Being the best we can be ....

The 2009 User Group meetings in November were attended by a total of 72 delegates from 40 of our schools, a great 'turn-out' at such a busy time of year.  We are very grateful to the Royal Russell School and Abbotsholme School who kindly hosted the events.

As usual, we spent most of the morning working in groups focusing on ways of getting the best out of the database.  The meeting always offers a good opportunity for general discussion and exchange of ideas and there was no shortage of lively conversation at both meetings.

In a departure from our usual task oriented sessions, the afternoon, led by Julia Steward of Chrysalis Leadership Development, took us on a journey of self exploration to find ways to 'Be the best we can be'. Julia didn't claim to have a magic answer but helped us to examine ways of being more effective in our roles by recognising our own ability to take control and applying an understanding of 'traits and drivers' to help us build better working relationships.

Everyone found the session fascinating and left with a bounce in their step and a magic wand!  I am quite sure a number of Heads will have been 'analysed' in the succeeding days!  You can find out more about Julia's work by clicking here.

Group work on the database at Royal Russell ...	where Julia poses some interesting questions
Another interactive session with Julia and	an RS puzzle to solve at Abbotsholme

Failing the Public Benefit Test

The chief executive of IAPS, David Hanson, has warned members that they could create a “self-fulfilling prophecy” of staff cuts, closures or sell-outs to profit-making chains if they overstretch themselves or raise fees in order to fund free places at their schools.

His comments came in the wake of the Charity Commission’s decision to fail two out of the five schools that were subjected to its public benefit test earlier in the year. According to the commission, Highfield Priory in Lancashire and S. Anslem’s in Derbyshire, both prep schools, put less than 1% of their income aside to fund places for poor pupils.  They have been told that unless they increase the amount of money they spend on free places, they will lose their charitable status. 

The commission will now work with the schools’ governors to increase the amount of money spent on bursaries. In its report, published in July, the Charity Commission appears to have assessed the schools purely on how many means-tested bursaries they provide and not, as school leaders point out, on how schools also interact with local communities.

Andrew Grant, chairman of the HMC, highlighted that many small schools, and small preps in particular, would struggle to meet the Charity Commission’s demands.  Diana Watkins, chairman of IAPS, said that fee rises to cover the cost of bursaries would hit less well-off parents the hardest and could price them out of the market.

Over the next eighteen months, in order to retain their charitable status worth around £100 million in tax breaks every year, all independent schools will be judged against the commission’s public benefit criteria. www.charitycommission.gov.uk/publicbenefit/pbpress.asp 

Certificate in Admissions Management Courses and Award Ceremonies 2009

The recipients of 2008 Certificates were presented with their awards and the AMDIS lunches during the Spring Term of 2009.

The April course results are now out and July assignments are due in for marking shortly.  The standard of work continues to be high and a few Distinctions and Merits have been awarded to those whose work was exceptional.

We are delighted to report that the Certificate is beginning to have an impact on attitudes to the import role of Admissions Manager in schools with a number of delegates reporting a change in job title, promotion and increases in salary.

If you have not yet condidered the course we would be delighted to put you in touch with delegates who have completed it for an honest appraisal of their experiences.

Enquiries holding up but parents more selective

Amidst all the recent doom and gloom, the HMC has offered independent schools a glimmer of hope. 

According to recent figures, demand for places at 13+ is up by 7.5% on 2008, while the figure for 16+ places is up by 8.2% on last year.  Encouragingly, there are more than two applicants for every place available at 11+.

However, there is no denying that things are getting tougher and that most pundits expect the economic downturn to hit the sector this September, based upon the anticipated time lag of eighteen months between a recession starting and its effect on schools. There have already been some worrying developments, particularly amongst prep schools. some of which have had to close or merge with others.  One observer thinks that small, single-sex boarding prep schools are most at risk, whilst another predicts that run-of-the-mill schools will suffer more than those who offer a unique selling point.

As for parents and their response to the current economic climate, the general feeling is that they are being more selective and looking at all their options, both state and private, before making a final commitment.

Autumn 2008 User Group Meetings

Following the successful holding of two separate User Group Meetings in 2007, we held two more this year. We are beholden to Sherfield and Stowe for kindly agreeing to host us. The excellent facilities and relaxing atmosphere in both schools contributed, in no small way, to everyone’s enjoyment. We were delighted that a total of 62 delegates representing 41 schools attended these events and from the feedback we received everyone found the days useful.

We were most grateful to Russell Speirs of RSAcademics, our ‘sister’ company, who gave us a very interesting and thought provoking insight into admissions trends in the sector from his latest benchmarking study, RSBenchmarking. Further information can be found on Russell’s website www.rsacademics.co.uk  

Russell engaging his audience as always!

Jan and Robin then demonstrated a number of new reports, now available in Version 11 which measure similar trends within your own school.  The continued development of such reports to focus on what the sector needs to measure, is one of our unique features of course.  We also took the opportunity to ask everyone what else we could do to make your day to day jobs easier.  (Don’t be afraid to tell us what you want us to do – polite answers only please!) For the remainder of the day, delegates worked in groups on a variety of case studies using a copy of RSAdmissions on a laptop. This is always a popular session which gives delegates the opportunity to discuss different ways to use RSAdmissions and to compare notes on all aspects of their roles.

Group discussion is always popular

Our First Ever Client Retires 

This summer, we said goodbye to our first ever client.  Linda Barnette retired from her role as Registrar at Leicester High School for Girls in August and we were lucky enough to catch her before she 'left the building'! Regular attenders at User Group meetings will know that Linda has never missed one in the six years she has used our services.

We are very grateful to Linda, not only for her loyalty but also for the many occasions on which she has encouraged prospective clients to visit her to see RSAdmissions in action. Linda has a standing invitation to join us for lunch at any future User Group and we hope she will take us up on that one day.

In the meantime we wish her a very happy retirement and look forward to welcoming her successor, Ann-Marie Neal to the next User Group meeting.

Jan presenting a thank-you bouquet to Linda on behalf of everyone at RSAdmissions

AMDIS Certificate Award Visits

On our recent trip to see our client schools in Blackpool and Glasgow, we were able to visit the two final recipients of last summer’s Certificate in Admissions Management, who had been unable to attend the AMDIS presentation events earlier in the year, to present them with their Certificates. Following our training visit to Arnold School, where Colin White and Laura Rogers look after admissions, we had been invited to have lunch with Lynda Smith from Rossall School, who had achieved a Merit award with her Certificate assignment.

Lynda is pictured here, with her new Headmaster, Dr Stephen Winkley, late of Uppingham, who will be the after dinner speaker at the AMDIS conference this year and Alex O’Toole, Rossall’s Marketing Manager. Lynda gave us a fascinating tour of her historic school which occupies an amazing position at Rossall Point on the Lancashire coast. 

We then drove on up to Glasgow Academy for a training visit the following day and, having spent a good day with Malcolm McNaught and his team, we returned to base via a mid-morning coffee with the admissions team at Merchiston Castle where we presented Anne Rickard with her Certificate.  Anne achieved a Distinction and the Top Student Award.  Merchiston is another fascinating school with a long tradition, they have been celebrating their 175th Anniversary this year. 

RSAdmissions Hits 100!

We are delighted to announce that Wrekin College in Shropshire recently became our 100th school.  It is almost six years to the day since we launched RSAdmissions in 2002. Leicester High School for Girls was our first school, they and every one of you since has added to the depth and breadth of the product, it is now quite a different ‘animal’ to the basic design that Jan dreamt of when she was still at Farnborough Hill.  Thank you all for your input and support over the years and we are delighted to welcome Wrekin to our RSAdmissions family, we have no doubt that their ideas and enthusiasm will soon have us adding to the ‘to do’ list! 

Jan sharing a celebratory glass of  bubbly with the Wrekin team (from left) Chris, Caroline, Katie and Andy

Certificate in Admissions Management 2008

The third Certificate course took place on 8th and 9th April. 22 delegates from schools all over the country armed with over 100 years of admissions management experience spent 2 busy but enjoyable days picking apart every aspect of the admissions role from initial enquiry through to final acceptance. We looked at the needs of today’s families and how we can best meet them, the role of marketing in admissions and vice versa, the family tour, time management and communication. Our volunteer thespians did a great job of being a really difficult visiting family and we all learnt a lot from each other.  We are looking forward to meeting our next group of delegates in July.  Dates for courses next year will shortly be available from AMDIS. 

Delegates discussing the impact of the school reception area on a 12 year old girl visitor!

Group work at Epsom ...	and Bromsgrove

As requested from previous Meetings, the main part of the day was devoted to case studies. Delegates worked in small groups with a dummy copy of RSAdmissions on a laptop and, fortified by bowls of jelly babies and mints, they were presented with a number of different scenarios to work through. This allowed delegates to share views and ideas and learn from each other how best to use RSAdmissions. During these sessions many new friendships were established and old acquaintances renewed.   Again, a very big ‘thank you’ to Epsom and Bromsgrove for providing such excellent facilities and catering and to our delegates of course without whom these days would simply not happen!

Certificate in Admissions Management 2007 Courses

I think you all know that the role of the admissions personnel in any school’s marketing effort has long been one of Jan’s soap boxes!  This year the AMDIS committee asked us to facilitate the first AMDIS Certificate in Admissions Management Course.  This was our opportunity to raise the profile of all of our hardworking admissions folk and also to provide the first ever formal qualification for the role.

Ed Peters, Chairman of AMDIS, leads a session at Course 2.

Thanks to the hard work of Kate, Tug and Robin and colleagues at AMDIS (and of course our brilliant delegates) the 2 initial courses were a great success  Forty admissions personnel have now attended this new two day residential course, their experience in admissions ranging from a few weeks to more than 20 years.

Designed to examine best practice in all aspects of the admissions process, we were able to spend some quality time unpicking such things as the family tour and open days, the role of admissions in marketing, communication skills and even time management.  Everyone gained from looking at all aspects of the admissions process again, even those who thought they had thought of everything!

Completed assignments made compelling reading and many delegates commented on the usefulness of the assignment exercise in their own school.Some Certificates were awarded at the AMDIS AGM in November and the remaining delegates have been invited to attend, as special guests, to receive their certificates at the AMDIS regional lunches during March.