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Whether you’re sharing a policy with members of staff, sending a newsletter to parents or just having a conversation with a stakeholder, it’s important to maintain a high level of clarity. Without this, instructions, messages or your brand can be misconstrued, leading to confusion. A consistent message is key to representing your school’s visions and values properly – switching things up can damage that consistency.
An Example Of Poor Clarity
Recently, Microsoft announced the launch of their latest Windows version, Windows 11. This was accompanied by lots of nice videos showcasing how creatives can use their software to create fancy graphics and videos.
However, this goes against the brand that Microsoft have built up over the year as professional and data-driven, whilst leaving the wild creativity to the likes of Apple.
Whilst it’s not unusual for brands to diversify over time, it seems strange that they appear to be trying to completely forget the less glamourous programs like Word and Excel.
It’s not clear what they’re actually trying to do next. With various high level executives coming out to extoll the virtues of their creative products, while still trying to push their Office suite of programs, the marketing messages are mixed. Customers are unclear of what Windows 11 might hold due to this confusion and lack of clarity.
Clear Messages Within Schools
Transparency for schools is paramount for developing a sense of trust and community. Your brand helps to grow this, and mixed or confusing messages can damage how people perceive you. Between website content, social media posts, newsletters, how staff converse with parents & children and any other communications, your message and style must be consistent and clear. This removes the need for interpretation. If someone interprets an instruction incorrectly, it can lead to frustration and a negative opinion from that person. If multiple people do it, then you can quickly find your reputation damaged.
Clarity within job titles at schools can also be somewhat difficult to achieve. Working in the education sector, we’re all used to hearing SBM, SEND, SLT, etc. but stakeholders likely won’t be familiar with these. Making it explicitly clear who people need to contact for their exact issue is key to effective communication. If people know they can contact a specific person without getting passed around the school, they’re much more likely to get in touch.
However, clear communication is required the most in the classroom itself. All teachers go through their training and should teach with enough clarity to keep students engaged and learning. This is just another aspect to be considered when adopting clarity as a whole-school process. On the other hand, this should all be in hand with your general teaching standards!
If you’re having trouble working out what your message and communication style is, the best place to start is with a marketing strategy. We can help you cut through the confusion and move forward with a strategy and plan in place. Why not download our free marketing template and follow our steps to start developing your own strategy?
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