Usually, if you wanted to see if a primary or secondary school was the right one for your child you would visit it in person.
But the Covid pandemic put a stop to all those important face-to-face interactions for parents, students and teaching staff over the past year. So how did schools get on with transferring their open days to an online experience?
Here Emma Neville, Head of Rose Hill School in Tunbridge Wells, explains how this historic prep school has had to adapt to the exceptional circumstances we have all found ourselves living through.
“Over the past year, the admissions team at Rose Hill School has had to adapt and find new ways of showcasing the school, allowing prospective parents to get a feel for our wonderful atmosphere.
“We always believe that choosing a school is like buying a house, you tend to get a special feeling as you look around. That special feeling can be hard to translate virtually and we have found that however many Zooms, virtual tours or online meetings we have, what parents really want is to visit the school allowing them to get a feel for what we offer here. We resumed tours at the beginning of the Summer Term and we have not stopped.
“Prior to Covid-19 we hadn’t used video widely, however, this academic year we have created seven new professionally filmed videos. They have been an important tool in helping families ‘tour’ the school and understand our ethos and way of working. During our two Virtual Open Days in October and March we were very pleased by the high attendance rates. Families are able to join when it is convenient to them and we have had attendees from around the world.
“The use of technology in school marketing is one of the few positives to come out of the last year, especially for our prospective families who are based further afield. We will continue to invest in high-quality videography each academic year and offer both face-to-face and virtual open days going forward.
“However, while sitting here listening to the sound of children’s laughter; enjoying the smell of the freshly mown cricket pitch; and feeling the warmth of the spring sunshine, we are simply pleased to be able to welcome people, safely, back into Rose Hill School and allow them to see for themselves why this is such a special and unique school.”
If you would like to book a tour at Rose Hill School, please email: admissions@rosehillschool.co.uk or call Ann Green on 01892 525 591. rosehillschool.co.uk
