Schools

Governance – Melbourne, Australia
For a highly successful independent school in Melbourne’s east undergoing a governance and Headship transition, we were commissioned to undertake a Governance Review following appointment of a new structure including an Advisory Council. This included a review and development of new Board documentation incorporating a handbook, and a Board induction and training program delivered face to face.
 
Our counsel to the College Advisory Board extends to providing strategic guidance and an implementation review in early 2021.

Strategic Plan – Melbourne, Australia
For a leading independent girls’ school in Melbourne, Australia, we were appointed to facilitate the development of a Strategic Plan that could reposition and renew the school to build enrolment. The project involved substantive evidence gathering to establish a clear and compelling future vision that then could be supported by specific education initiatives to impact on parent choice patterns. Working closely with the Board and Head, final recommendations were supported and we were subsequently asked to develop a marketing strategy that would align messaging with the intent and focus on the Strategic Plan for a cohesive and strategic approach.

Reputation Assessments – Japan
We were commissioned by the Japan Council of International Schools (JCIS) to undertake a reputation assessment and benchmarking of 6 of its schools across Japan.
This assessment involved The 5Rs Partnership using its own ‘Reputation Assessor’ tool: http://5rspartnership.com/products/reputation-assessor/

The project involved an initial desk-based assessment of espoused (claimed) reputation through marketing materials and then a survey to each of students, parents, staff, and alumni for their perceptions of reputation. The project culminated in a formal report for each school. An in-country joint workshop to disseminate findings and action planning is planned for late 2020.

Reputation Development – Nanjing, China
We were commissioned by the Association of International Schools of China to deliver 2 days of training for constituent schools on building, managing and evaluating reputation at Nanjing International School.

Registrants for this workshop will also participate in a study being conducted by Dr. Stephen Holmes to understand and measure how COVID-19 has impacted their school’s reputation, as well as establish a benchmark that schools can use to take meaningful action toward best practices to improve their reputation.

Strategic Plan – Bangalore, India
An international school in Bangalore, India commissioned and retained us to help prepare their school in several key areas for CIS and NCEAS accreditations due in late 2020 after a turbulent period.

Areas of domains required to be strengthened by us to support accreditation included:

• 1. School Culture
• 2. Governance
• 3. Strategic Planning
• 4. International Partnerships and Alliances

Working closely with the Board and Head of School over an extended period, recommendations and counsel delivered a cohesive and strategic approach to secure its reaccreditation and future direction.

Reputation Development – New Zealand
In early 2020, we were commissioned by various in-country international education networks and clusters of schools. We travelled to New Zealand to deliver workshops and seminars across the country on building reputation.

Workshops were supported by various resources as well as a benchmarking of reputation from our work across other Asia-Pacific municipalities with schools and universities.

Marketing Strategy and Messaging – Dubai, UAE
We were commissioned by the CEO of a huge conglomerate based in Dubai to review and develop marketing messages for two schools.

The project delivered:

• An independent source of evidence and actionable market strategy deployments.
• Cogent and compelling marketing messages targeted to specific audiences for the 2 schools.
• Alignment and connectivity between what each school espouses (says) and what it actually offers (does).
• Certainty of benefits sought (the ‘so what’) to enhance depth and evidence that should sit behind marketing claims.
• Review of current marketing activity and enhanced market intelligence to build market status and market positioning.
• Staff capability building around marketing and how to best develop marketing and deploy reputational strengths for each school.

The successful delivery of these outputs then led to commissioning for a supplementary project ‘Translation into Development of Website Content Narrative’.

Marketing Strategy Review – Marbella, Spain
For a leading international school in Spain, we were invited by the CEO to facilitate a review and development of marketing and marketing messages.

Our stages of work involved:

• Desk review of all pertinent marketing documentation.
• Onsite focus groups and depth interviews with parents, students, staff, prospective parents, decliner parents, Management and senior staff.
• Onsite best practice Workshop with school leadership team – marketing messaging alignment and development.

Strategic Plan – Hanoi, Vietnam
For a leading international school in Hanoi, Vietnam, with links to the United Nations, we were commissioned to support and facilitate the development of a Strategic Plan.

This involved a series of consultative steps to renew the School through a synthesized compendium of recommendations stemming from our primary research with the school community and extensive secondary documentation analysis.

These findings were then applied to draft the overarching statements, strategic directions and the framework of an implementation plan.

Strategic Plan Development – Colombia, South America
For a long standing, privately owned international IB school in Bogota with enrolment declining, we were commissioned to develop an evidence based Strategic Plan that would lay the essential platform for a united approach and identity.

The Strategic Plan development process included competitor consultation with students, staff, parents and alumni. Initial findings were tested through a Board workshop and then staff workshop to further shape and align strategic priorities. Core statements were redefined to align with stakeholder and environmental analysis.

The final Strategic Plan covered a five-year period but looks further, including and anticipating future opportunities and challenges. Critically, the Strategic Plan priorities were then subjected to closing in on the most workable and encompassing KPIs (hard and soft measures).

Decliner Parent Market Research (whole of school system) – Brisbane, Australia
An area that is not researched nearly enough by schools! For the largest non-government education system in Australia (Catholic Education), and with 139 schools and approximately 72,000 students in its jurisdiction, we were commissioned to research non-buyer parents. The aim of this project was to identify what factors influence families (Catholic and non-Catholic) when deciding not to choose a Catholic school.

Both secondary (website, documentation) and primary school leadership interviews, non-buyer focus groups, and 3 online surveys with non-buyers were conducted.

Application of the research directly informed system and school level marketing, and the system wide strategic planning process (2020) especially in terms of sustainability and identity.

Strategic Plan Development – Almaty, Kazakhstan
For a national, specialist school in Math in Kazakhstan, we were commissioned to facilitate a Strategy that could reposition and renew the school against new competition.

The project process involved consultations with Board, students, staff, parents and others across the school community, as well as extensive documentation analysis.

Final recommendations were supported by detailed performance metrics to guide the school over a 10-year period.

Review of Admissions and Marketing Strategy – Rome, Italy
To increase their applicant pool, a long-standing international day and boarding school asked us to review their marketing and admissions strategy and processes. Through an identity review, we were able to provide a comprehensive set of tested marketing messages to support both day and boarding recruitment. In addition, we provided the school with a series of best practice benchmarks (that we have developed over 3 decades) to support a strengthened admissions processes that could better integrate marketing and admissions – so important for impactful marketing.

The project also gave the School a sustainable and useful level of data intelligence to inform the impacts of its marketing, and optimise conversion.

Reputation Development and Management – Nagoya and Kobe, Japan
We conducted two related international school projects in Japan.

Firstly, we worked for a day with JCIS (Japan Council of International Schools – 23 schools) to provide insights on reputation management and planning through a 1-day workshop.

We then undertook a detailed review of a leading international day and boarding school in Kobe to enhance marketing through messaging and tactical recommendations to consolidate and extend reputation. This involved both onsite and desk-based analysis to support a cogent set of actionable deployments, which provided the school with a specific action plan.

Board Training – Colombo, Sri Lanka
A leading international school in Colombo engaged us to undertake a review of board policy and then boarding training. A key focus and output from the Board training was to support the Board in considering the future identity of the School in an increasingly competitive context through a review of its core statements and responsibilities and roles of the board at a strategy setting level.

Board Training – Penang, Malaysia
For a long standing British international school in Penang, we were engaged to support Board consideration of a renewed school identity through a 2 day off site Board retreat.

Key outputs included a review of current strategic planning, a clear picture of the education landscape to plan into, and a clarity of roles and responsibilities of the Board to support school development and market success.

Strategic Plan Development – Bangkok, Thailand
For a progressive international school, we facilitated an ambitious Strategic Plan with
Management, staff and Board engagement to produce high level priorities that were supported by precise performance indicators.

The key focus of the project was in particular to enhance the wider reputation of the school beyond its local reach. Here we used our international networks to support advocacy building.

Strategic Plan Facilitation Development – Melbourne, Australia
For one of Australia’s oldest independent schools, and the CIS first member school in Australia, we were engaged as chief consultants in the facilitation of a Strategic Plan over a 7-month period.

Our inputs were both strategic and data collection and synthesis based. The output is that the School has been set on a new and exciting trajectory of initiatives to supports market success in an intensely competitive context. Our expert input provided a wider context for the School to consider and settle on its strategic priorities.

Strategic Plan Development – Taiwan
For a multi campus international school located in Taipei, we were engaged to develop and deliver a strategic plan that would unify the various school campuses/sections.

The internal and external consultations were in depth as the school has had difficulty in creating a unified identity previously and sense of purpose. Core statements were renewed and overarching priorities with clear measurements were established.

For a uniquely located international school in Europe, we worked with the Board and management to develop and implement a Strategic Planning process that would reflect stakeholder aspirations. The Strategic Planning development involved an extensive school wide consultation and facilitation process that produced an educationally ambitious and relevant agenda to guide the school community over a 5 year cycle.

A key component of our input to this project was the development of a set of robust and actionable Key Performance Indicators (KPI) that could allow the School to monitor its progress and performance via both hard and soft metrics.

For more information.

The 5Rs Partnership was commissioned by a leading private school in Australia to investigate the market feasibility and potential for a Prep to Year 4 campus.

We conducted a series of interrelated inputs to support the required deliverables:

The 5Rs Partnership was commissioned by a long standing Catholic school in Melbourne to undertake market assessment to inform an actionable plan to help build the School’s low enrolment. To form a rounded view, we undertook a series of interrelated phases of input. Our research response included a blend of qualitative and quantitative methods:

For a boutique international school in Indonesia linked to a large Oil company, we were engaged at several levels. Initially, to build a shared understanding among all staff of their role in building school reputation. We undertook this through onsite staff development sessions including a staff self-assessment of reputation, strategies generated by staff to build reputation and established a set of measures to monitor progress in attaining these.

We were then engaged to support development of a focused survey for parents to assess satisfaction and expectations. We followed this up with a series of onsite parent focus groups to ‘dig deeper’ on issues emerging from the survey to formulate a connected and relevant set of deployments.

We took this evidence base as background to the Board. We conducted a whole day facilitation session toward setting an ambitious and forward thinking education strategy agenda that could guide the school over the next five years.

For an emerging international school in Dongguan, China, we conducted a series of intensive on site workshops for Board, senior managers, teachers and support staff. The workshops were designed to build a shared engagement with the market challenges facing the School. The outputs from the various sessions have stimulated a re-think of the marketing approaches being used, and placed renewed emphasis on a more strategic positioning driven approach in the School, including marketing messaging and narrative.

For a leading and long standing non-profit leader in international school education who create and support world-class schools across the globe, based in Princeton, US, we were engaged to support the development of marketing and reputation practices of 15 of their leading international schools. Our work with these schools and their parent partner was designed to embed good practice strategic and tactical marketing and reputation management skills and tools:

• Self-assessment online survey for each School.
• Website Review for each School applying best practice metrics.
• Workshops and Seminars (over 3 days) with both schools and company management.
• Post conference Proceedings Working Summary.

For a well-known American community school in Accra, we were asked to review and enhance their strategic plan and then provide a set of key performance indicators that could serve as a reference and measurement base for the whole school community:

1. Desk based secondary analysis.
2. Onsite interviews and discussion forums (Senior Management, teaching staff, Board, possibly parent group).
3. On site observations.
4. Strategy rewrite and KPIs.

We were engaged by a progressive K-12 international school in the Middle East to participate in the drafting of a position description, short listing and interview process for the appointment of an inaugural Marketing Manager.

Our expertise in understanding the key skills and required sensitivities and scope of role were found to be invaluable by the School in this search.