Promoting writing in schools - some questions

[UnquietDad]

I promote the writing workshop and "author visits" I do in primary and secondary schools, sometimes through personal contacts and sites like Artscape and Contact An Author, but very occasionally through a bulk emailing to schools in the local area.

The latter has resulted in half-a-dozen bookings for the first half of this year, so it seems to be kind of worth it. Mostly I get no response, and occasionally I get a curt one ("Please do not send marketing emails to this address - so I removed that school), and even a sardonic/rude one ("Do you think we are interested??").

Just wondering about people's perspectives here, as parents, governors, teachers, secretaries - whatever. Does it annoy you when you get this kind of thing in school?

DW works in a school so I know full well how much crap they get in the inbox and I half-suspect they just bulk-delete anything unsolicited. On the other hand, I haven't found out any of these schools' emails by nefarious means - they are all in the public domain, either from downloadable databases on the relevant council website or on the schools' websites themselves (and in passing, aren't a lot of school websites badly-designed and uninformative?).

Using the postal services for this isn't cost-effective for a freelancer, and although I do advertise in writing newsletters and so on, there still seem to be few other ways of letting schools know I exist - yet it does feel as if I am getting people's backs up at times. And yet kids love having writers in, and some teachers and librarians are hugely enthusiastic about it - I tend to get asked back once I have been once and they have seen what I can do.

(Disclaimer - I think people know me enough on here to realise this is for general discussion and not a "stealth advert", but if MN Towers feel otherwise I'm happy to defer...)

That should be "workshops", plural, by the way! I don't just do the one!

My experience is that schools are reasonably on the ball about the value of visiting writers, so that they are able to take the initiative themselves when they want to go ahead with a visit. I suspect that an email would for that reason seem like a marketing thing that was only of value to the writer, and unhelpful to the school.

Having said that, schools chuck so much marketing garbage at parents that they ought to see the irony of being annoyed at receiving it.

Lots of them are on the ball about the value, although a few schools (like DW's) have lots of visiting speakers for "free" (about street safety, fire safety, sexual health and so on) because these people do their presentations as part of their salaried work and don't really need to advertise their services - and so we find we are expected to go in for free as well.

They can only take the initiative if they actually know any available writers or where to find them...

UQD, have you tried posting on teachit.co.uk ??

I'm quite involved with this site for teachers of English, Media and Drama so, of course, I would say it's marvellous.

As a teacher I'm usually just too busy to deal with unsolicited stuff unless they're directly relevant to what I am or am going to be teaching. But it is nice to have access to stuff when you need it and have time to deal with it. Hence Teachit.

UQD, have you tried posting on teachit.co.uk ??

I'm quite involved with this site for teachers of English, Media and Drama so, of course, I would say it's marvellous.

As a teacher I'm usually just too busy to deal with unsolicited stuff unless they're directly relevant to what I am or am going to be teaching. But it is nice to have access to stuff when you need it and have time to deal with it. Hence Teachit.

I'm an English teacher, Drama teacher and HOY and I get soooooo many unsolicited emails a week that I just don't read any of them tbh. I am more likely to speak to people if they bother to phone the school secretary to find out my name and then contact me personally. I am also, I must admit, far more likely to speak to people if they are offering a free service or one that you can bid for a grant for. Cake can help too!

Thanks for the teachit tip - will take a look.

janeite - I realise (gloomily) this is probably the case. But schools pay the person who comes to fix the copier, and the people who clean the floors!

UD.. I have been thinking about looking to doing this but as a visiting artist. so I'll be keeping eye on this thread.

My plan was to get a local paper article done.. and see what response i got from that.

TBH I am often approached to go in to local school for free.. which I wouldn't mind .. but also being freelance I do need to make a living.

BCNS - same thing here. I have had a few schools asking me if it was a "free service". I'll do free stuff for one school, and one school only - I think you can probably guess why!

LOL. yes .. maybe do the freebie and get the local paper in to report it.. good for the school and good for you and there needs to be no mention of the "for free bit".

I have looked into some of the artist groups that organise these things.. but their costs are quite high to the school.. and yet having I have refferences and CRB and I could keep the cost a lot lower. If you find an answer to this let me know.

The problem is that English departments will often be expected to fund things like this from their own capitation, which is often not that much once you've bought a few sets of class readers a year. My drama budget is only £500 for the whole year, so work like this eats up a huge proportion.

Getting one school on board with a freebie, which is then heavily advertised, sounds a good way of generating more publicity. Lots of schools are in an Action Zone or a collegiate too, so if you can get one school raving about you, they will pass on the "tip" to the other schools in their "circles" as it were.

I get quite a few of these sort of emails forwarded to me at school (because I occasionally book a poet or author) and I don't object at all.

In terms of effective marketing, these are the first things I would want to know if contacting someone (if they don't have a website with these details on) and they are rarely mentioned in the publicity:

Comments/Reviews from previous satisfied customers.
An outline of some sample events that you might do. (Numbers of students, programme for the day, preferred age range etc.)
Some guidelines as to costs. If you generally charge say, £250 or £300 per day plus expenses then you may as well be up front about it. I can't go and talk to someone about finding the cash until I have an idea of the budget. But if you're actually charging £600 a day I'm wasting your time and my time phoning you to discuss it.

I think I have your email somewhere. If I email you could you send me a copy? I do have some cash in my budget atm and am thinking about arranging something for next term. Though atm I must confess I am erring more towards a poet or someone promoting reading rather than writing iyswim. If nothing else I could give you some specific feedback on what I think of your pitch!

I do think you can just brush off some of the comments though. In our school most people love email - it's a great way to communicate with staff without disturbing their lessons or having to walk right across school to do so, and to have a full reminder of what you're supposed to be doing in case you forget.

But a few people just loathe email. They type slowly and can't be bothered to send them or reply. They may just much prefer face-to-face communication, or they may not be particularly computer literate and it takes them at least 1 full minute to 'process' every email. So they resent every email sent to them.

I can type faster than I can think and always function with an empty IN box: I love email.

I would suggest putting in the title of your email that you would like it to be forwarded to the librarian or head of English.

Our librarian is the one who coordinates author visits and creative writing, and she is always very keen to have as many contacts as possible. We tend to have them for years 3 - 9.

The trouble is that schools often have a terrible - or non-existent - system for passing on emails like this. Many teachers like to know of all the opportunities avaailable.

My school reads such emails and the head will pass them on to the person she thinks will be interested. I was passed something along these lines recently. Doesn't annoy me - I like it.

I would say it is definitely worth doing from time to time as I would imagine you will get some intake. But be prepared for the rude or cheeky buggers too

Have you offered to speak for free, for 20 mins or so, on an in-service day? Better still, any sort of cluster meeting on writing? Or would that not be at all cost effective for you?

I've emailed you.

Roisin - sorry, quick hijack for a minute if you don't mind: did you once tell me that your school are running the Study Plus course for Yr 10 English or have I imagined it?

Yes. Well, kind-of. (It's being taught by a PE teacher )

Why?

Bit off topic, but DS's school recently had Stewart Ross in and DS loved it!

PE teacher? How did that happen?!

I was just wondering if they are following the suggested units of work, inventing their own or doing a combination? I am a bit uninspired by some of them and think it's so important that this "extra" work is really inspirational for the pupils. So I've been using my own resources instead - just wondered what others were doing.

I've emailed you in response to the "how did that happen?" question, as best not answered on the www

In the light of the email you will also understand that I don't think our Study Plus teacher would be able to give you any inspiration/suggestions!

I would have no problem with being contacted via email.

English teachers can get a little one-track in their focus - books and resources - especially if the budget is tight. But if for instance, the writer workshop fed into the Expressive Arts GCSE that the yr 9 do, then I can hear my HOD prick up his ears.

Our librarian would always be a better bet.

The visiting speaker offers my HoD/Librarian takes up are mainly advertised through the LEA or the County Library Service - worth contacting?

Thanks Roisin. Good luck UQD.

janeite - thanks. Doing a freebie as a loss-leader is a nice idea, but it can create a false impression - "ooh, get him in, he did it for nowt." I went to a workshop on school visits at the Society of Authors' conference last year, led by two guys who do literally hundreds a year, and they said always, always charge.