Tom Evans, PR and Marketing Manager:

• Admissions matter, but they are not the entire picture
• The best content shows audiences the why
• Build a simple, year-round system for gathering stories

For schools and education providers, the lead-up to September can feel like a long, relentless admissions cycle. Even before new students have settled in, open days are planned, applications are opening, and leaders’ attention is already turning to the next cohort.

All of this matters but the new academic year should not be viewed solely through the lens of recruitment, because September is also when something far more valuable begins. From the first week of term, new stories are unfolding every day: notable achievements, student and staff experiences, partnerships in the community, and challenges that have been overcome. These stories matter because they give prospective students and their families an authentic, personal glimpse of what school life is really like long before they are ready to make an application. In turn, they build trust and demonstrate value that goes beyond academic results.  

With so much focus on applications, open days and conversion rates, it is easy for school leaders to become consumed by the admissions process and overlook what is happening right in front of them. The result can be a communications strategy that constantly asks families to join the school, without spending enough time showing them why. This is where the new academic year presents an opportunity. Rather than pushing the next admissions message, schools can look to the day-to-day life of their own community. In practice, this means asking less often ‘what do we need to promote?’, and more often ‘what is happening in school that people would genuinely be interested in?’. 

For most schools, the content is already there. The challenge is recognising it, capturing it and ensuring it reaches the people who need to see it. It might be a standout student achievement, a teacher introducing an innovative approach in the classroom, an employer partnership giving learners real-world experience, or a former student returning to share their career journey.

This type of content gives the audience a reason to engage beyond ‘come and study with us’. It shows authenticity, value and impact rather than simply claiming them. It also gives school teams material that can work across multiple channels. For example, a student success story could become a website article, a LinkedIn post, an Instagram Reel, a case study for an open day, a quote in an email campaign and a story for local media.

The key to embedding this approach into the new academic year is to create simple ways for staff to flag interesting stories and build regular opportunities to hear from students and colleagues. That could be a shared via an online form for story ideas, a standing item in staff briefings, or regular catch ups with student leaders. It is also important to remember that not every story needs to lead the audience to an open day or application form. Often, the real value is simply in strengthening a school’s reputation, building trust with its community, or giving families a better understanding of what happens beyond the classroom walls.

Admissions will always matter, but they should be the destination, not the entire journey. By treating the academic year as a continuous source of stories, schools can create communications that are more genuine, more engaging and ultimately more valuable. That is how the start of the academic year becomes not just the start of yet another admissions cycle, but the start of a year-long content engine.