I am serving my third year as the Pres. of our school's PTS. We are a small school PreK-8th with only 53 students. We are looking for ways to advertise and market our parochial school to help it thrive and grow. Thought we were making strides by getting out in the community more with our group, but based on our numbers right now, looks like we need MORE ideas. :confused: I'd love to hear how you grow your school. Thanks!

Hi Ellen-
Found this on the net and it seemed to have some good suggestions on how to market small schools.
Marketing ideas to help increase enrollment in private school? - Yahoo! Answers

The idea of having a seminar for current and prospective parents sounds like a good way to attract new people, if you promote it correctly. Internet Safety is a hot topic right now -- how about running an Internet Safety Night?
Use Our Free Kit to Organize Internet Safety Night at Your School | PTO Today

Any small schools have some ideas they'd like to add?

Keep us posted on your school. We wish you the best of luck.



Lisa

Hi Ellen-
Just came across an article about how a Catholic School PTG is marketing their school and blogged about it -- thought you'd be interested in reading it.

PTO Today Blog Blog Archive Parent Groups as Marketers

Lisa

In my opinion, a great way to get news out about your school is through your mascot. If you look at big public schools, people usually associate them with their mascot. Football fans think of the football team and the mascot when they think of the school. The mascot is a key part of the school spirit. Get the public enthused about your school mascot and they'll bring publicity to the school.

Get a booth at a local Street fair or festival with flyers about your school to hand out. When people come to your booth get their email address and followup with them. Have some kids in the booth maybe selling brownies or some kind of baked good to reel the people in.
Most festivals have half discounted booths for schools.

Joining the Chamber of Commerce also helps.

It helps us to have our own PTO website. We had over 330 parents on it last year. We use www.e-pto.org.