Back-to-school: Admin Edition

Administrators, we’re here to ease your way into preparing yourself and your school website CMS for the new year!

Prepare well in advance

• Being a new faculty member, especially as an administrator, can be tough, but having everything ready and planned out early on will be the best way to deal with any bumps in the road. Becoming familiar with the campus, faculty and support staff will make things easier when school starts getting into the full swing of things. Having a clear idea beforehand about what your goals are for the new year, what you’re looking forward to bettering in your new school and what steps you should take to get there, will help you stay on track. It’s easy to go along with the motions, but to ensure you’re on the path you’ve planned out, have monthly check-ins with yourself and stay consistent with meeting your goals.

School community building

• Think of a professional development event where all staff can get familiar with each other, introduce themselves and experience a supportive environment. Share your school’s beliefs, views, values and rituals to get everyone on the same page moving forward. Help foster an environment of professionalism, respect and collaboration from the get-go by setting a positive, motivating and supportive tone. Set up a time to meet with each department individually and work on creating strong relationships. Stay consistent with regular staff meetings to be in the loop and address any issues early on.

Set up your plan for success.

• Whether you’re a new or returning administrator, it’s important to send out an email out to your families well in advance to get them ready for the school year, introducing yourself and giving them an overview of another exciting school year ahead. Here’s the time to introduce any new faculty members, big news that happened over the summer, any renovations, and announcing this year’s theme. Keeping your parents in the loop about the plans for the school year even before school starts will help in keeping the administration on task by having parents involved in the process. Your school community can be your greatest asset and ally in meeting goals and engaging other parents to get involved.

Here are some tips for admins you can implement this school year!

Create short and long term goals

• Think of ways to reinforce positive school culture. Celebrate successes in staff meetings and school ceremonies and tell stories of accomplishment and collaboration whenever there's an opportunity. Having short term goals like these prepared throughout the months will lead to stronger unification among your staff. They will not only be more invested in each other’s accomplishments, but working on achieving some of their own too. As a long term goal, think of ways to nurture your school community, build new relationships, and attract prospective families. Whether it’s planning school-wide picnics or a beach clean up, finding ways for parents to become more involved in their children’s education will not only help the students, but also the school overall.

Take a look at your school website CMS to find ways to implement a marketing plan

Think about your current marketing strategy

• Is marketing your school on your radar? If so, are you trying to increase your school’s recognition? Attract potential new students? Reach your school community? If you’re thinking of starting out small with simple steps, using your social media channels is a great first step. Get in touch with your faculty for volunteers who can create content for your social media channels throughout the year and encourage your teachers to take pictures of their students and classes for marketing purposes.
• Have a look at your school’s website. Does it look like it needs a redesign? Your school site is usually the first impression prospective families will see of your school, so why not make it one they’ll remember with a sleek, eye-catching design! Even better, if you find that it’s difficult to find information on your site, especially for prospective families looking for the application, this would be a great time to start looking for a school website CMS company to be your partner in marketing your school.
• Go a step further with a head start and read into UI/UX best practices, the Importance of UI/UX. It’s not just important to have a beautiful website, but having one that creates an easy to follow design where visitors can find the information they’re looking for without having to scour through multiple pages.
• Stay involved in learning about the trends other schools are using to engage their parents through their website, or any apps that complement a school website CMS. Think about joining groups on LinkedIn for getting fresh ideas and networking with other administrators, check out our blog on leveraging your LinkedIn account!

The key to starting the year off right is kicking it off with high spirits and keeping it up all year long!