How to select the right PR agency for a secondary school

I think my first thought is that if you are having to ask what the PR team should be tendering for then the reality is that the school is not in a position to move forward with such a decision.
What they should be doing is asking the PR companies to demonstrate how they could impact on the school and then see what they come up with.
I think that we do need to get away from the idea that all the funding must be spent directly on the children's education. A large secondary school, like the one I am a governor at, has a turnover of £8M. The reality is that the majority of that funding is derived from bums on seats, so a sensible PR /marketing campaign would, if the school has sufficient available places, revolve around encouraging parents and pupils to join the school. Each new pupil is worth £3k + a year, so a modest outlay with good results would be very good use of some school funding. It is impossible without knowing the school and the local environment to decide how that may be achieved.

My DCs school has a PA to the DHs who is a mum who used to work in PR and she spends most if her time doing PR type activities, so I suppose a person's salary could be comparable? Or maybe not!

You really need to think as a group what you need PR for. Has there been an agency before? If no, why now? If yes, why the tender process? Do you have a brief? What are the school's issues that need to be addressed? What are the priorities? How are you going to prove the agency is value for money? What are you expecting the agency to do? What day to day stuff needs to be covered? Whist special projects will there be? Who will monitor this?

The problem with agencies is that they need to be briefed, badgered and controlled by the client. You need to be on your toes or they will rip you off. Their hourly rate will be waaaaay above what you'd pay an in-house person. I speak as an ex PR person !!!

Talkin .. a royal pain the arse they are!

Gunz
Now who could you be talking about?

I can think of one very popular private school on MN desperately in need of PR [WINK]

Of course schools use PR- one one way or another.

League tables make it very much in a school's interest to get it's reputation up so that the parents of high achieving children send their kids there instead of any alternative options they may have. And thus keep their results high. These days many parents are highly competitive about the status and reputation of the school their DC attends.

Good PR can raise the status of a school and get the interest of sponsors, potential donors, partners for curricular and extra curricular projects. levels of over-subscription increase the competitive frenzy of parents to get a place - hence advertising on the back of buses when in most areas of London every school is full - so it isn't about filling places. '10 applicants for every place' sharpens parental interest like nothing else!

PR can help gain the interest of local and less local politicians, get parents behind a campaign to buy a playing field or rebuild the science block, seek community support for something they bare doing or seek to do.

And of course, a good website gets good buy in from parents, is helpful and easy to use.

Talkinpeace - There are many community schools that also use PR agencies. It is not limited to academies.

I guess the case in favour would be that many schools are appallingly bad at communicating with parents and their local community. Decent PR could help with that and doesn't need to cost very much.

Clavinova, I am aware that educational institutions do spend inordinate amounts on the wrong goals. The money my own institution spent on a logo a few years ago was sickening. Doesn't mean I have to be in favour.

To be honest I am a bit annoyed as a tax payer that this is what our money is being spent on (as opposed to education)....

PR is not marketing, just one small area of it. Be very clear what it is you actually want this agency to do OP - if you've only I invited PR agencies when in fact you want a website for example, then they may well tell you yes we can do that but be aware it won't be their specialism and you would potentially be better off speaking to a web agency or broader marketing agency. My suggestion would be for you to issue a clear brief to them all before the meeting outlining what you're looking for (and what you're not if anything specific) and ask them to present you with suggestions/ideas/case studies which relate to this.

I'm a bit amazed at a state school needing a PR agency too but there we go...

LOL
does not make it right though :-)

TalkinPeace
Then I suppose you can't blame the OP's school for wanting to 'follow the herd.'

Clavinova
I know that my DCs school has some real oddities going on.
That is one of the reasons I'm against Academies : because there is no proper oversight of the head.

PR is often a blanket term which covers marketing and design; if you look at the websites and prospectuses of many schools now (private and state/academies) you'll see that they're becoming more sophisticated and professional, certainly at senior school level.
From the portfolio of an agency used by a successful girls' school in Bristol (previously stated as an example of an ordinary comp on mumsnet) " Colston's Girls' School invited a group of agencies to tender for its marketing, PR and design requirements. The appointed agency would, design and produce the school's marketing and advertisements."

TalkinPeace - you might be surprised to learn that your dc's school used an agency to "refine their current school identity" and produce its main prospectus.

Caramelwaffle - "What happened to catchment areas?" Most parents have at least some choice of school for their dc and of course they can move into the catchment area of the 'best school'.

Surely your PR agents should be the Parents?

If I found that a local school was taking money from its teaching or pastoral care budget to spend on external PR companies I would consider that this school had shot themselves in the foot as far as PR was concerned. Totally the wrong kind of publicity as far as I as a parent am concerned.

If astate school needs a PR agency it is in trouble.

We have a member of staff whose responsibility , in addition to teaching, is to deal with the press, release positive stories as well as build links with the local community.

I have never heard of a school using a PR company.

Op. You do your own. It's called results.

PR agency for state schools? What happened to catchment areas?

I have never heard of a state school using a PR agency. Who is funding this?

very few secondary schools are still under the control of LEAs

but if the school cannot use its own media / design / english / photography / computing students to put together publicity materials, something is wrong

What on earth is going on? Why does any school need a PR agency?

The children at state schools get sent to them and the teachers teach and the Head manages that process.

What public relations is required in that process of delivering state education under the control of an LEA?

What do you want them to achieve?

I wonder how much is being cut from the teaching budget to pay for this vanity project for the head?

Why does a state school need a PR agency?