School enrolments are a lag indicator of school success, because the cause of the change in enrolment numbers precedes the change by months and even years. Ongoing fluctuations in enrolment numbers between years, and sometimes within a school year, can make it more difficult to identify trends and underlying causes. However, just because it is difficult should not mean that it is not done, particularly when a school is going through a known inflection point.
One of the most common inflection points is a change in the school leadership. There are several reasons for this – positive and negative. Often what underpins this is a misalignment between the new leadership or principal and the local community. Which is why it is so important for the new principal to establish an accurate understanding of the school’s current reputation and relationship with the local community as early as possible, as well as at one year in to get some feedback on how well they have started in the eyes of the community.
Another key inflection point is a major incident at the school. Even when a school itself was not at fault and deals with the incident appropriately, it can tarnish its reputation and impact the schools’ enrolments for years to come. Too often schools try and move on too quickly without understanding the community expectations. Getting an independent review of community sentiment and expectations in these circumstances can avert years of declining enrolments and the long struggle to turn the enrolments around.
The other, often most lethal, threat to school enrolments is when the community has pigeonholed the school into a particular niche that bears little resemblance to the school’s capability or ambition. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos said that ‘your reputation is what people say about you when you are not in the room’. Which is why this repositioning of the school by reputation can be so hard for schools to identify themselves. In smaller communities this can be far more powerful than anything the school has to say about itself.
Unfortunately, all of the above are readily reinforced by declining enrolments, which are often interpreted by the community as being indicative of a problem inside the school. This is why it is so important to understand how your school is perceived in the community so that you can positively engage with the community.
Eddee provide schools with independent reviews and recommendations on community reputation and engagement.