So, How Would You Describe Your School?

Every day we are bombarded with businesses attempting to manipulate our emotions so we purchase their products. These businesses have defined personalities and distinctive characteristics. Apple is ‘innovative and stylish’ for example.

This weekend I thought I would pose the question “If your school were a person how would you describe them?” This is a great way of simplifying the process when thinking about your school brand. What are the kinds of personality traits that you think best describe your school. Here are a few examples:

Friendly and outgoing

Modern and colourful

Adventurous and creative

Traditional and formal

Take a good, long, honest, hard look at who you are as a school. A simple way of exploring your school’s personality is to ask staff, students, parents, and the broader community to describe your school as if they were talking about a friend or a colleague. And like interactions with people, sometimes a school's actions and personality can be misinterpreted or not understood correctly. You might be surprised at the answers you get.

Once you understand your school’s distinctive personality, then you can start to explore your school’s unique character and begin to find ways of promoting your school’s personality more accurately and effectively. Engaging your community just became a whole lot easier.

Parents do not want to hear from a school that communicates in an impersonal way. They want to feel like they are dealing with a real person.

So, how would you describe your school?