Sarah Bonnell Secondary School

The brief

Communitas was hired by Sarah Bonnell, a large secondary school in east London to help it capitalise on two significant changes; joining a multi academy trust and recruiting a new Headteacher. In the face of increasing competition from other local schools, including a new build academy, Sarah Bonnell wanted these changes to be communicated in a way that would have a positive impact on admissions. 

Our response

The school was keen to deliver communications themselves, and wanted out help with strategy and planning. We created a two-year admissions marketing strategy, with a focus on introducing the Headteacher and providing lots of opportunities for new vision to be communicated. We also recommended more integrated use of social channels. This included a recommendation to make the channels much more visual to illustrate the whole Sarah Bonnell experience and to bust any myths about the limited nature of what a girls’ school with a large Muslim cohort would offer. We recommended a more effective system for following up on parental interest, and for measuring and evaluating marketing activity to ensure that resources were well well-targeted.

The school has reported a significant increase in attendance at admissions events, and is using Analytics and Insights to successfully monitor and evaluate its website and social media output.