I’ll bet your school has a Mission Statement.
I’ll bet your school has it posted somewhere near the front door or near the school’s office.
Chances are people walk right past it.
Your Mission Statement should be short enough so that it can be memorized by every person that is currently involved with your school (from the principal to the office secretary, from the teachers to the custodian. Even your community of parents should know it if they’re going to be the ones providing the word of mouth marketing for your school).
In fact, that might be an interesting exercise at your next staff meeting. Ask someone to state your school’s mission statement from memory.
Now, once everyone knows the mission statement, when someone asks you, a member of your staff, or a parent about your school, and they recite the mission statement, they might be interested in knowing more. Then what do you tell them?
You tell them your Vision Statement. THIS is what will bring people to your school. And when they come, your school needs to be able to knock their socks off to the point that they WANT their children to be there!
If they still want to know more, ask “why” – since the mission statement tells “what” your school does, and the vision statement should follow up with “how” the school will bring the mission to life. Their response should lead to an invitation to visit the school to experience what you’ve just shared with them.
Make sure to publish your Vision Statement too. In fact, rather than a Vision Statement, consider publishing a “Vision Narrative” of what the kind of experience you’d like your parents to have, as well as the experience that students will have at your school. Once you do that, you’ll be able to share that vision with the rest of the school.
Want to see part of a vision narrative? Drop an email to [email protected] and type “Vision Narrative” in the subject box. As you prepare for the 2023-2024 school year, it might be the tool you need to get parents excited about your school to the point that they’ll want their children to stay there for the complete grade levels experience of your school, instead of just “hoping” they’ll be able to do that.
© Michael V. Ziemski, SchoolAdvancement, 2008-2023 (Original Publication Date: 20080407)