What distinguishes schools that achieve success in an increasingly crowded education market, from those who fail, is not just how many students they enrol but rather how well they can develop parent trust, attract families to their school for multiple years, and create a system of authentic word-of-mouth referrals. While developing enrolment numbers is the initial phase in creating a successful school, at Podar Smarter Schools, it is also about creating a relationship-building culture, communications process, and systems between the school and parents, so as to produce lifelong advocates of the school.
Enquiry Form
Trust Is Built Daily, Not During Admission Season
While many schools spend a lot of money on marketing during enrolment, they often do not have enough consistency in delivering results once students enrol. Podar Smarter Schools has a different approach to establishing trust with parents. Trust at Podar Smarter Schools is created daily by creating and maintaining consistent processes, open lines of communication and by providing reliable academic results.
Podar School is trusted by parents because the promises made at the beginning of the student’s educational experience are kept throughout their entire experience at Podar School.
The classroom experiences that occur as well as the assessment of student learning are both aligned to the promises made during the enrolment process, which is an important basis upon which parents build trust and ultimately become confident in Podar Smarter Schools over time.
Strong Academic Systems Create Predictability for Parents
A major reason for parents to continue with Podar is because of the clearness and organization of the educational system. The way Podar implements the curriculum is through a defined set of goals for students (learning outcomes), a series of developmental milestones at each age group, and a process of ongoing assessment.
Parents appreciate being able to know:
- What their children will be studying
- The ways in which they will assess how their children are progressing
- The methods used to identify gaps in their children’s knowledge, and to address them
The predictable nature of this method of assessing student development helps reduce parental anxiety and increase parental confidence in knowing that their child is receiving quality educational services from an institution that has demonstrated it can deliver on its commitments.
Teacher Stability and Training Drive Parent Confidence
Parents will often evaluate schools on the professionalism and continuity of their teaching staff. The Podar Smarter School is heavily invested in providing ongoing opportunities for teacher development through training, mentoring and ongoing professional development; this supports the expectation of consistency in the experience of students from year to year.
The lower rate of teacher turnover is an important factor in supporting student/parent/educator relationships, as children are able to recognize their teachers over time and as well as parents having a relationship with educators who can support them as they continue their child’s educational journey, as trust develops naturally. Also, well-trained teachers are better able to communicate with parents and provide a clear understanding of what their child is learning, as well as supporting transparency and reassurance.
Open Communication Builds Emotional Security
The core of Podar’s parent engagement model is built on clear, timely, and respectful communication among the school and families. Podar’s approach is to provide for ongoing communication with schools and families as opposed to a once-a-year or report card based form of communication.
Podar has found regular updates, academic information, and developmentally appropriate feedback to be helpful in supporting the involvement of parents without becoming overwhelming. In addition, Podar’s structured escalation and resolution process provides parents with an opportunity to have their voice heard when there are concerns, turning what could become an issue into opportunities to build trust.
Focus on Holistic Development Resonates with Modern Parents
Parents today want to know what a school is doing for their children beyond providing an education and good grades. Parents are looking for schools that develop a students’ confidence, creativity, value system and emotional intelligence. The focus of Podar Smarter Schools on developing students holistically mirrors this approach by Podar Smarter Schools to combine academic development with co-curricular activity, life skill development and social development. By creating alignment between what parents value and what Podar Smarter Schools does, Podar creates an opportunity to build an emotional bond with its families that will result in long-term loyalty.
Consistency Across Campuses Strengthens Brand Credibility
The primary reason for Podar’s positive word-of-mouth is the consistent experience between Podar schools. When parents move to a new city or compare their Podar experience with another family at another Podar school, they are experiencing the same quality, culture and educational philosophy.
This consistency in the brand experience enhances the overall credibility of the Podar brand and lessens the uncertainty which parents have when recommending Podar. This confidence allows parents to refer friends, relatives etc., and provides one of the most powerful drivers of organic referrals.
Retention Through Relationship, Not Incentives
Rather than relying on limited time offers or discounted pricing to retain families at Podar Smarter Schools, the focus is on building relationships with families that will encourage them to continue to be involved in the school’s culture. When families have confidence in the leadership of the school, when students are making consistent progress as a result of being instructed by high quality staff, then there is no need for families to seek alternative educational options. As a result, classroom stability is maintained, and the overall culture of the school is strengthened.
Parents as Brand Advocates
Consistent positive experiences create word-of-mouth. Positive referrals for Podar School originate from parents sharing their personal experience (results in academics, how happy their children were, and the ability to communicate) with others (friends, family members or coworkers). The referrals have credibility since they are based upon lived experience. Such referrals significantly reduce the cost of acquisition and increase the credibility of Podar School organically.
Conclusion: A Model Built for Long-Term Trust
Podar Smarter Schools measures its own success beyond the number of students who get admitted into school by their parents’ confidence, students continuing on through education at Podar Smarter School, and a whole community of advocates for the school. Podar has built a model of learning that has fostered trust with all stakeholders involved by creating a structure for learning, a workforce of well-trained educators, open lines of communication, and a holistic model of learning that fosters trust with all stakeholders involved.
By being both reliable and producing positive results, Podar Smarter Schools has differentiated itself from schools of similar design, becoming not only a place for children to learn, but also a long-term partner in the educational journey of each individual child.