Well-targeted research is important for helping any organisation understand its relationship with its users, and this is certainly the case for schools. We recommend that schools maintain a wide-ranging programme of research to understand better stakeholder views and benchmark performance within the local market to inform day-to-day operations and strategy development. Yet as we enter more challenging times, where should a school focus right now?
As an immediate step, our advice is to audit the data you already have and to conduct small, focused pieces of research to plug any gaps. Developing a base of research in the following areas should help give you a rounded view to support your decisions and future plans. We have identified eight areas of focus, which we explore in more detail below.
Prospective parents
1. Recruitment data
Recruitment data is essential for understanding and strengthening your pipeline of pupil admissions and ideally you should aim for up-to-date evidence of the following:
- Catchment area maps, including changes over several academic years.
- Child population forecasts for your area.
- Rates of engagement at each stage of the admissions process, again tracked over time.
- Audit of feeder school pupil numbers and trends, to understand the strength of relationships.
2. Parent priorities
Every interaction with a prospective parent is an opportunity to gather intelligence. Use these to find out how parents have heard about your school, what they find attractive or less appealing, where else have they visited – and so on. Then, hone how you showcase your school’s USPs, and correct inaccurate perceptions. Communicate what really matters to parents and show how you add value against their priorities.
3. Competitor landscape
Similarly, gather intelligence about your competitors – using publicly available information to look at roll numbers and capacity, fee levels and profiles, recent curriculum updates and changes in positioning. Use this to assess in which direction competitors are heading, who are they trying to attract – and, crucially, how the style and strength of your message compares.
Current parents
4. Retention focus
Our research tells us that transition points may be more vulnerable right now, as parents assess their commitment to independent education for the future. Focusing on these will be important. Transition points will vary by school but typically could include Nursery/Pre-school into Reception, Year 2 into Year 3, Year 6 up to Year 7 and Year 8 into Year 9, and the move into Sixth Form. Your school may also have a transition point from day into boarding for some families. Conduct detailed research to understand what parents think and feel about their child’s next educational stage:
- What impression do they have about the next stage at your school?
- Do they believe the school continues to represent value for money in this next stage?
- How well do they think the school helps pupils to navigate the change?
- What other information would they like?
- Are they considering a move and if so, where to and why?
Use the insight gathered to build a communication plan that will showcase the benefits of your school in the next stage and reassure parents that they will be valued and well supported at the point of change. We would also recommend that a senior member of staff has ownership of your retention strategy.
5. Satisfaction tracking
Multiple studies show that just asking for feedback helps create a more positive feeling towards an organisation and tracking satisfaction is good practice.
Responses can be analysed to determine what is valued and loved about your school; and to identify any pockets of dissatisfaction. Giving parents, pupils and staff an opportunity to provide feedback in their own words helps you to understand better the nature and strength of feelings behind existing concerns and to provide an early warning of any emerging issues. Involving the whole parent (and pupil and staff) body is important to get a rounded view – remembering that the loudest voices are often not the most representative.
Share the findings of any surveys, with a corresponding action plan, openly so parents, pupils and staff feel their thoughts matter.
6. Affordability
Our recent research on affordability shows that most parents fall into one of the following categories. Understanding how this applies to your own parent population is key and may affect your decisions over fees in the future.
A. Parents for whom the school will simply be unaffordable with significant fee increases and who will leave the school without financial support.
B. Parents who feel the school will be just affordable when fees rise but would accept, and in some cases prefer, the school to mitigate increases by adjusting the provision to reduce costs.
C. Parents for whom the school remains affordable but who have real concerns about whether the high standards and breadth of education they have come to expect will remain.
Premature leavers
7. Push or pull?
As with prospective parents, ensure you have a programme to gather intelligence from those leaving the school earlier than you would expect. Choose carefully who should conduct this research, as a more objective view is important. Information can be gained from any family leaving the school – tease out views on what they loved, and what could be done better – but understanding the motivations, in some detail, of those leaving early is a must. It is easy – and sometimes justified – to ‘explain’ why students leave prematurely and are pulled away for reasons beyond your control. But it is critical to challenge yourself, honestly, when this might not be the case.
Beyond the short-term challenges
8. Digging deeper
If you have not conducted any research among parents in the last two academic years, or are considering a change in your offer, we strongly encourage a more comprehensive piece of work to establish a solid baseline of understanding. A wider and deeper research exercise – with more extensive surveying, focus groups and one-on-one interviews – can give you rich data to fully analyse what families are looking from your school now and in the future, along with how well the school is meeting these needs.
It is also important to acknowledge that this may be an unsettling period for many staff. Using research to explore the views of your staff using confidential approaches, to encourage openness – can help ensure they remain motivated, and to identify how they individually contribute to the school’s aims and whether they have the resources required to do it well.
Research has always been important to schools, and this is even more relevant now, when some parents’ commitment to an independent education in the future is less secure, and as schools themselves adjust to change. Tailored research will always provide the richest insights but there are other types of data schools can access that will provide some of the information they need to inform day-to-day operations and longer term, strategy development.
We have a range of research support from shorter pulse surveys to more in-depth reviews. Our experienced team will be pleased to discuss possible options with you.
If you would like to request a call with us to discuss any of our services, please do so using this short form.
