision.

She was using her last little bit of kind of budget allocation to bring in an integrated, full on, Forest school teacher.

And she said, I want to make this the big feature to attract families and hopefully that will drive our numbers growing over the next few years.

And I was really excited because I knew that Harrison, my son, and Matilda would absolutely love that.

But I was also worried because this is where most schools go wrong.

So the big mistake is in assuming that parents can actually see what, what is actually happening in the school.

So you're in it every day, you see what's going on, you know what it is that's special.

But actually, you would be surprised at how little current parents know about what day to day life like in the school.

And when it comes to prospective parents, that's even less.

In fact, when I work with schools and I help them to get lots of new families coming in and visiting, the number one comment they make is, we didn't even realise your school was here.

So particularly if your school is tucked away in a cul de sac or it's not on the main road, unless you are being really proactive, then there are many local families who could choose your school who are not even considering it.

So that's your first challenge there.

So visibility, getting prospective parents who don't know about you to consider your school.

So just pop in the chat.

Visibility for me.

If you're one of those schools, if you're a school that is tucked away, that is not on the main road, you've got maybe challengers who are kind of very visible.

Are you the school that is really struggling with visibility?

Pop that in the chat for me.

Who have we got?

Let's have a look.

Yeah.

So Sarah and Joanna.

Lucy.

Yep.

Honestly, it absolutely amazes me when we have kind of schools where parents are coming in and say that I just didn't know you were there.

So, in fact, the school that, I'm talking about, St.

Augustine's that is, it is off the main road.

There's a sign at the end of the road.

That says Catholic primary school.

And when I moved to the area, it was completely invisible to me because I just ruled that out.

And I thought, the village school, the named village school was the one we'd go to.

So it can be actually location.

It can be again, just the name of the school or just.

Just the, kind of.

It is invisible to people.

The second challenge that we've got is perception.

So those people who do know about you will have an existing perception, and that perception will not be based on facts.

It will be based on a picture they formed from snippets of conversation with others, from things they've heard from kids or from family members or from friends.

So again, when me and my wife were looking at schools, there was one locally that we didn't ever visit.

It was actually.

It was during COVID when we were first looking at schools.

But this school, I have a story set in my mind about it from a few interactions and conversations.

So we'd heard from someone that, yeah, the parents there are quite cliquey and separately I'd heard that, that school, it's only focused on academic performance.

We're in Kent, so the Kent test, and this was five years ago.

But that perception of the school is still stuck in my head.

And I find myself and my wife, when we're talking to others, we're guilty of perpetuating it.

Kind of just sharing on these small little anecdotes that are, almost certainly not true, but they are how that story is being passed on in the local area.

So you think about that for a second.

There are local families who know of your school, but they're deciding against you without ever visiting it.

Not because of facts, but because of assumptions.

And so those snap judgments based on hearsay or outdated perceptions are quietly steering away families before they've had a chance to see your school.

So if you're falling into the perception, then pop that in the chat.

If you think your school has an existing perception there that might be outdated, it might be based on something that happened three or four years ago, then pop that in the chat.

And if you think you're both struggling with visibility and perception, just type both for me.

Let's have a look who we got.

Okay.

Yep.

So, yeah, that's resonating.

Tracy's on both, Katie's on both, but perception.

Christine Meekly.

Yep.

Helen.

Perception.

Okay, so, yeah, we've got this mix.

We've got people who are struggling with visibility and perception.

Here's the thing.

Many of the Families in your local area would actually choose your school if you could get them in and show them how special it is.

Therefore, your biggest opportunity to increase pupil numbers is to maximize the number of families that you get in to visit because that gives you the opportunity to properly showcase what makes you become special.

And so, going back to our three step SOS pupil numbers plan, the first thing we have is a goal.

The goal is to maximize the number of local families who come in and visit the school.

That means that everything we do is going to be absolutely laser focused on driving visits where they actually come in and see the school.

So let's just do a quick confidence check.

I want to see what the level of capacity is at the moment.

How confident do you feel that you could reach local parents and get them to come in and visit your school if you had an event in 2 weeks time?

Give me a score of 1 to 10.

How confident are you that you could do something that would reach them, would drive them into the school and get them to actually turn up?

So number one means I've got no idea what to do.

I don't know if it would be seen by parents.

A 10 means you know what, I know for sure what I do drives people in and I could do it repeatedly.

Let's have a look.

So we have, so we'll go right back here.

So we've got a range, we've got.

Andrew's on a zero.

Okay, Andrew, I appreciate your honesty there, Helen.

Katie's on a three.

So we've got a few six and sevens.

fives.

Three ones.

Five sixes.

Fives.

Okay, one.

So Alan, we try to hold open events but no one comes in.

Okay, arrange there.

What I want you to do is hold that in your mind because at the end I'm going to ask you again and I want to see if we can actually increase that confidence.

So here is the full plan that I'm going to talk you through now we have that goal where we're going to maximize the visits.

And the outcome is all about making sure that more families select our school as their first choice application or they join us as say an in year transfer.

So we have a goal, we have an outcome.

The three things that we're going to focus on are standout outreach and support.

And I'm going to talk these through from the lens of how we discovered it at St.

Augustine's so stand out.

The first thing you want to do is give parents a really clear reason to visit.

This step is all about uncovering what your school genuinely does better than any others locally.

But then you need to explain that clearly in language that parents can instantly understand.

So it becomes your standout story.

This is really important because it becomes the reason why parents would book a visit with you.

It becomes the story that they tell other families about why they've chosen your school.

And if you do it well, then it can become the way your school is talked about locally.

You can take control of that narrative.

And ultimately, if parents can't understand why your school is special, then they won't choose it.

And one of the big problems is lots of schools can sound the same.

They, they might all say, at this school, every child is known.

Or we prioritize academic excellence.

And when parents are looking for schools and they're weighing them up, if they all look the same, then parents tend to go towards the default option.

And if you're struggling with numbers, that means that you aren't the default option.

Here's one example of trying to pull together actually messaging that really made sense to parents.

So one of the schools I worked with, they wanted to focus on the way they delivered the curriculum.

But if you went on their website, this is how it showed what they delivered the curriculum as.

It was essentially a statement written for the audience of Ofsted.

It talked about implementation and impact and it was a big bunch of text.

And I guarantee that no parent ever read that and came away from it feeling like, I understand what happens at this school.

So working with them around the messaging, what we focused on was really trying to draw out parent facing messaging that would instantly communicate what it might be like.

And so the school wanted to talk about, actually we deliver strong academic results, but we believe we can do that best through delivering a really hands on curriculum where we help children to learn actively through experiments and memorable experiences.

And by then being able to give really specific, clear examples of the activities that they did, they could bring that to life and instantly put a picture in the head of actually this is a school that has a really hands on way of teaching and ultimately that is something that can then become part of that standout story.

Now there's lots of ways to do this.

and what I do inside the 90 day pupil numbers fix program is I help schools to uncover the standout story and turn it into that parent friendly messaging.

So, his example, this was Coldwell School, where I met with Gina and Wendy and Seamus.

basically you meet with senior leaders, governors, people who know about your school.

we work through a step by step process to really uncover what is it that you do uniquely well, and that we could turn into parent facing messaging.

Now, I mentioned for turning up live, there was a bonus.

And so, I'm going to pop this in the chat right now.

This is a beginner's worksheet, so if you are interested in starting to try and figure out what could be your standout story, then click that link in the chat, make a copy of that document and then you can work through that.

And there's three steps in there to really start to think about what is it about your school that could be your standout story.

And what we're going to try and do here is you're going to try and focus on picking out something that is not generic, that no other school in your local area could claim.

So that's your bonus there.

I've shared that.

and, please do have a look at that, as a tool after the webinar.

So let's look at stand out.

Sorry.

At step two.

So what you then need to do is make sure that local families actually see your message about your school.

And here's how we figured out how to do it.

So at St.

Augustine's I headed in one day I met with Sarah, the head, as I said, Jo, her deputy, and Ellen, who worked in the office.

And I came in with this big, long list of all of the tactics that I knew from local marketing could work to get the message out there.

So, we could have looked at doing a prospectus or doing some SEO on the website, press releases, partnerships, working with nurseries.

And as I sat with them, it became really obvious that this just was not going to work in a busy primary school.

I knew that Sarah and Joe were squeezing in, doing little marketing tasks, designing posters on their evenings and weekends.

Honestly, the amount of times that, I'd get a reply from Sarah at like 9:00 clock at night on a Tuesday.

And when I sat with Ellen in the office, I was there for like 20 minutes with her and we got interrupted 15 times.

I genuinely could not believe how she kept track of what was going on with the number of people that were popping in, asking to use the printer, messages that were being passed on.

So I knew that in a busy primary school environment, the team do not have the time to work on a complicated campaign.

So I literally threw that list in the bin and we went back to the absolute kind of core basics.

Something simple, something quick, something that I could be confident I could empower the team to get in front of local parents.

So here's what we did to get that message out there.

So number one, we instantly upgraded their posters and the digital assets that they were using.

So I gave them some templates and some tips around how to actually create these in a way which would be instantly more eye catching and more actionable.

Then we ran one really simple supercharged Facebook post, as I called it, okay, which is basically running a targeted ad to your local area where you reach out and you can showcase what is it that makes your school special.

And then finally we just upgraded with really small tweaks to your online school presence.

So we just made a few tweaks to how the website, how St.

Augustine's Instagram was showing up, so that when people were discovering the school, they were able to actually kind of very quickly get it and understand it and know what to do next.

And the key to the outreach step was around picking these simple approaches that were the most efficient at getting the standout story in front of the eyeballs of prospective parents.

And we had to make sure that any outreach we did drove one simple action and that was to get them to book the school visit.

So we focused again, laser like precision to make sure that everything that we put out there tried drive actual bookings of school visits.

When I work with schools in the 90 day pupil numbers fix program, I actually help them set up the school outreach channels step by step guidance on how to do it, how to do it in the simplest way so you don't waste time trying to figure it all out.

here's Michael who implemented these.

So Michael's at St.

Paul's primary.

he said to me the outreach ideas have made a real big difference.

He used them.

he predominantly used the poster and the Facebook ad approach.

And first two open days he ran were already full.

They were mainly reaching new parents to the school.

That was back in, kind of October last year.

He messaged me that he followed up with me, on Sunday actually, just to update me on his numbers.

They ended up with 38 first choice applications, so eight more than last year.

And he really said it was down to the targeted outreach that he was able to run in a very small amount of time.

Now I haven't got time to go through all the different tactics and tools today, but I want to give you one really actionable step which instantly will upgrade your promotional, whether it's posters, whether it's digital assets, and that is on these kind of images, you want to include a close up shot of a human face.

You have an amazing asset in happy, emotional kids who are enjoying a learning experience.

And the absolute kind of secret is around making sure that you get eye contact through those pictures.

And it's literally because our brains are hardwired to recognize faces.

So research shows that actually the human face is recognized faster than other objects in a room.

And so when you put a face looking at the camera, then it instantly captures attention, your eyes are drawn to it.

And if you can get an image like this where you're looking at the camera, you have the emotion of these two girls, which is by the way, Matilda, my daughter and the deputy head's daughter.

Because that was the easiest and quickest way for us to get an image we could use on the poster.

Then it just instantly makes your poster or your Facebook post so much more engaging and so much more likely to actually catch attention.

So let's go on to step three.

So we've got a story with getting it out there and then step three is about support.

And this again is a really simple way to make an impact on people numbers and it is about making it easier for those parents to book a visit and more supportive in getting them to move to the next step of the journey.

So it really is about shifting that mindset from it being a place where, well, there's loads of parents and those who want to will come and visit the school and those who apply, if there's room they'll get in.

It is now have to be a really proactive, almost like a customer facing environment where you want to make sure you are helping them take every step and you're removing friction wherever you can.

So it needs to be really easy for them to discover the school.

The process for them to book a visit and attend a visit needs to be really simple and you need to proactively support them and reassure them and help them to choose you.

So that's from first contact to first visit right through to first day.

So you want parents to feel guided and supported and confident in making that choice and you can do that by being proactive.

So when I work with schools in the 90 day, program, what I do is I help with optimizing that journey.

On the website to increase school visit bookings, we look at templates and emails and training for your staff, your team who are answering the phone and how to actually communicate with prospective parents and those tactics that convert them from considering you into actually joining as new pupils.

Here's Helen.

So Helen's from Appletree.

Helen joined, the 90 day program back in, February this year.

And I can share her video just here in a sec.

But she implemented these changes around support and saw an instant impact.

Let me just move this slightly.

Right, where am I?

I've got about 10 things open at the same time.

I really enjoyed the training.

I came dragging and screaming to it because it's hard to fit it into your day, isn't it?

But also you need to do it and you won't get any better unless you get trained.

But the follow up has been magical.

And so I've got two new starters, already and, and person.

I'm not necessarily a pushy person, but.

And it goes out of my comfort zone a little bit.

But it was just that, it is important, isn't it?

If all the schools are doing this, then you just need to bite the bullet, don't you?

But it's, it's about changing your mindset, isn't it?

All my songs here have been watching.

Yeah, but we can't often join on a Thursday.

We've all been.

Helen picked up there on the mindset and so she really identified that need to actually shift from thinking about incoming parents.

Have I just lost my screen share?

Let me just resume that.

Okay, should be back.

yeah.

Helen talked about actually shifting that mindset for her and the team and about making sure that actually they were really proactive.

And she said to me, it was one day I picked up the office email and I just noticed there was an inquiry in there from someone who was saying, have you got any places at the school?

And she said, I jumped on it.

So she gave them a call, she supported them, she got them in, and those two started within a couple of weeks.

So even like she's only just started the program, she's still in that 90 days.

She's already seeing direct results from the tactics.

So let's put this onto a page so you can see the full setup.

So we have three main steps, standout outreach and support.

If we can do each of those, then we can drive more visits to the school and we can then follow through to more families selecting our school.

And the key is if you can install this basic three step system now, then it's a system you can build on year after year so you can refine it, you can add to it.

Going back to Sarah at St.

Augustine's when I first worked with her, we installed the absolute basics.

So one standout story, one outreach channel, basic parental support, and that alone took her from 15 to 27 first choice applications the second time round.

So this year we just layered on a few more tactics onto that same basic system so we could actually just strengthen her standout story.

We could bring more examples of it, we could put some videos or some photos that really showcased what it was that made her school special.

We could then use a few more tactics to get that out there in front of people locally.

And we were able to do a little bit more with the team to upskill them and support them, so that they could support new families and give them the confidence to actually choose the school.

And that resulted in her going up to 36 first choice applications.

So on a pan of 30, she has now fully filled reception for next year and she has a waiting list.

In fact, I spoke to her this morning and she said in her trust, she has gone now from being one of the schools with the lowest numbers to the only school in the trust with a waiting list.

And the trust now are, coming out in a couple of weeks to say, how did you do this?

And the key thing was it wasn't just driving reception growth actually by proactively becoming more visible, by putting out there a story about yourself, about what makes you unique and special.

She started to get many more inquiries about in year transfers, families were noticing that kind of increased visibility and those who were thinking about moving their child, this kind of gave them the push, gave them a reason to come in.

Let's see what Sarah said.

If I can make this, this one work, for what she got out from working together on promoting the school.

So for me, I think often, I think what you've done is put it into a, smart packet, which is easily accessible and almost marks out what we need to do when.

So I think following that might need an extra bit of work initially, but then it's actually quite a manageable approach to narrating of a school, which I think otherwise could feel quite a daunting process, where you've got everything else going on in a school and think about how you're going to advertise.

So I think following the basics there, keeping to the structure that you've offered me this year has made me feel that I can do it.

With no background in marketing, if I can do anything, anyone can.

And I think that was the key moment for me when I worked with Sarah and she said, look, if I can do this, then anyone can.

And I really think that the system that we've put together is the most efficient way for a busy school to implement this.

You don't need to become a marketing expert, you don't need to go full on training about all of the different elements.

We just need to be able to give you the simple plan and steps to follow that will get your message out there, drive people in.

Because once people come in and see your school, then you are able to actually showcase what makes you come, makes you special.

So if you come away with one thing from this session today, it's a mindset shift.

So I want you to feel confident that you can take action to influence your numbers on a roll.

So it is a really challenging environment.

There are less families, there will continue to be less families year on year, but you can make a difference.

So Chris from Hollingwood who I worked with said, I just thought if you keep on doing the same thing, you're not going to see an improvement.

You've got to put a bit of work at it.

But it can be so transformational for the school if you can get it right.

In fact, he talks a lot about let's go to Chris here.

Let's see what Chris said about the, the benefit to Chris when he implemented this program, signed up to that free half an hour initial session and I spoke to Cara, our business manager and just said look, if we get one child in then the additional cost will be more than worth it.

And as it's turned out it's been incredibly successful to get an extra 21 children in the course of the year when this was supposedly be, particularly in Derbyshire, and Chesterfield.

The, the worst year out of all of them is transformational.

It's really exciting because obviously you, you want a full school.

If you think about the resources that you can, you can give the children.

And it's not that we'll be shopping at Harrods now that we're full, but actually we can give the children a much better education in all the year groups, not just in recession.

I love that.

Not sure about Harrods, but for all the years actually being able to properly resource them is a, is a real transformational step for them.

So let's just go back to the chat and a quick sense check.

So now thinking about if you had three things to focus on sharing what makes you stand out.

You've got the worksheet for that outreach, you've got your one tip and you also got some ideas around how you might want to get that out there and support knowing that actually it's about shifting that mindset and getting the whole team aligned around, being proactive.

To follow up, if you had those three things, how do you feel at this point about actually doing something that you could reach local parents and get them to properly consider your school?

Pop that number in the chat between one, and a 10 now.

So I'm seeing a few sevens, fives, sixes, sevens, eights.

I don't have a calculator here to do this average, but from what I'm seeing, I'm seeing less ones, less twos, less threes.

So it looks like we are successfully increasing a bit.

I've got a few questions in here that I might pick up in a sec.

But, yeah, on average, we're seeing a slight increase, but we're not quite there yet.

Okay, I want to get you to nines and tens.

I want you to be completely confident because let's just take a minute here and say, why is this important?

Next year, the minimum per pupil funding is 5115.

So if you can get one extra pupil in, then that's over 5,000 into your annual budget.

Five pupils over 25,000.

And then a, child who joins in reception is potentially your school for seven years.

And remember, if you just can reach more of those families who would choose you, if only they got to see what makes your school special, then you could have an impact on that, and you can have an impact on that quickly.

So let's ask again.

Are you committed to taking action from this webinar?

Do you see, actually, there is a path here which you could follow.

Do you want to take action to increase those numbers?

Give me a yes in the chat if you do.

Yes, definitely.

Deborah, Emma, Izzy, Helen, Tamsin, Tracy, Kerry.

Thank you.

Yes.

And Andrew, Charlotte.

Yes, thank you.

Okay.

That's the first step, committing to do this.

You've already attended this webinar.

You've put some time aside.

You've said this is important.

The key thing, as I said at the start, is you have a time.

So I want to make it as efficient as possible of you to take action.

So you've got the plan.

Now, if you did want my help to do this, you've seen what works.

But the number one thing I know from working with schools is kind of knowing the plan and actually finding the time to install it are two very different things.

So every school leader I've worked with, they knew they needed to do something about the pupil numbers, but the difference was having someone alongside them to actually make sure they get it done.

So I want to offer you something to those who are serious about making this happen.

So this week I'm opening up a small number of places for a 90 day pupil numbers fix program.

So this is my personal hands on support to help you install this repeatable admission system in your school before the end of the summer term.

So it's the same program that Cara, there's Chris who you saw from before, Jackie and Jo at Howard, Julie, and Joanne at Cragside.

it's the same program from Lyddon.

And we've got Gina and Wendy, you saw them from the standout session there.

Victoria, she's in London, in Hackney.

we've got James up in Derbyshire.

These are all schools who have joined me as we work through a simple step by step process to implement this and see results in their school.

The core program is about accessing your standout story, about installing a parent outreach system so you can proactively reach those families and about training up and supporting your team to have a full on support pipeline so we can take interest to become first choice.

There's implementations on Zoom with me, weekly group calls for troubleshooting and once you've done your installation then actually there's six months support in the first choice school community.

So even once you've done it all set up while you go through your next round of open days, I can support you there if you sign up.

I'm also going to do an admissions action plan for you, so I'm going to research your catchment area, you, competitors, your pupil number trends and we'll do this before we get started so we can start with a clear action plan.

I can review your website and social media and give you a quick checklist of quick wins that will improve your online visibility really clearly here.

I don't want to rebuild your website.

I don't want you to have to do much other than do the most efficient tweaks.

I work with you one to one on a workshop to try and identify what is it about your school that is uniquely valuable to local parents and no other school locally could claim that.

We'll put together an in year transfer playbook.

So actually you're not just waiting for reception.

There's stuff you could do straight away to try and drive new pupils into the school.

And by the end of it you'll also have a staff and governor briefing pack which just sets out really clearly on one or two pages how to talk about the school so that you, your staff, your governors are all on the same page and you have a very simple parent facing message.

Share with them.

So the total value of that program is just under 5k.

Or to put it another way, it's the cost of one pupil joining your school, one extra pupil.

But because you're not waiting till autumn, I'm going to offer that today for just one off fee of 2,995.

So that's the one off fee to join the program.

You get 90 days working with me to install it plus then you get the six months afterwards in the community of support to actually implement it.

And that's for you.

Plus two other members of staff can go through the whole program, build your capacity so that you're ready to really implement this.

And my guarantee is if you fully participate, you turn up to the sessions, you implement the system, and if we don't increase your first choice applications or we don't drive extra in year transfers, then at the end of that period I'll continue to work with you and figure it out and we'll support you to get results.

Remember that graph at the start of the birth rates falling?

That risk is on me.

I'm saying that this installation will help you beat that curve.

so here's how to secure your place.

If you'd like to join then I have about 10 places only because I work with schools, kind of one to one as we go through this.

So I'm going to pop this in the chat.

Go to the website standoutschoolmarketing.com fix.

It looks like this.

here we go.

If you click on that then I have a really simple application form So it's literally your school name, school postcode.

If you know how many first dress applications you've got for September or you know now your numbers if they've come in, pop that in there when you submit that it will give you a next step to book an action plan call.

So that's 30 minutes with me the next week and we will go through those three standout outreach and support and we'll map out a plan for how you could actually implement this in your school.

Then after that call, if you decide it's not right for you, that's fine, you can step away.

But if you're ready to take action and move through the program with me, then we'll do that one to one discoveries call where we really uncover your standout story.

You'll get a personal implementation plan.

So every task, every template, every resource you need, you'll get six weeks of group calls.

So this is actually what schools have said to me is the most Useful thing.

So every week on a Thursday at say 10 o' clock or 1pm, I've run different cohorts.

We meet as a group and we work through the process and we make sure that we stick to this and we make sure that you are accountable to me, to the other schools who are going through it.

And this just is like magic because it's so easy for, for marketing tasks to fall off your list and actually you end up rushing around in August or in September, October next year, trying to quickly design a poster and get out there.

By working together through these six weeks and making sure that each week you're on track, you can get this done in this 90 day period before the end of term and you'll be ready when it comes around to the autumn program.

So everything included, as I said, for 29, 95, if you sign up today, if you sign up today, before the end of this webinar.

So we've got another 10 minutes or so.

I'm going to go into questions in a sec then actually I'm going to double the access to the community.

So you'll get that for 12 months rather than six.

And that's the first choice school community.

Here you can see this is, where all of the content will be and you'll see all the other schools who are in here who are accessing support, they are sharing what's working for them and again, that's just really valuable to be able to see what is working in similar schools, across the country.

And this is how you get all of the content and the support.

So it's just worth considering how this has actually played out for several schools who've done this, because I appreciate you are making an investment here and you want to know what's going to be returned.

Well, Chris invested in this.

He was in the Hollinwood primary.

His applications jumped from 35 to 56, so he's filled his pan of 45.

So actually that investment of £2,995 has returned in year one for him the equivalent of £51,000 in funding.

Laura, who was at St Mary's in Dorset, her applications went from 18 to 35, so a gain of 12 pupils, so again the equivalent of 61,000.

Jackie in Croydon, who implemented this, she had one extra reception starter, she stabilized those numbers.

Croydon is a very difficult area in terms of people moving out, but actually she had one extra reception starter and eight year in year transfers.

So again, year one, it's more like actually an increase of 46,000.

And then Helen, who I mentioned, she's invested 2,995.

Within two or three weeks of running the program she's already got two new in year transfers plus also three new nursery sign ups.

And that's something we're starting to see with more of the schools coming through is actually you can take the exact same approach and apply it to nurseries and you can start to drive nurseries as well.

And so finally there is a cost to not acting now because every year that a child is not in your school another 5,000 pounds that is not in your budget, not able for you to spend on staffing or on resources.

And actually over the years that number really adds up.

So I want to make this as easy as possible for you.

So if you apply now, book your call with me, we'll have the call, we'll work through your action plan and then at that point, at the end of that call you can decide go ahead with it.

Or if it's not right, you can step away from the program.

But you still have your action plan and you still have an idea of what it is that you can do to improve your school pupil numbers.

So please head over to there.

I'm going to put that again in the chat and I will now go on to our Q&As.

So if you could start typing your Q&As in the rest of Helen's video because she talks about making the decision to join the program, Watching the videos in it.

That's also powerful because if I'd just been listening to it in isolation in my office, team members and together they're helping us explain it to the rest of the teachers.

It's good CPD for what, 10 years I've been an ED now, 30 years in the school, but I've never had anything like this.

I've done the MPQH I've done all of those things but I've never had anything like this.

And yeah, it's made a big difference because when I was telling my governors resources committee because obviously I'm spending some dosh and also I was embarrassed in case like we didn't get any hit.

Yes, there's this guy called prison, he's 90, he can boost your numbers.

So I said and if I don't get any new numbers, it's really good CPD and when I said it I didn't mean it but actually it is really good CPD because I'm learning new skills as well and all of that kind of stuff.

But it is a hundred percent a mind, a mind shift in the way that you think.

A lot of the schools in my area have never ever had to think about the numbers coming through the door before.

So you're very.

If you pick us, you will be lucky kind of thing.

And actually now it's a complete shift, isn't it?

I am thoroughly enjoying it and it's really brought some good thinking around for the whole team.

Okay, I'm gonna just run through the chat now and pick up any questions that are coming in there.

So, first one I've highlighted there is, Jenny saying, is there a discount for academies?

Yes.

Yeah.

If you've got an academy and you've got a number of schools, then actually it can be really efficient if we can bring a number of those schools together and run a program either bespoke or there is a discount available for, joining the school.

So please do sign up for that action plan call and in the email change, just let me know if it's for multiple schools and I can give you access to that.

There was a question from Jamie which was, will you email out the prices?

Yep.

So I will.

I'll send you an email with the recording.

Obviously you can forward that website as well.

Did I post it in there again?

Let me make sure it's in the chat.

You can share that website, get them to, review the numbers there.

Let's have a look.

What else have we got in here for the questions?

Questions for recording yet?

Recording will be sent out.

Lily says, would you suggest sending parents to a landing page featuring the standout story before the link to the contact form?

What kind of contact form is best?

Google form, Meta form?

Yep.

So we go through all that step by step.

Lily, the key thing you've picked out there is about a landing page and that is ultimately what we would do in the program, is look at your website and try and say, let's not try and redo this because it will take too long.

Let's pick one page that we can create, which is where we're going to host the story, we're going to host all the key information and we're going to build that out together to make sure that wherever your prospective parents come from to your website, they are instantly able to understand what is it that makes it special and they can instantly book on to a school visit.

So that is absolutely something we'd make sure we get sorted as part of that.

let's have a look.

Amy says we're A small school, very, limited grounds, no space to expand.

We had a new school open down the road, which is a through school.

Yeah, Lots of space, facilities, equipment.

We can't compete.

What sort of thing can we say we offer that some more desirable.

I actually had a school just like this, in the current program that we're working with.

And the important thing to do is not just to jump straight to the generic of we're a small school, so we know every pupil by name, but actually is to run through, that kind of worksheet.

And if you look on that standout, story worksheet, you'll see this run through the list of features that you genuinely know and believe are the things that you do really well.

And when you then compare them to other schools and you cross off anything that other schools could claim, you will get down to a small list of things that you do uniquely well.

And then it is about trying to draw out the specific stories and moments where that is brought to life.

And you will find that if you can pick something that is very unique and is valuable and kind of valued by parents and you can bring that to life in a story, then ultimately you can start to address those issues where it's not just parents choosing stuff based on facilities or kind of the, kind of sporting activities.

So absolutely, we can work through that as a sort of standout story piece, of work.

Any other questions?

Let's have a look through here.

Charlotte says we use Facebook, Instagram and X.

We post on local area Facebook groups.

X is very good to link in network professionals if you have open days, if you want to share local libraries.

I've been a maternity leave last, so it's been quiet.

Okay.

So, yes, you've used a few different channels.

The key thing that I found with schools when they start to use stuff like Facebook and Instagram is, is you can quite easily spend a lot of time creating content that is then only seen by a handful of people who basically already know the school because it's a few, few parents who are following it.

And even if you had 100 followers on your Facebook page, only about 10 of them will see each post.

So the key with any of that social media where you are setting up is being able to actually outreach so actually get that in front of people who don't know you.

So that's where we then use targeted ads.

and we can do that on Facebook and on Instagram.

I would also agree with your categorization that X is absolutely for professionals.

Rather than, the parents.

I wouldn't, I wouldn't be advertising kind of, or utilizing X, to be honest, for much of my stuff where I work with schools.

Mary, says she uses Instagram.

Yep, I'm seeing good results with Instagram.

Again, the.

We've got a question here.

I work in a trust of 26 schools and all of our school bar, is active on Facebook.

We had a school with low numbers and reputational struggles that has seen a vast improvement in recent years since we've shared more updates.

Okay, so, yes, this is, SRS 10.

Thank you for your comment.

Basically, it's saying it's a good place to open your doors and showcase what's happening in your school.

I think that's what we found with St.

Augustine's and actually, a number of the schools who are like Helen from Apple Tree and, Karen, who's at LID and Jenna, who's at, Lee Primary School, they all noticed that when they became more active on Facebook, when they actually used the tools to run ads and proactively get themselves in front of hundreds of local people, even though they might have been talking about preschool events or they were talking about reception tasters, just by being more visible, they actually drove that real kind of interest and, like, thoughts from local people to come and check out the school.

So it can really, really work as a good place.

Lynn, thank you.

Let's see, we've got.

Helen says, how does this work with current.

we've lost it there.

Sorry.

how does this work with current guidance not to show identifiable photos of children?

Yeah, so that is absolutely one of the most challenging, issues.

Most schools I find at the moment are still where there is consent in place from parents to use those photos.

They are still using those, on the school website or in some of the advertising.

But honestly, getting that sorted and getting the right permissions in place is absolutely a barrier that stops most schools from doing this.

So, as I mentioned that the top tip I'd used was ultimately you want to almost stage a photo shoot where you have a few children who you absolutely have nailed on the right permissions in place and get some shots that you can utilize on your posters or your photos.

and don't actually have a process where you're trying to go out and capture loads of pictures across the school and then retrospectively figure out which ones can I use?

Because ultimately that doesn't always result in, kind of usable images.

Yeah, so I can see.

So we've Got a Stop Think Consent campaign for our schools in line with gdpr.

Ensure our children have appropriate permissions to use.

Yeah, I think there will be much more of a kind of a move on this over the next couple of years.

So I think it will be a key thing to be able to identify and it is, it's going to be really hard because ultimately they are your best asset is kids enjoying having fun, showcasing what it's actually like to be in your school.

So being able to find the ways to do that, that keep you compliant is going to be key.

Amy says most of our staff have been at the school for years, 10 to 20 years.

four members of staff who are ex pupils.

I like that.

do you think this is something that parents will care about, be a selling point?

That's really interesting.

yes, but only if you can show what that actually results in.

So the key thing that I find where people talk about features of the school or kind of the staff members or the way you do stuff is you're always expecting the parent to then go, well, so what, why is that important?

So why is it important that staff have been there for 20 years?

Why is it important?

What does that matter?

What does that mean?

So you have to be able to translate the thing into parent facing messaging.

That really makes sense about what does it mean for the child, what does it mean for the parent?

And the parents ultimately are looking for some sort of top level values.

They want to know that their child feels safe and secure and happy.

They want them to feel part of the community.

They want them to kind of grow and flourish.

They want them to feel, be ready for the next step.

So those are the things they ultimately want.

Your things over here are things like our staff have been here for 20 years or we have amazing grounds or we have this particular way in the curriculum.

And what you need to do is basically ask the question so what to each of those features and move them along each time and just try and get more clarity on what it is that makes your school uniquely valuable to children and parents.

And that's where you can turn it into something that's gonna, gonna work as a stand up story.

any other questions?

As I said, if you head to this page, I suggest yes.

If you're interested, sign up, book your action plan call because then we can go through your step by step process at the end of that call.

Again, as I said, you can decide, if you want to take it forward or if you want to give back your place But I do only have 10 places for the next cohort, so I want to make sure that I can give each of the schools that time alongside the group calls with the one to one help on the standout story.

Any other questions while we're on here?

Let's have a look.

Thank you.

Well, no, thank you guys for, attending.

Thank you for giving up your valuable time.

I, really appreciate that you are so busy.

I hope that you're going away whether you decide to work with me or not, that you've got something that is concrete, that helps you focus.

And, means that actually any time you spend promoting your school, you can focus on making sure that it's something that is going to have an impact.

And if you can drive more visits into the school, if you can showcase what makes your school special, then you can have an impact on more of those families choosing your school.

So, yeah, look forward to speaking to some of you in the next few weeks.

And for the rest of you then, really good luck.

And, I'll keep in touch and keep sharing some tips and ideas as you go through the rest of this term.

So thank you everyone.