What Heads say about BOOST: increasing pupil numbers and school budgets
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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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 -
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 -
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.Miss Claire Young
Head of Marketing and Development, St Johns College -
Our prospectus has been absolutely transformed with the inclusion of real parent stories. Giving parents a voice allows one to see what is often difficult to show: the meaningful and positive impact that our school... has on children and their families. The stories are inspirational and informative for new parents and children… showing how they would benefit from attending our school.
We couldn't have done this without Stoneworks Education, who had the case study idea in the first place. Through their dedication, experience and creativity, they have provided us with a fantastic record and marketing tool! They could not have been easier to work with; efficient, flexible and friendly. I'd definitely recommend their services to other special schools!Deborah Jones-Stevens
Head, Heathlands 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 -
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... 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
Head, Knightsfield School -
Our Sixth Form Prospectus has added impact with the inclusion of student and parent case studies. Letting our students and parents have a voice, and using that voice to market the Sixth Form, is a really fantastic and meaningful approach. It has transformed our Sixth Form prospectus and given it added significance, value and influence.
The case studies also feature specific student outcomes that demonstrate to other students the reasons to use our Sixth Form, or to stay at our school and transfer from main school to Sixth Form.
Parents reading our Sixth Form Prospectus can now clearly see how their child would benefit from attending our Sixth Form. I’d absolutely recommend this unique approach to other Sixth Forms.Laura Marks
Marketing Officer, King Solomon High School Sixth Form