Secondary School Testimonials
OFSTED praise Stoneworks Education Ltd 'Starting School Storybook'
The OFSTED team reviewed our transition arrangements and noted the book produced by Stoneworks Education Ltd. They said that the illustrations and ideas within the book were exemplary, enabling children to be prepared for joining the school.
Russell Hinton, Head, The Brier School
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Stoneworks Education produced a BOOST 3-Step Plan for us to increase our school profile in the community.
We have A3 ‘case study’ posters with QR codes on them. Once scanned, the QR codes take students and parents to the seven full story case studies on our website. We have distributed the posters around the local community in corner shops, supermarkets, libraries etc.
The studies are also repeated in the new prospectus we have from Stoneworks.
The case studies say what we couldn’t, i.e. what a student or parent really feels about our school and more importantly, what fantastic outcomes they have had i.e. going to Uni or becoming an apprentice etc.
Its such an innovative approach, to use student and parent voices to raise the profile of the school. A student or parent’s major influencer is another student or parent, so it makes a lot of sense to use these voices. The literature has proven to be very impactful.
I’d recommend that secondaries who need to raise their profile get in touch with Andrew and Stoneworks Education. They have lots of great ideas and have been around for a long time. I’d definitely recommend the Boost 3-Step Plan too.
Corrina Batteson
Deputy Head, Kingsmead School -
The BOOST literature is helping to get our name into the local community, particularly into local primary schools, and drive traffic to our website.
Lots of great things are happening at Magna and we've been working hard to shout loud and proud about these with the local community. The case study posters and prospectus are really helping to put us back on the map.
Craig Adams
Principal, The Magna Carta School -
As a secondary school we wanted to communicate with potential students and their parents/carers why we would be the best school for their son/daughter . We wanted to share our passion for inspiring students to achieve their best and we wanted to let future students know the wide variety of opportunities we offer. We felt the best way to do this was for existing students and parents/carers to tell others about their experiences at our school but were not sure how to do this. The case study concept has definitely achieved this. They demonstrate how our supportive pastoral care team, dedicated teaching staff and school resources have opened the minds of our students, shown them that they achieve anything they want to with their lives but all narrated by current parents/carers and students.
It is a unique idea to use parent and pupil case studies to market our school. It also makes us stand out from other schools around us. Potential parents/carers have benefited from reading the case studies as part of their process for choosing a new school for their son/daughter. I'd certainly recommend Stoneworks Education to other secondary schools. Schools need to think differently about marketing and Andrew helped us look at our marketing strategy with fresh eyes. The Stoneworks team were fantastic, nothing was too much trouble for them and they always responded quickly.
We are delighted with the results and the case studies are already helping us market our school more successfully.
Karen Hayler
Business Manager, Worthing High School -
I receive many marketing emails – and for once, the one from Stoneworks hit the spot! Our best form of Marketing at St John's College is definitely our students and parents – we receive so many enquiries and visitors through word of mouth recommendations, and referrals. So for me, using parents to help us promote the benefits of an independent school through case studies made good sense.
Working with Stoneworks was easy. After identifying the issues we wanted to address and selecting the case study subjects the interviews took place. The results were excellent: the articles were very well-written, and each told a personal story that many other parents will relate to, I'm sure. The photographer was so friendly she had all the pupils in fits of giggles – making for wonderfully natural photographs, which complement the case studies perfectly. I now have five real-life case studies that I will use to help promote our Junior School, and next year I will be looking for volunteers in our Senior SchoolMiss Clare Young
Head of Marketing and Development, St John's College -
Our innovative Student Prospectus is perfect to hand out to Year 6 pupils in Partner Primaries and at OpenEvenings, and it can be available as an eBook on your website. With our new Student Prospectus we will certainly stand out!
Cleverly written and illustrated to directly meet the needs of young people - using illustrations actually based on our own school environment and uniform - I feel that we are offering something unique and exciting to potential students.
Young people will definitely want to read our Student Prospectus because of the fun comic style, which will appeal and help them more fully understand what we offer as a Secondary School.Yvonne Watkins
Headteacher, Bourne Community College -
A fantastic idea. As it contains precise information about Fulwood Academy, it's the perfect transition tool to take parents 'step-by-step' through what they need to know about our school. The perforated and online forms are a real innovation that will enable us to ensure accurate and timely information from parents.
The whole process of developing this Parent Handbook has enabled us to review critically at what we tell parents, and refresh that information. The Handbook also looks very professional. The fact that it is updated free of charge at any time also means that it could contain 'up-to-the-minute' information and will never be out of date!Alison Ellis
Academy Manager, Fulwood Secondary Academy -
Our Parent Handbook is an exemplary transition tool. Not only does it make it easier for parents, by keeping all documents in one booklet, but its updated for free at any time, making it easier for admin staff to keep up to date.
I’d definitely recommend the Parent Handbook to other secondaries, as it seems the modern, professional way to send parents transition information.Rebekah Chew
Assistant Headteacher, The Thomas Aveling School -
Stoneworks Education have produced some fantastic materials for us. This approach was simply revelatory. The unique, parent and pupil friendly literature will absolutely help us to show parents and pupils what we offer, and demonstrate the positive impact we can have on their lives. By using personal testimonies in the case studies, and then using these testimonies in our prospectus, it has transformed how, and what, we can communicate to families.
I’d recommend Stoneworks Education to other special schools. It really does seem, the way forward for special school marketing and communications. You need to manage your school reputation, and Stoneworks can help with this.Clare Traynor
Deputy Head, Hope School -
Our Parent Information Directory contains everything our parents need to know for their child's year at school, in one place! Covers all school years too!
It's a fantastic, school and family-friendly way, to collate everything and present it an easily understood way for parents. Its always a good idea to look afresh at what you want your parents to know and understand, and the process of developing this Directory has done that.
We also have a 'Parent Handbook: taking you step-by-step through starting school', which is our parent transition tool. There is a great deal more to tell parents though, but if you placed it all in the transition document it would be much larger, making it difficult for parents to read it all and understand it all. You need to present different levels of information at more suitable, and scheduled times. And our Parent Information Directory does just that! We use our Parent Handbook to transition parents in to our school, and the Directory to help guide them through the school yearGary Smith
Head, Market Field School. -
Stoneworks Education have been absolutely brilliant at totally transforming our marketing materials. They have highlighted the meaningful benefits of our school to professionals, Heads and parents. We can now use these materials to influence these different audiences and market segments.
I’d never seen such a unique and powerful way to market special schools before. It’s fantastic. The case studies portray our school so well from our parents' point of view. They are very well integrated into the prospectus and give a true sense of the ethos and work of our school. In fact, we received the prospectus today - it looks amazing. I am thrilled with it. Other staff are very pleased too. I’d definitely recommend Stoneworks to other special schools.Lucy Leith
Headteacher, Knightsfield School -
It's rare that you see something new and exciting in education. Stoneworks Education are both! I'd never seen what they offer before. We are very happy with the parent case study approach to marketing the school. It gives our parents and pupils a voice, and it is the parent and pupil stories that sell the school and its values. We are very proud too of our prospectus, which is unique, and extremely eye catching.
We had a very tight deadline and Andrew and his team delivered a very high quality product with a week to spare. I'd easily recommend Stoneworks Education to other schools.Martyn West
Malvern College Manager, Walkwood C of E Middle School – Academy Trust