BACK TO SCHOOL NIGHT AND VISION ARTICULATION:WONDERFUL OPPORTUNITIES ABOUND WITH THE BEGINNING OF THE 2024-25 SCHOOL YEAR!
(NOTE: This newsletter was first published at the beginning of the 2013-14 school year. Because of its popularity, ISPD always makes it available every year during the summer).
All across the country next month, the majority of Catholic schools will open for the 2024 — 2025 school year. What a wonderful time for marketing and promoting the value of your school. These can be teachable and/or impressionable moments. Remember that old saying: “You only get one chance to make a first impression.”
Let’s look at the infamous “Back to School Night”. This is one that many Catholic schools open with, and for many, this is where first impressions are made – especially for new families and for new faculty and staff members. How many WOW moments will your “Back to School Night” have? Will it be the same as the last 5-10 years? Will you use this opportunity to really kick off the new school year with a bang, or will you recycle the old schedule from the last few years and hope it works again?
Here is how many “Back to School Nights” operate:
- Parents meet in the gym or cafeteria or auditorium.
- Opening remarks from administration and welcome back
- Introduction of new faculty and staff
- Introduction of the “old timers”
- Parents then “run thru” their child’s schedule with the bells ringing, the hallways jammed, parents getting lost, and the teachers having all of 7 minutes to explain everything parents need to know about their class and how that teacher operates.
- The final bell rings and parents and faculty and staff meet back in the gym for coffee, punch, cookies and a big WELCOME BACK cake, and we can finally put that “Back to School Night” to bed for another year.
Does any of this sound familiar? I don’t know. I do know that many Catholic schools run their “Back to School Night” very similar to what is outlined above.
So, the question comes up: Do you want to change it? What can you do to make sure the “Back to School Night” has many WOW factors? What can you do to make sure that when parents leave and walk back to their cars (or stand in the parking lot where most real conversations take place) they emphatically say, “YES! This is why we send our children to this school!”
Where do these WOW factors lie? What can be done to have parents leave feeling so good about their choice of schools that they will want to promote your Catholic school to everyone they know? Here are some suggestions:
- Why not have some of your present parent leaders call every family in the school and personally invite them to attend “Back to School Night” and say how excited they are about the new school year? Simply welcome people into your Faith Community! This is that Parent Ambassador Team that we have been talking about.
- Why not have students in the parking lots welcoming everyone who drives up and handing them an agenda or prayer card for the evening?
- Why not consider making teams of parents (3-5 on each team) whose children have the same classes and have a student, parent or faculty/staff member be their “guide” and “host” for the evening?
- Why not have a Parent Buddy System in place to announce that evening, where every new family at the school will be able to meet their “Buddy” family (or families) for the year?
- Why not have some kind of game for a handful of new and returning parents to play at the end of the evening (like Jeopardy, Charades, Pictionary, etc.) that relates to the new school year?
- Why not have your faculty/staff put on a 3–5-minute skit that deals with students and parents coming back to school?
- Why not hand every parent a card that asks this question: “As a parent, how will you know that the school year is really going well for you and your family – by October 1st?” Have parents hand their card back in before they leave. You can publish the results in the next parent communication and have administration, faculty, staff, and school leaders work on the suggestions.
- Why not hand each family a Communication Card where they can write down any question they may have or write any comment/idea they wish to make about their specific situation? They can hand these in as they leave. Pending on the question and/or comment, school leaders can respond within a few days.
- Why not have decorations up outside and inside that reflect a genuine WELCOME to all families involved in your Catholic school?
- Why not invite a student or two who graduated last year or the year before (a student that a lot of your parents would know) come and talk about the value of his/her education at your school? (3-4 minutes)
- Why not have one of your teachers, parents, alums, parishioners, or any person associated with your school who has the expertise prepare an outstanding slide/video presentation (with meaningful music) that heralds and touts the wonderful people, events, and charism of your Catholic school? Possibly have all leave with this visual fresh in their mind.
- Why not film (on your smart phone) the principal and/or president and/or pastor speaking for 1-2 minutes simply thanking all families for coming to the Back to School Night. Send that link to all parents in an e-mail the next morning.
- Why not hand each parent a 6’ x 10’ card when they leave with an appealing visual on the front of 2-4 students and the caption: THANK YOU FOR BEING OUR PARTNER IN THE (NAME OF SCHOOL) FAITH COMMUNITY!
Not only is “Back to School Night” a wonderful time to articulate the vision for the future of your school, but there are many opportunities with a new school year beginning. New meetings with faculty and staff, meetings with student leaders and the entire student body, meetings with parent leaders, with boards, the first PTA meetings, your welcome letter home, and the list goes on.
Your vision – what is it? What are your plans for this year? For next year? For 3-5 years from now? What is exciting about your school? What do you want to brag about? What do you want to let people know that you are so proud of? Years ago my wife and I attended my daughter’s 8th grade orientation at the 8th grade – 12th grade high school she attended. We left impressed for many reasons, but one of the main reasons was because as we walked in the door a Student Ambassador handed us a booklet that listed the graduating seniors and what college scholarships they had received. WOW! Almost every senior at that school had received some form of a college scholarship, and they were listed by name and by university/college. To us, that was a WOW effect.
We hear the word vision all of the time, but what does it mean? And why is it so important? Great questions, so let’s spend a moment on these two.
First, vision is when we stand at the top of the mountain, look out into the distance and see all the things we would like to have happen over the next 1-3-5+ years at our Catholic school and/or parish. These are things that are attainable; these are items that grow out of planning and visioning sessions; these are goals that are measurable and achievable, and they excite you and they excite others. They could be items concerning the curriculum, or your service program or your facilities, or your personnel, or your endowment, or one of your departments, or your community outreach, or your Catholic identity, or your collaborative relationships with hospitals, universities, and/or businesses. Your vision distinguishes you; it makes you unique. Every school leader (administration, board, faculty, staff, parent leaders, student leaders, alum leaders) should be able to clearly articulate the vision of that school.
Now is the time to promote your vision – at Back to School Night, in the meetings and get-togethers that start a new school year, in your conversations with people you invite to support your Annual Appeal, in your letters and correspondence home, on your website, in social media — plus other venues. Long gone are the days when you can keep all of this quiet and only share it once or twice a year – in a newsletter or on the website.
“Back to School Night” and Vision Articulation: Two opportunities of which you really should take advantage as you begin the 2024-25 school year.