Private School Enrollment ?

[luvmarypoppins]

Our little private school is thinking of ways to attract new families.

Of course with the current economy we dont exactly have people knocking down the doors etc. to get in.

For Sept. we are offering any current family a small $ off their Sept. bill for the new school year if they bring in a new family who registers and enrolls.

We are also doing:
an open house
radio advertisement

Have done in the past: newspaper ad, generally no response

Just wondering what works at your school etc?

 

[klj27]

We are the largest private elementary school in our state. The reason for this isn't because of any marketing we do. It is because of the great education that we are known for and all the extra we provide. I think if you focus on your "product" you will have more people seeking you out.

 

[golfgal]

When our kids were in the Catholic school, we did a lot of personal invites to join the school--mainly through contacts with new families that had the kids baptized then they were paired up with a student at the school that sent a hand made card at their birthday. The kids usually spend one day at the beginning of the year making the cards and the school secretary actually mailed them out on the appropriate day.

We tried to get as much free publicity as possible-having the local newspaper do stories on various events happening at the school, covering service projects the kids did around town, etc.

We had a float in the local parade and handed out pencils with school contact information.

We ALWAYS had the paper come and do a story on state test scores when they came out because our scores were significantly higher then the public schools--BUT we also didn't have any real low end special ed kids, etc.

Word of mouth is really the best and offering a small discount for the family that brings in a new family as well as the new family is a good idea.

During Catholic Schools Week we had a large banner we hung in downtown and had radio spots with kids doing "ads" about what they liked about the school.

 

[allison443]

I will agree with what the other posters said...getting the word out about your school is very important. Around here the private schools are always sending info to the local papers about academic accomplishments, service projects, teachers getting grants, etc.

 

[Mkrop]

I am on the Marketing Committee for my children's Catholic school. All the private schools in our area are struggling even the ones who never had to market before.

Word of mouth and our parents are our biggest marketing tool.

For us we advertise in our Church bulletin, upcoming events, open house, when registration was.

We printed up postcards, with beautiful photos of our programs, on Vistaprint and mailed them out to parishoners with children under 6 to get them in for K. We put all the dates for our upcoming Open Houses.

We conducted Open Houses with older children giving the tours. Parents were also available for questions. We had the K teacher there. We also held at least one at night so working parents could come. Many then came back during the day with their child to check it out.

We also take advantage of all our local papers and new stations. We send stories and pictures to the paper all the time, service projects, our book fair just appeared in the local paper today etc.

We also brought in the local TV when we did a huge present drive at Christmas, and then if we had pep rallies for our teams like the Phillies and Eagles, they covered it.

Our kids have logo wear that they wear around town.

We also ordered car magnets with our logo on them. Every child in school gets one, $ for addl cars. Well my friend was on the fence about our school until she saw the magnets. She then realized more people than she thought went to our school. Her child is now in 2nd grade.

 

[ccgirl]

We are the largest private elementary school in our state. The reason for this isn't because of any marketing we do. It is because of the great education that we are known for and all the extra we provide. I think if you focus on your "product" you will have more people seeking you out.

This. Most schools have had decreased enrollment for the year due to the economy. I am happy to report that my DD8's school is still at 98% capacity. Most of that is due to the superb education they receive.

To the OP - what does your school do that others don't? That is what you have to focus on. You have to ask yourself, "why should students go here when they can go to public school for free?"

Good luck.

 

[minniebeth]

My girls' private Catholic school is a blue ribbon school and always has a decent waiting list. This year, anticipated enrollment for next year is way down. The economy has really taken it's toll, no matter how good the school's program is.

Luvmarypoppins, my girls' school does the family referral discount that you posted about...their school calls it "Share the Good News" program and it is well received. They also do many of the things that Golfgal and Mkrop talked about too.
The only other thing that I can think of that some of the schools do (ours does not) is a shadow day, where in addition to the open houses, they will have a day where a prospective student can attend 1/2 day and "shadow" a student and actually go to classes with them. (This really pertains more to older students more than kids entering Kindergarten.)

It's a tough time for many private schools...best wishes to all of yours!

 

[Mkrop]

We are also on our second year of "Bring a Friend to School Day" This is also in hope to bring in older students.

 

[ccgirl]

We are also on our second year of "Bring a Friend to School Day" This is also in hope to bring in older students.

Loving this idea. I am going to suggest this at our next PTO meeting.

 

[Mkrop]

Loving this idea. I am going to suggest this at our next PTO meeting.

Ours is scheduled for when the public school has off so that many times the kids need somewhere to go anyway. Our is on Mon or Tues of Holy Week. I dont know if it is working or not to be honest. We do have one girl transferring from a public school for 2nd grade(we had registration this week) but I dont know if she came to the Day last year or not.

 

[Art 1]

Our Catholic HS had a record amount of Freshmen last year. I think some with lower entry exam scores where turned away.

 

[barkley]

no matter how good of a marketing job a private school does, the word of mouth on the street from current and former parents can make all the difference in the world.

that said-make sure any marketing you do ACCURATLY reflects the way the school and the individual classrooms operate. it's a waste of time and money if you are advertising an aspect of the school and the mindset of the current parents is "oh yeah, they told us that when we enrolled too but it realy like this...". this is especialy true if what is shown to be the tuition and fees does not accuratly reflect the true cost of attendance (sending out requests for money week after week for classroom supplies, field trips, special events, mandatory minimum number of sales fundraisers...).

i'll share something that has worked well for the private school ds attends, and another something that has worked very badly for the highschool his private school feeds into.

what has worked well is his school offering a partial enrollment for homeschooled kids. they offer enrollment in just certain subjects that appeal to the homeschoolers because of the curriculum of those subjects or the availability of specialy trained staff. the most popular are science and instrumental music. the school has found that a large percentage of the homeschoolers use this as a way to try out the school and more often than not enroll their kids full time the following semester or school year.

the school also had good success last year in enticing students to return by offering parents who pre-registered for the following school year (normaly we register over the summer, for this program the forms and fees had to be in by may 1st) about a $100 savings on the registration fee.

what does NOT work well, is a program the highschool started where "new" students (defined as those who have never attended a school affiliated with their private school system)are given a huge discount on tuition their first year of enrollment. parents of existing students see this as a slap in the face to those of us who have financialy supported the schools despite increasing tuition costs for years and years. i know this has factored into some parents decision to send their children to other private highschools.

 

[*JoGo*]

Our attendance has continued to go up. Very surprising! They even made cut-backs before last school year, anticipating lower enrollment. This year they were able to reinstate positions that were cut.

Our school has a newsletter that goes out, one to every family in the school, plus the preschool, and alumni. We now have an option to read it online rather than mailing it ($$ postage & paper) or sending it home w/ the youngest in the family. But it still gets the word out about recent happenings in the school, upcoming events, spotlights anyone that has received awards/etc.

We also have an investigation day coming up, every March. Perspective families can spend at day or half a day at the school meeting teachers, tours, speaking with parents and students, the kids even get to participate in classes, etc.

We also have the discount for returning families - if they register by a certain summer date, they get a % off the registration fee.

A main point for our school is small class size. They split the classes once they reach 24 students in a grade.

Also our sports program. We've won state in b-ball 2 times in the past 6yrs. We've also gone to state in soccer. This is the 14th year the school has been open. They are working at expanding and adding to the athletic dept. as that is a big draw w/ high school.

The town the school is in has a street fair every year. It's at the beginning of the school year, but our school sets up a table, has a video playing of students/classes, pamphlets, parents to talk to, etc.

They also make a point of doing a community project each year. We clean up the town park and plant plants every spring.

 

[NotUrsula]

I think strategy depends a lot on the state of the public schools in your area. The best bet is to play to what is different. If the public schools are generally excellent, playing up academics is a waste of time; play up things like religious instruction and spiritual development instead. However, if the public schools are bad for whatever reason, play up the reasons that your school is a better choice for just that reason.

A cheap option for getting your name in front of people is to send out supplies of fliers to real estate agents who handle a lot of business in your area. People always want to know about schools when they are house-shopping.

 

[2disneyboys]

There are some excellent suggestions here... I may have to print out the thread and take it to my son's school administrator!

@ my kids school for every student the school signs on from your referral, you get $75.00 credited to your account... no limit!

I agree w/ PP - figure out what makes your school stand apart and highlight that!

 

[NHdisneylover]

Our former neighbors' daughter attends a private school. They have two week long summer day camps each year (each has programs for younger students and one will also have programming for middle school and one for high school). They do lots of fun, but also learning type stuff and they get their teachers to teach it (and often the high schoolers help with the younger kids). Many of the current students attend, but many bring friends fro outside the school (and some new kids simply come on their own for the camp experience). I think they pick up several new students from this each year--it gives people a chance to really experience what the school's feel is like in a short, easy setting.

I am surprised that older prospective students only "shadow" for a day at some schools. My kids attended their school for a week to try it out before making a final decision--that was the norm.