William Clarence Education Launches New Division Dedicated to Supporting Independent School Marketing and Admissions Departments

Independent School Marketing and Admissions Departments

Stephen Spriggs
May 15th 2019

In a climate where the UK’s Independent School sector is facing uncertainties and challenges, William Clarence School Services launches this week, offering transparent and expert support for marketers and admissions staff.

In early May 2019, William Clarence Education spoke out about some of the headwinds currently faced by Independent Schools in the UK, with changes in policy and government, rising fees, and redundancies all set to hurt the sector in the coming months and years.

In response, we vowed to be part of the solution and, this week, we are proud to unveila dedicated new strand of the business dedicated to offering advice and guidance for schools on all aspects of student admissions – from marketing to recruitment. This new branch of the firm will operate alongside ourexisting Family Services arm and aims to provide the same unrivalled, quality service it offers to families in the UK, and worldwide.

In recent months it has come to our attention that independent schools are just as vulnerable to changes in policy and poor advice as families when it comes to finding and attracting the right students.

Very often, schools have little to no communication with agencies, aside from when there are specific students involved and we feel it'stime for schools to take the wheel.

William Clarence Education consultants conducted original, independent research among school admissions registrars and marketers in the independent school sector and were alarmed by some of the data that produced in the resulting report.

  • 54% of those questioned stated that they were not confident that. If asked, all staff members would be able to articulate the USPs of their school to prospective parents.
  • 33% of respondents felt that senior leaders had become overly-involved in marketing activity, whilst 22% felt their headteacher should be more closely involved.
  • 42% felt that their role in the school was under-valued and under-appreciated.
  • 73% felt that their school needs to allocate more budget to support marketing and student recruitment activity.

With Brexit still looming over our heads, this is a position that will become increasingly vulnerable if we cannot evolve to become more commercial in our school branding, communications and approach. This is where we are now even better-equipped to provide the resources and expertise these institutions need in order to thrive in uncertain times. We have an exceptional team in place and look forward to working with schools of all sizes to troubleshoot and breathe new life into their branding, communications and recruitment efforts, helping them to access new regions, use new tools and mediums to access their students and analyse their student data as a key data point within the senior leadership team in the school.

As part of this new approach, William Clarence School Services is set to launch a new series of initiatives, webinars, online and print resources and the launch of Independent School Admissions Plus – a dedicated magazine for schools incorporating vital tools, expert advice, and a range of articles addressing issues currently facing the UK’s independent schools.

William Clarence Education offers unbiased advice to families and academic institutions alike on all aspects of school and university placement, with an unrivalled reach into the UK school network. Contact our team today for more information.

 

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