10 Smart Tips for an even better Open Event
- Advertising and publicity. In addition to placing Open Event ads in all the relevant local or even national newspapers, brainstorm some more unusual but equally well targeted locations. Set up links with local community web sites, ask if you can display posters at drama and sports clubs or leave a pile of flyers in coffee shops where you know parents go to meet.
- Directions and signage. Well before your event, do a dummy journey yourself imagining you've never been to the school before. Make it at the right time of day (or night!) and follow your own directions to see how well they really work, noting any potential problems like road works or changes in local parking restrictions, then adjust your printed directions and website accordingly.
Around the school itself, you may need some extra temporary signage for the event. If so, make sure it looks professional and consistent with the school identity. Use your school fonts and colours, and laminate the cards they're printed on to give substance and make them waterproof.
- School buildings. If you are concerned about the appearance of your site or are in the middle of building works, consider how you could create a new focal point to detract visitors eyes from the less attractive parts. It could be as simple and easy as hiring some beautiful plants to frame the front door in tubs that match the school's colours, or you could hold a small music or drama performance near the entrance.
- Greeting and guiding. Student tour guides are often the first point of contact for prospective parents so good social skills are an absolute pre requisite. During the year, note the girls or boys who display a willing smile and an easy social confidence and put them at the top of your list of "meeters and greeters". Brief them thoroughly on welcoming visitors in a way that reflects the ethos of your school.
Ensure your whole team know exactly what the programme for the event is and where everything is situated, then compile a list of potentially difficult questions and appropriate answers so they feel well equipped to respond to anything that's thrown at them. After the event, conduct a debriefing session and note the points that will be useful for next year, then reward your team well for their efforts. It will soon get around the school that it's a job worth doing!
- Demonstrating subjects. Art, Drama, Sport and the Sciences generally sell themselves and the livelier the demonstrations the better. Aim for real 'crowd-pulling' stuff. The less visual subjects such as English and Maths require a more inventive approach. Displays of good course work are the bare minimum you'll need to create interest but if you can make these subjects interactive with real child-appeal you'll be streets ahead of the competition.
- Around the school. Create the sense of a real 'occasion' aurally as well as visually. Live music of all varieties lifts the mood and can draw visitors around the site.
Avoid bare walls on any long corridors by putting up extra display boards and covering them with photographic collages of recent events: trips, concerts, sports matches or outstanding achievements. These help to convey the personality and extra curricular life of the school, over and above the academic side.
Remove all litter and piles of unwanted equipment and furniture that may have accumulated un-noticed. It's amazing what you don't see when you've walked past it 10 times before!
- The Head's Talk. Firstly, inform visitors at the start where and when these are taking place and how to get in to them. Using a ticket system can help to avoid overcrowding.
Remember that parents place great importance upon how the Head comes across.
Ensure the talk communicates the real ethos of the school as well as covering all the important factual matters. If there's a lot to say use visual aids to add interest, and keep any powerpoint displays consistent by using the school badge, fonts, and colours. If there are other students or staff on the platform provide them with a useful role, and try to make younger students sound as natural as possible when speaking.
The stage or platform should look well presented for the occasion. Again, using props that carry the School livery will maintain consistency and help parents remember the school. This can apply to flowers, tablecloths, seating, etc. If your furniture is tatty, do without it.
Make sure the audience will be able to see and hear everyone on stage.
- Literature and Information. If your prospectus has been around for a couple of years double check that all the details are still current. If not, don't panic. You can add new information on extra sheets in a branded folder. Just make sure they're done in the same style as the old prospectus and the two items will work well together. You can also use the folder for extra info that may be useful to parents; how pupils get to and from school, what sort of school trips are on offer, even a list of FAQ's.
- Refreshments. Do offer some - it's a tiring business viewing schools!
If you're a school with a reputation for a good cafeteria it's a great way to show this off, alternately a table of drinks and biscuits manned by the PTFA gives visitors a chance to have a more informal chat with existing parents and has the added benefit that you too can get some feedback on the event.
- And finally; position someone at the exit to say a friendly "goodbye". You wouldn't let visitors leave your house without doing so, so why prospective parents?
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