Education media coverage can make depressing reading, but ASCL members do have the power to generate a positive press profile. Nick Bannister reports.

What the papers say

Reading the national press can be a thoroughly disheartening experience for a school or college leader today.

Education stories can appear to be either sensationalist or driven by a desire to portray state schools and colleges in the worst possible light. A spate of Ofsted and PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment)-related stories and analyses of the reasons behind last summer’s riots are just a few examples.

Faced with this sort of media coverage it would be natural for any headteacher or principal to switch on their voicemail and set up an out-of-office message at the first sign of negative press interest. But it is in instances like these that you need to be on the front foot – and be open and willing to engage.

For Roger Pope, principal of Kingsbridge Community College in Devon, being upfront with the media – and bringing in professional support – was paramount when the school became the focus of national media attention.

A group of Kingsbridge pupils were on a school trip to France in 2007 when an intruder got into the hostel where they were staying. Although distressed, the pupils were unharmed. But the story had a particular resonance for the media as the incident happened just a few miles from the hostel where British pupil Caroline Dickinson had been murdered a decade earlier. Soon the national press were on the school’s doorstep.

Kingsbridge didn’t have access to the local authority’s (LA’s) press office as Devon LA had for some time been offering functions such as HR and media relations as optional services for schools.

“We had chosen some time before not to buy in their services as we had previously enjoyed a relatively favourable relationship with the media and felt that we didn’t need them,” says Roger.

“We bought in their services on an as needed basis. They charged us a day rate and they acted as the interface between us and the media. They prepared press statements and advised us on media handling. Our approach was to be as accommodating as possible to the media but even then we still had reporters outside the school gates trying to talk to the kids.

“We also briefed students about the fact that this situation had caused a lot of trauma for many of our students. If they were approached by the media they were to let us, with press office support, deal with it.”

Heads and teachers are naturally reasonable in their dealings with other people so it can be a shock how voracious the press can be, Roger adds. “Having some professional expertise in situations like these is essential, I think.”

Key journalist contacts

That’s a head’s view of handling a media crisis. What does it look like from the other side of the fence? John Roberts, an education reporter with regional morning paper the Yorkshire Post, says that the upfront and open approach puts schools and colleges in a strong position if trouble arrives.

“If, for example, the school has had an unfavourable Ofsted, if a headteacher is willing to send a detailed statement or be interviewed then the story is going to include the school’s version of events, the context of the inspection report and more information about the school’s plan for the future.”

The success of this approach is reinforced if that school or college has already put in the time to build up a positive relationship with key journalist contacts, providing them with a continuous ‘drip, drip’ of positive stories.

In order to achieve this it is advisable to nominate a single member of staff with little or no teaching load to manage the media profile, advises Dean Blake. He is communications director for Cabot Learning Federation, a federation of five academies in Bristol and Weston-super-Mare.

“It’s absolutely vital that the member of staff who is given or promoted to this role has a genuine interest, is keen and really excited about promoting the school,” he says.

“This person needs to get to know your local education journalist and then personalise that relationship so you [as head] get to know them and they get to know your school.”

The ‘drip-drip’ approach has worked well for Kingsbridge, says Roger Pope. “Because we are in a fairly small rural town we are able to establish very good relationships with the local newspaper and they welcome our regular news releases because it gives them a good supply of material,” he says. “This, I think, predisposes them to be positive towards us. It gives us some fantastic coverage.”

Savvy schools and colleges will cast their net wider than local newspapers: regional radio and television stations can be an effective source of coverage if a story is particularly ground-breaking, although someone will need to put themselves forward as a spokesperson.

Influence national policy

Schools and colleges can exert a degree of control in the way they relate to the media, especially with local newspaper coverage and how the press covers individual crisis incidents. Can they help change the tone of national media coverage in complex areas such as education policy?

Roger Pope thinks that the Teaching School programme and other initiatives where schools collaborate on research into school improvement could give more power to inflfluence the national policy debate.

He admits that there is a tension between this new collaborative approach and the need for schools and colleges to market and promote themselves to the parents of prospective pupils. But collaboration can be an intrinsic part of marketing as well, he believes.

“Our Teaching School status is actually part of how we market our school. It gives us a national and regional profile and that gives parents real confidence in what we are doing here. It also helps us recruit staff and make links with other schools,” he says.

No track record?

But what do you do if you have no track record to ‘sell’ – if you are effectively starting from scratch or trying to move on from a damaged reputation? In 2007, Bradford Academy faced this challenge when it rose from the ashes of the Bradford Cathedral Community College.

“As the academy was replacing a failing school, we had to get across the message that this was something very different but be wary of saying ‘we’re good’ without evidence to back it up,” says Vice Principal Tehmina Hashmi. The academy’s key strategy was to focus on person-to-person communication – getting as many parents, governors and partners into the building as possible so they could see and feel the difference for themselves.

Senior staff who were well known in the community met parents to inform them of the school’s changing status – and that the school’s long-standing reputation for keeping their children safe and well cared for wouldn’t change.

“You should never underestimate the power of personal communication. You really need to walk the walk before you talk the talk,” Tehmina says.

A prospectus was only produced “once we knew we were on a solid and secure trajectory,” she adds, and it focused on the school’s vision and values rather than details that might change.

The school now takes the initiative with the media and actively seeks press coverage, usually a couple of times a month. “When we get requests, we always say ‘yes’,” Tehmina says. “We look at everything as an opportunity. If you say no, how can you expect to get your voice heard?”

• Nick Bannister is an education writer and communications consultant.

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