By Cat Sutherland-Hawes and Sarah Chapper: Senior Admissions and Marketing Consultants
“This year, more than ever, with so many changes and unknowns, it’s essential to get those numbers right.”
It’s the start of another term and for anyone involved in Admissions and Marketing, it’s the big one. Exams have either happened or are about to, interviews are scheduled and then it’s the best time – offers and acceptances and building that new year group. It is exciting but also a huge responsibility, felt this year more than ever with so many changes and unknowns. How will people react to VAT on fees? Will you see a downturn in acceptances? These are questions we can’t answer, so we need to do all we can to ensure we get those numbers right. So how do we do that?
“Families might be more cautious this year – if they’re spending more, they want to be sure they’re making the right choice.”
We use data. We use all the data from previous years to determine how many pupils we interviewed, how many offers we made, and what the conversion rates were. Take an average of the last three years (five if possible but remember some years were slightly skewed by Covid, so three is fine!), and this year, if you can, conduct more interviews and make more offers. Families are likely to be cautious and shop around more. If they are spending more money, they want to be even more confident they are making the right choice. Try to build in some slippage – people accept and pay their deposit in February/March, who knows if they will still be able to pay fees by September – and remember when they accept, they may not yet know next year’s fees and that can make a difference. No matter how popular a school is or how long its waiting list is, it will have slippage. So over offer and have a safety net.
“The waiting list can be a ‘second wave of offers’ – stay warm and keep families engaged.”
Along with your safety net, the waiting list is important. If you can have a reliable waiting list, which your Admissions Team can keep warm, that will stand you in good stead later. Keep in touch with these families and keep them on board. Think about the wording of that letter, it’s often good to think of a waiting list in terms of a second wave of offers. Parents don’t always understand how hard it is to determine likely conversion, so try and help them by explaining that you can’t go over numbers, so you make a first wave of offers, and those holding waiting list places are a second wave. Yes, it’s hard to get away from the feeling of being second best, but if you’re a bit more transparent, it can help. And crucially be warm; have someone in the team working with them, updating them, encouraging them – be warm and keep them warm.
“Create a memorable interview experience – children often choose based on how they felt during the interview.”
Before offers go out, there is the interview. Make your interview experience as enjoyable as you can for the children. Very often, they have a favourite school at this stage, but there are countless stories of children changing their minds because they enjoyed their interview so much. Make sure you only use encouraging and engaging staff and brief them on each child. Having Sixth Formers around to talk to parents and children can be very effective, the children can often be very nervous at this point and this can help to put them at ease.
When those offer letters go out, ensure you include one for the child, too—from the Head—a hand-signed letter or a card—a printed card of the school which they can keep—saying well done and we very much hope you will decide to join us. Increasingly, children are forming part of the decision-making process, and they should feel included. In our experience, that little extra touch by post can have real influence.
“Clear messaging and clear communication channels are vital.”
When offers are out there, make sure everyone who is engaging with offer holders (and waiting list holders) has clear messaging to work with and a clear channel of communication for parents – do they talk to Admissions/Head of Year/Deputy Head Pastoral about concerns? Put this in your communications, let parents know who the first point of contact is and ensure they get a swift response. Parents often have lots of questions at this stage and they will compare schools and how they respond, as well as talk to others about it.
All communication should be clear, while warm and persuasive, giving families the information they need with clear timescales. There is nothing wrong with a gentle personalised reminder now and then to offer holders, reminding them of the closing date but also offering a meeting/chance to chat. You might want to invite them to an event, for example a theatre performance or a concert.
“Use your most welcoming staff and pupils for your offer holder visits.”
Offer visits to the school, either individual or in groups. On the day, make sure there’s hot chocolate for the children along with coffee and tea and put out your most welcoming staff and pupils – Sixth Formers are good here – and choose your routes carefully. If it’s meant to be school in action, make sure it’s not really school inaction, i.e. no empty classrooms, and everyone is engaged. Make sure the Head is there to talk to parents at the end and answer any questions. Parents expect schools to hold an Offer Holders’ evening. Don’t make that too long, with some speeches but not many as the children are often bored and tired at the end of the day. Question and answer panels of current students can be highly effective, but you need good facilitators to deal with any over-enthusiastic Year 7 answers or fill in any gaps. Tailor your refreshments to the children, for example, serving small slices of pizza afterwards – they’ll remember that.
Use your feeder school contacts. A good Admissions Team will have direct contact (usually the Director of Admissions) with feeder school Heads. Talk to them about their candidates to get a flavour of likely acceptance/intentions. And, in fact, talking to them before offers too is always helpful. And talk to your competitors – parents think we don’t do that, but again, Directors of Admissions will have good channels of communication with counterparts locally. Not least, it can be a stressful time and having a chat with someone going through the same can really help.
It’s stressful, yes, but it is also so exciting and rewarding. Remember the joy of getting that acceptance and offering that waiting list place. Enjoy it, good luck, and we’re here to help with detailed, individual conversion strategies. Every school is different, and one size does not fit all, but we hope this general outline helps.
If you need any support with your admissions processes, we are here to help. Contact us via email and your query will be shared with the relevant team.