Retention efforts for your school’s families start on Day One, and as School Head, you have a unique opportunity to reinforce your school’s appreciation of their contribution to the broader community. September, then, is the time to reach out to your new families as the “figurehead” of the school and make them feel personally welcome in their new educational community.
As School Head, you’re perceived—rightly!—as an extremely busy individual. Making the time to personally reach out to new families, even if it’s a brief phone call, immediately makes those new members of your school feel important. After all, if the School Head has reached out personally to check on new students … well, that’s just plain flattering. It reinforces the welcome extended by your other administrators and faculty, and “brings them into the fold,” in a manner of speaking.
The medium of this initial “check-up” contact is important. Stay away from emails, as quick as they are to develop. This should be an individual conversation with your student’s parents, not a cut-and-pasted email. In-person chats would be best, though they’re admittedly difficult to arrange. (Email would be useful for scheduling this sort of appointment!) Phone calls work, too, and can be flexible around both the parents’ schedule and your own.
The conversation should be mainly focused on the newly enrolled student, and not (primarily) for stewardship reasons. This call is an opportunity to learn about the new student experience at your school, which means you need to be prepared to hear potential (soft) criticism of your school and not react defensively.
Before making the overture, grab the student’s file and jot down a few notes from the interview about the child’s interests and possible roadblocks. This planning will help you form more personal questions than a generic, “How is Johnny fairing?” You don’t need to have a lot of questions, but one or two that show your awareness of their child as an individual, rather than just “New Student Number Five”, will help your new family feel welcomed and appreciated.
You can also ask if there’s anything that the family needs, enabling you to learn about potential issues before they blossom into full-blown problems. Still, be careful about encouraging parents to bypass the normal “chain of command.” Learn about the issue here—if one exists—and then let them know that you’ll inform the teacher, Division Head, or appropriate administrator. That way, the parents feel that their issue has been heard and future solutions will be addressed to the appropriate party.
This sort of conversation is also a good time to mention the annual fund or any capital campaigns that are currently ongoing at the school. It’s not a time to directly solicit, unless the conversation naturally goes that way. Still, talking about the projects or programs made possible through the generous contribution of donors like themselves that their child has enjoyed will make the Development Director’s job much easier in the coming months.
You can wrap up your talk by extending a personal invitation to an appropriate school event, like a play or a monthly Head’s breakfast for parents. This welcomes them to further integrate with the school, and gives others a chance to get to know these latest additions to your school community.
Finding the time to talk with parents can be difficult, especially in the beginning of the school year when everything seems to be happening at once. Still, personally welcoming your newest families will go a long way to helping these newcomers feel welcome and happy with their choice to enroll at your school.
Additional ISM resources:
The Source for School Heads Vol. 12 No. 3 Tips Before Your Parent-Teacher Conferences
Additional ISM resources for Gold Consortium members:
I&P Vol. 33 No. 11 Target Your True Recruitment/Retention Issues
I&P Vol. 39 No. 8 Finding 'Out-of-Office' Time for the School Head
