Schools in the Spotlight A Guide to Media Relations for School Governors and Staff

What role does a school play in a community and society?This book examines the need for educational establishments to review their position in the local community and to develop strategies to deal with the management of their image. Increasing parental choice means that schools must begin to adopt marketing concepts and tell people what is happening both inside and outside the classroom.Techniques to generate, revisit and challenge a school's ethos are discussed together with ways of getting this message across to the wider community. Effective management of a school's image through judicious handling of the media can lead to better results, higher self-esteem for staff and pupils and a greater recognition of a school's contribution to a local community.This book gives practical guidance on how to identify potential news items and how to convince local newspapers, television and radio organisations to use the story. The book contains many examples of how schools have put comprehensive framework to effective media communication and how to avoid potential pitfalls.

1. Schools and the Public 2. Schools and the Media: Getting the Relationships Right 3. Public Relations: How to Manage Them 4. News Releases: Getting the Message Across 5. Coping with Crisis 6. Managing the Message 7. In the Front Line 8. Getting it Put Right 9. Sharing the Vision

Tim McClellan has worked as a local radio journalist and has complied reports and features for national and international radio organisations. Tim is currently Acting Head of Communication at Southampton Institute, where he teaches Radio Production, Public Relations and Interantional Marketing.Nigel Gann spent fourteen years working in schools with particularly strong commitments to their work with the local community, to headship level. He has been consultant to the BBC Open University, Research Fellow at the University of Leicester School in Education and first general manager of a community education project.