Building your school’s reputation

Athene CommunicationsAthene Communications is a public relations and marketing agency which helps organisations build and manage their reputations through proactive, open and honest communication that is effective and delivers results.

We work with a number of schools and academies, trusts, and education service providers. Our recent projects have included PR campaigns, re-branding projects, media training and staff development, and prospectuses (printed and digital versions).

We also work with a range of clients, from national companies such as British Energy, Serco, Kier and Balfour Beatty through to smaller regional and local organisations in a variety of sectors.

Athene Communications is a commercial organisation, but one that puts great emphasis on our role in the community. We donate at least one per cent of our annual profits to charity, invest in environmental projects and seek to support our employees’ own voluntary work wherever we can.

Good communication is vital to the success of any school – and not just because it is recommended by Ofsted.

The need for schools to promote and manage their reputation, and build a relationship with the local community, has never been more apparent. With the changing education landscape, less local authority support, a competitive environment and a diverse range of communication channels available, schools need to work hard to build, and then maintain, their reputations.

All schools, primary and secondary, need to think about how they communicate – who to, what about and when. This helps to establish good and meaningful relationships with parents, pupils, members of staff and the wider community.

Why do schools need to communicate?

We have developed a unique package that enables your school to develop its external profile and at the same time build your internal capacity, skills and confidence to deliver effective communications campaigns.

What does the toolkit include?

1. Consultation

Initially, we consult with your school’s leaders. This helps us to identify your school’s needs and understand what you want to achieve from your communication.

2. Strategy workshop

We deliver a two-hour interactive workshop with your leaders and selected team members. This involves the school in the development of its own strategy, but with the guidance of a professional consultancy.

The Communications ToolkitOur Products

3. Strategy development

We take your ideas and needs away and shape them into an easy to manage strategy. As with all our clients, we complete our own research and provide you with our recommendations too.

Your strategy will include:

• An overarching aim

• Clear objectives

• A stakeholder analysis - who are we talking to?

• A key messages matrix - what are we trying to say and to whom?

• Tactics and timetable - what are we going to do and when?

• Risk register - what might stop us achieving our objectives?

• Evaluation methods - how will we know if it has been successful?

• Details of materials, online or social media channels that might need developing to support your strategy

We present this to your leadership team to gather their feedback, before constructing a final draft.

4. Giving you the skills you need

We then deliver four two-hour training sessions with your leadership and communication team to build their communication skills and confidence.

We tailor these around you and your strategy, but typically these will include sessions such as:

• Writing press releases and working with the media

• How to use social media effectively

• How to handle a crisis

• How to take good press photographs

We know that schools often just don’t have the time to spend on promotional activity and may need additional communications support. We can help take this off your hands, roll up our sleeves and deliver tangible results – allowing your staff to focus on their priorities and spend more time running the school.

Ongoing supportYour school may require specific support in running a local press campaign, managing your social media accounts, or even help managing all your communications activity.

We provide a tailored support package to meet your needs. This can include:

• Supporting the development of marketing materials, including advising on or reviewing copy for leaflets and press releases

• Offering further training sessions on media handling, photography, social media, website development and content

• Mentoring a small group or an individual over a phased period of time

• Organising opportunities to meet local media and journalists

• Delivering specific campaigns with prospective parents or feeder schools

• Regularly reviewing your strategy to assess how well you are meeting objectives and to help plan next steps

• Media monitoring and evaluation

Ongoing Communications Support

www.athene-communications.co.uk

Crisis and Issues Management However good your organisation, unexpected things still happen. Athene can help you in your advance planning, or we can help if things do go wrong and you need support.

We can provide:• Senior executives to work with you as soon

as issues emerge, providing strategic and practical advice

• On-call media response

• On-site crisis management team

• Crisis management training for in-house teams

• Media training in advance of potentially controversial events / issues

• Ongoing advice and management for potential issues or highly controversial subjects

• Development of a crisis management communications protocol and procedure with your in-house team

• Ad hoc crisis and issues management support

Professional Development WorkshopsWe offer a series of training workshops tailored to your needs.

The workshops are ideal for those schools that need a little bit of support to achieve effective results. For instance, you might have a number of great stories to tell, but your communication with journalists is not attracting the attention you expect.

Working with you, we identify areas that need improving and develop a tailored training package. Typically, we deliver a series of training workshops to provide your staff with the skills and knowledge required. However, some schools prefer us to mentor key members of staff in particular areas over a period of time.

Our training workshops include, but are not limited to:

• Developing a communications strategy

• Writing press releases and working with the media

• Social media

• Crisis and issues management

• Copywriting

• Effective press photography

This exciting programme recruits, trains and supports a small group of your students to act as school ‘reporters’ creating their own voice, dynamic news and content for the school.

It is an ideal way to showcase your students’ capabilities to the local community and prospective parents via your website, social media, or a newsletter.

Ultimately, we train your students to create regular news content about the school, for the school.

Who is the School Reporters project for?We work with you to identify a group of students of varying abilities and ages who would benefit from this type of programme. We then develop a schedule of activity, including workshops, mentoring sessions, and out-of-school visits, to support your needs and objectives.

What can it include?Typically, we include the conventions of reporting, writing news articles, interview techniques, the basics of photography and graphic design. Opportunities to explore video reporting, podcasting and social media are also available.

We also look to build relationships with the local media and creative agencies through this programme, including the potential to arrange media masterclasses with local journalists, radio stations or graphic designers.

School Reporters

ProspectusesA prospectus is an opportunity to help your school stand out from the crowd – a chance to showcase how you’re different from the rest. Your prospectus must display you in the best possible way and highlight your school’s values, personality and key messages.

With the recent change to the Department for Education’s guidelines, schools now have the opportunity to use prospectuses more creatively and effectively than ever before.

We work to tailor a prospectus brochure – printed or digital – that draws attention to your school’s most important features and messages, managing and delivering the project for you.

Our approachWe identify your school’s key messages and unique features. Working with selected partners, we match your school’s needs with the most suitable creative studios and photographers.

We complete short interviews with relevant members of staff, noting all of the key details, facts and figures. We then draft this information into simple, easy to understand and engaging copy to grab the attention of your audience.

We then devise a bespoke brief for the designer and photographer, ensuring your personality and key messages are strengthened and highlighted.

We manage the whole process, from devising shot lists and itineraries for the photographer to ensuring the design meets our high standards and deadlines.

Video ProductionIn the digital age, high quality video is more important than ever. As more prospective parents are now viewing your website on portable devices, such as tablets and smartphones, engaging video content is becoming increasingly popular as a method to communicate information quickly and effectively.

Athene’s in-house video production specialists can bring your school to life with dynamic and exciting showcases.

Videos can be hosted on your website and allow prospective parents to view your school at any time – much like a virtual open evening – or you could even present prospective parents with a pre-loaded memory stick instead of a printed brochure.

Our approachWe work with you to devise a script and storyboard to complement your best features and key messages. We then work to an agreed filming schedule to capture your best bits in action.

We complete the editing process, and can even use your students’ own music recordings as bed tracks if you want to add that final touch.

Finally, we present our initial edit to you, gather your feedback and work to create the final cut.

Copywriting and PhotographyHelp breathe new life into your branded materials with captivating photography and fresh, well written copy that really helps demonstrate your personality.

CopywritingWriting for your prospectus, website, or branded materials, we work with you to establish your individual requirements and your key messages.

We then complete short interviews with relevant members of staff, noting all of the key details, facts and figures. Using our experience, we then draft this into simple, easy to understand and engaging copy to help you stand out from the crowd.

PhotographyPowerful photography is essential to any website, prospectus or branded material – it helps to demonstrate your key messages and best features.

We work with you to devise a clear creative brief, location schedule and comprehensive shot list.

Working with a range of photographers, we then match your requirements with a complementary style, and brief the photographer to your needs. We can even direct the photographer at the shoot too if needed. We then provide you with a portfolio of high quality images that can be used across all of your marketing materials.

www.athene-communications.co.ukT: 01733 207340

Your school’s brand and website are opportunities to differentiate you from the rest – your shop window to all of your audiences and your community identity.

We match your requirements with the most suitable creative studios, devising a custom brief, and a bespoke finish to your work.

At all times we ensure that your personality and key messages are strengthened and highlighted, ensuring consistency across the brand.

BrandingWorking with you, we develop your brand identity from scratch. We also provide you with a set of brand guidelines to maintain consistency across all visual and written materials. This can be taken into posters, banners, uniforms, websites and more.

WebsitesA website is arguably the most important piece of branded communication a school has. It also has to comply with Ofsted criteria, and will need to integrate with VLEs as well.

Working with you, we help to construct a website that conveys your personality and key messages while making it easy and intuitive to use and update.

Branding and Websites

Athene Communications Ltd25 PriestgatePeterboroughCambridgeshirePE1 1JL

T: 01733 207340E: education@athene-communications.co.uk

Athene Communications Ltd (East Midlands)3 Corby Road, CottinghamMarket HarboroughLeicestershireLE16 8XH

T: 01536 770827E: jane@athene-communications.co.uk

Twitter: @AtheneEducationwww.athene-communications.co.uk

Contact UsIf you would like to find out more about our education services or if you would like to arrange an informal meeting to discuss your requirements, we would love to hear from you.

Photographs in this document are kindly supplied by:Ben Davis - www.bendavisphotography.com Bob Q Martin – www.bobqmartin.comGeorgi Mabee - www.georgimabeephotography.comStuart Collins – www.stuart-collins.comNene Park AcademyOrmiston Bushfield AcademyStamford Queen Eleanor SchoolSwavesey Village CollegeThe Voyager Academy

Athene Communications Ltd25 Priestgate Peterborough PE1 1JLT: 01733 207340www.athene-communications.co.uk