Independent Prep School – North London
Increased their pupil roll by of 40% over seven years. That’s around £3million extra gross revenue and an increase from 328 to just over 500 pupils. The new Head was having to deal personally with issues raised by parents whose first line of approach was aggressive and demanding, possibly because of poor responses from the school’s previous management team. He was concerned that his senior staff seemed unwilling or unable to deal with even the most run of the mill issues. IWeYou interviewed staff and parents to identify the touchpoints and training needs and put in place interventions which led to the creation of a charter of internal and outward facing processes and behaviours. The skills and status of all staff were developed to enable them to grow in their jobs and to have the authority to deal with the great majority of issues.
The success of our programme has been to ensure that every member of our team now fully appreciate that we all have a role in providing parents with the best possible experience in their relations with the school. IWeYou worked with us to ensure that the programme was a good fit with our own circumstances and were very flexible in responding to the needs of a busy timetable.
– Head
Independent Prep School – Hertfordshire
Enjoyed an immediate year on year increase of 15% in pupils resulting in an £600,000 additional revenue in the six months following the intervention from IWeYou. A new Head needed to restructure his management team and to provide the school with a new sense of direction after a long innings from a predecessor who had preferred not to disturb long established practice.
We spent a number of days working within the timetable to interview staff ( this included all support staff, drivers, catering, estate team) to get their view on where there were problems and, as important, what worked well. We held a focus group for a selected group of parents and spent time with the SLT both individually and as a group. The programme ran over three terms and resulted in the development of a customer ( and internal) charter which covered all the staff and customer touchpoints from emails to Parents’ Evenings and behaviours at sports events. It was significant how all staff flourished in an environment where they had been consulted and where time and money had been invested in their development.
“IWeYou work hard to get under the skin of your school, truly understanding it before offering invaluable advice on processes and approaches to customer service. Ben and Paul engage with all stakeholders from running parent and staff focus groups to providing training on anything from dealing with challenging customers to the way one greets a visitor.“
– Head
Independent Prep & Senior School
– North-East England
The project was driven by the Head of Admissions and Marketing, fully supported by the Head and Governors. She was concerned to review communication with parents ( or customers as they really are) and to improve the retention of pupils from Prep through to Sixth Form. Their catchment area included a powerful and well-funded independent competitor and several highly regarded state schools and so it was important to retain hard one pupils throughout their school life. We had to adapt our well proven model to accommodate COVID regulations and after a series of online interviews with the SMT we carried out online surveys with staff and parents. The survey results which were verbatim, and not a series of numerical scores, were reviewed and presented in a report to the Head and SMT who then agreed a raft of changes to all aspects of internal and external communication. As restrictions eased, we were able to spend a full day in staff workshops to ensure involvement and buy-in from the whole team. First signs are that student numbers are growing and as important, staff satisfaction has improved dramatically as a result of the consultation process.
“Working with I We You has been a real pleasure. Both Paul and Ben have become an extension of our senior team, advising and guiding us through strategic decision-making and planning. IWY engaged with our key audiences, enabling us to deliver a sustained competitive advantage in a very crowded marketplace, aiding retention and recruitment efforts no end. Their knowledge, care and wisdom has been exemplary“
– Head of Marketing and Admissions
