School scandals happen, bad press happens, trust diminishes in a school that has built over decades.

The current Marist scandal highlights a common crisis in Brisbane private schools.

There have been many others before this.

It’s an unfortunate truth that even the best schools have skeletons in their closets.

Yet there’s a fundamental way to mitigate and resolve this challenge for communications and marketing decision makers, and that’s always be ahead of it.

Build up goodwill inside the local communities your school serves so that should any negative press hit, the banked goodwill can cause people to say “well it’s just one bad egg” or “that’s not a school scandal it’s an individual renegade”

A subtle mindset change.

Controlling the message instead of being controlled by it and suffering with enrolment decline, massive spends needed to remedy reputation, the distraction that such negative press causes taking you away from your core focus.

That’s where the Local Community School Engagement Column fits beautifully:

Building up local community goodwill.
Bringing good news stories to parents and prospective parents.
Allowing a 3rd party to present your best side rather than relying on your own social media in the sea of white noise.

The geographic syndication can stretch as many suburbs as you wish, the best way to consider that would be to download all suburbs/postcodes of current students and then pick from our 58 strong network, where to place the column.

Drive perception of your school where it matters.

Don’t wait for the next negative story.