Part 2: Creating a Year-round Retention Strategy for Independent Schools
Retention is a year-round enrollment strategy. Keeping current students and families happy and enrolled is as important as how many new families join your community each year.
In the final post of our two-part series, we discuss how to develop a year-round retention strategy.
High retention and low attrition mean you have a happy and engaged community that other families will want to join. Happy parents and students tell others, creating the most important marketing strategy: great word of mouth. (Here’s an oldie but goodie Kalix post on the power of word-of-mouth marketing for independent schools.)
Fall Retention Strategies
Retention starts before your school year begins at the opening faculty meeting. Be sure your faculty knows how integral they are to retention. Use this time to share information about enrollment and attrition, the process for sharing information with the enrollment management staff, and thank the community for their help in retaining and recruiting a wonderful new group of students.
Consider holding a fall visiting day for your current students. If your lower school ends in 5th grade, invite your 5th graders to shadow in your middle school for a day. Do the same for your 8th graders who will enter 9th grade the following year. If you have a preschool, invite the Kindergarten students to spend a morning with the 1st grade. Sell them on how amazing their own school is. Allow them to see what is ahead, and while you are at it, give their parents the same opportunity. Invite them to tour the next division to meet the divisional director and faculty and learn how their children will engage in this new learning environment.
How else might you showcase your divisions to current families? Treat this crucial constituency like prospects. Invite the middle school play’s cast to a rehearsal of the upper school play and for pizza with the cast and crew. Have the lower school teams (if you have them) attend a middle school pep rally. Get all divisional Robotics teams together for a fun building and programming competition. The more connections you make between divisions in the fall, the more excitement builds for the next step.
“Keeping current families engaged is a great way to ensure they stay committed to your school.“
Sharing the love you have for current families is also in the details. Work with your communications and marketing team on how to share photos from school events with parents. This is a small, simple step that can have a big impact. Consider curating photos taken at school events (homecoming, athletic events, class presentations, etc.) and placing them in a password-protected photo-sharing website. Here are a few photo-sharing platform ideas. Share the link in weekly divisional newsletters and encourage parents to use it. It’s great for all parents to see their students learning and enjoying all your school offers.
Keeping current families engaged is a great way to ensure they stay committed to your school. Do you need admissions parent callers, tour guides, or parents to attend recruiting events? Once contracts are signed in the early spring, use this time to recruit some current parent volunteers for the following school year.
If your school’s social and digital platforms do not have regular student profiles from each division, they should. A regular cadence of students achieving at your school creates pride and buzz. It keeps student outcomes and happy experiences front and center for current (and prospective) families and students. These can be short-form, branded videos shot on a phone. Use graphics for name, year and a short list of activities. Ask students the same question like:
✔︎ What’s your favorite school tradition?
✔︎ What’s your favorite class right now and what are you learning?
✔︎ How is [YOUR SCHOOL] helping you learn to lead?
Re-enrollment Time
Don’t just send the re-enrollment link to families with a short message on tuition increases. Craft a digital letter from your Head of School with bullets and links to all that has been accomplished this year. Remind them what makes your school so unique—and why you are grateful that they are part of your community.
This is the time of year to think like a boutique hotel. What services can you offer to help your families? Do you offer a virtual session on tips on completing financial aid forms? If you are rolling out a new re-enrollment platform, offer sessions and a quick video of screenshots on how to use the platform.
When a family signs the contract, what happens? An email from you thanking them and letting them know how excited you are that they are part of your school’s community is a nice gesture. Families today have lots of choices for their child’s education. Making sure families feel valued each year is important.
Springtime Retention Strategies
End of year is a good time to ask all parents how they feel about the school year. While you may not wish to send one every school year—and brace yourself for some negative feedback—sending a satisfaction survey to current parents with pointed questions will give you insight into issues you are unaware of. There may be concerns that are new to you, or you may receive confirmation that a pressing issue needs to be addressed.
Consider sending a special survey or holding a parent coffee for all first-year families at the end of their first year. It’s important to steward this group and to know how the enrollment process met their expectations of being a family at your school. What worked well? What onboarding could have gone better? What did they wish they knew their first year that wasn’t well explained? Their feedback will help you craft a better recruitment and retention experience.
“Consider creating a way for faculty and administrators to intentionally find opportunities to share positive stories and feedback with students and their parents.“
You will get a nice boost from all the positive feedback you receive from your parent community. Be sure to share that news! Did a parent call out a teacher for her wonderful efforts? Did the school nurse receive accolades for helping a student in need? Make sure your faculty and staff hear the praise they receive from parents.
Review how often teachers and advisors check in on their students and how often they give positive feedback to the parents. If there is no plan, consider creating a way for faculty and administrators to intentionally find opportunities to share positive stories and feedback with students and their parents.
Missed the first in our two-part series? Read how to create a detailed retention plan here in Part 1 of our series.
Kalix can help you create a robust retention program and calendar. Let’s talk!
