Sally Anne,
I posted the following a few weeks ago. I don't know if you
saw it, but I'm repeating it because at year's end (last
week), we ended up with about 20 more students than we started
out with last August. Something is working.
"I, too, am on a marketing committee. Just some of the things
we've done in the past year: In conjunction with the
Foundation committee, a parish "Birthday Club" for all parish
children 12 & under was started. Birthday cards are presented
to the children from the parish & school once a month during
Mass (during their birthday month), and their names are
published in the church bulletin (again from the church and
the school).
"A strategic corner was located in the neighborhood where
there is both high car and foot traffic. We are in the process
of putting up a banner stating we have a full-day kindergarten
and day care after school. (Next year, we will have before
school day care.) This gains importance at this time as the
public schools have announced that they are reducing
kindergarten to half-day sessions.
"Any school accomplishments, academic, sports, or otherwise
are placed in the parish bulletin.
"We enter every civic contest open to school children in the
area. Sometimes we win. The whole class shows up for
presentation ceremonies, in uniform, both as support for our
classmate, but also to let the community know about us.
"Participation in community Christmas shows are a great way to
advertise the school. Look for planning of these events before
Halloween. Your local councilperson's office is aware of these
if public property (such as parks and auditoriums) are
involved.
"Students are required as part of their religion grade to give
service. For our older children, their service must include
the civic community. This can take many forms. Years ago,
through first a letter-writing campaign and then petitions,
our school was responsible for gaining a swimming pool at the
local park. We showed up at the mayor's office, in uniform,
and had several pictures taken for the newspapers. Find a
project in the neighborhood that has importance and get the
kids involved. Don't forget to call the newspapers, if they
forget to notice you. It's free publicity for them as well as
your school.
"Open houses are good to a certain degree, but better if
planned in conjunction with some other event going on in the
parish. Otherwise, pretty much just the parents of the
children already enrolled in the school want to come and go
through the school. These really have to be strategically
planned. We have a local private school (non-religious) that
has an open house almost every month. Sad to say, this is
sending a "we-are-desperate" message to the neighborhood. I
would say no more than 2 open houses in a school year (one
near the beginning of school, one after Easter, but before
summer vacation) would be effective.
"Summer school, especially one planned with day care is
another way to get noticed. We are fortunate to have a very
good day care, and let's face it, many parents are really
looking for that in the summer time as well as an educational
boost.
"I have a marketing committee meeting tomorrow night. I'll let
you know if any more ideas pop up. Hope there's something here
you can use."
UPDATE: Last night I had the second marketing committee
meeting since I originally posted the preceding. We are in
the process of planning a "Walkathon" for late October. It is
an involved process, but there is an e-book available to help
plan this out. We already have one corporate pledge of
sponsorship for $500. Additional to this, our principal
applied for and was granted government title funds to update
each classroom with laptop computers for each teacher and
Smartboards for each classroom. Our technology has leaped
ahead of our neighboring Catholic schools and most of the
public elementary schools in our area. There is only one
rather pricey ($1000/mo.) school in the neighborhood that has
more (a laptop for each student). Re: tuition - Try to work
with your parish on this. Find out what organization may help
with this. We have garnered assistance from the Children's
Education Fund for many of our students. And above all, once
you have some sort of help from an outside organization
(especially, financially), be sure to show your appreciation.
They will remember your gratitude next year.
I know this is long, but I really hope you can use something
from this.
Dale D
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