Why your next school open event starts now... not the week before!

Open events can be brilliant. They give families a chance to get a feel for the school, meet staff, look around and start picturing their child there.

But the truth is, the impression of a school usually starts much earlier than that.

Long before a parent steps through the door, they may already have looked at your website, glanced through your social media, checked your latest photos and started forming an opinion. If everything feels active, welcoming and up to date, that builds confidence. If it feels quiet, rushed or a bit 2019, your open event has to work much harder.

That is why your next open event starts now, not the week before.

At Mitchell Digital Media, we work with schools on how they present themselves online, and one thing we see time and again is this: the schools that look calm, confident and well prepared at open event time are usually the ones that started thinking about it early. Not the ones frantically hunting for a banner in a cupboard the night before.

Waiting until the last minute creates pressure

It is very easy for open event promotion to become a last-minute job.

A quick graphic gets made. A few social media posts go out. Someone updates a page on the website. A member of staff says, “We’ve definitely got some nice photos somewhere.” Everyone pulls together and it gets done.

Sometimes that works. But often it means things feel rushed.

The photos being used may be old. The messaging may be inconsistent. The website journey may not be especially clear. Staff may not be fully briefed. The event itself might be great, but the promotion around it feels a bit like it was assembled using hope, panic and a half-charged laptop.

For schools, that is stressful. For parents, it can quietly affect confidence before they even arrive.

What schools should be doing now

If you know you are likely to have an open event later in the year, the summer term is a really good time to start getting things in place.

That does not mean going into full promotion mode tomorrow morning. It just means giving yourself enough breathing room to do things properly, without everything becoming an emergency in September.

For example, now is a good time to ask:

• Does our website reflect the school well?

• Are our photos current, warm and professional?

• Is our social media giving a good sense of school life?

• Do we have clear messages about what makes our school special?

• Are there any prospectus, signage or display materials that need refreshing?

• If someone discovered us online today, would they get a good impression?

These are all things that help shape how families feel before they ever attend an open event.

Your online presence is part of the open event

This is the bit schools sometimes overlook: an open event is not just the evening itself. It is the full experience around it.

• It is the Facebook post a parent sees a few weeks before.

• It is the photos on your website.

• It is the tone of your messaging.

• It is the consistency between your prospectus, social media and admissions information.

• It is whether the school feels busy, positive and well presented online.

All of that starts building trust before anyone walks through the gate, because by the time a family arrives at your open event, they have usually already formed a first impression. The event is often confirming it, not creating it from scratch.

A little planning now makes life easier later

The good news is that this does not have to be complicated. A small amount of planning now can make a huge difference later on.

That might mean booking fresh photography while the school looks lovely in the summer term and everyone is not wearing coats the size of sleeping bags. It might mean reviewing your website. It might mean gathering content that can be used later. It might mean planning a clearer run of social media posts, rather than suddenly realising the event is next week and nobody has written a thing.

None of this is about adding more pressure. Quite the opposite. It is about reducing the pressure later.

If you start now, you give yourself time to make better decisions, create better content and present the school in a way that feels polished and confident.

A free resource for schools

To make that easier, we have put together a free School Open Event Promotion Checklist.

It is a simple resource to help schools think ahead about timing, messaging, content and presentation, so that when open event season comes around, things feel much less rushed and much less reliant on someone saying, “I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

You can download it here.

And if you would like some support with the content, creative or planning side of things, whether that is social media, photography, video or design, we would be very happy to help.

Need a hand with your next open event?

We help schools with social media, photography, video and design so they can look their best online and in person.

Get in touch to find out more: info@mitchelldigitalmedia.co.uk | 01249 588228