Communitas asked to give strategic comms advice to independent school governors

Communitas Account Director Hannah Jefferies has joined forces with Wilsons Solicitors LLP to deliver a seminar for 70 governors of independent schools.

The AGBIS (Association of Governing Bodies of Independent Schools) Regional Meeting, held at Wellington College, explored a fictional case study of an independent school in crisis to enhance governors’ legal, employment law and crisis communications knowledge.

The assembled governors were asked to draw on their combined experience of working for some of the UK’s leading fee-paying schools to lead the fictitious ‘Yesteryear School’ out of its current crisis. The challenge included how to communicate the acrimonious resignation of the Head, and the almost simultaneous announcement from the Deputy Head that he was leaving for another school.

Says Hannah Jefferies, ‘The natural reaction of many within the audience was, “the school should never have let things get this far!” Which is of course the case, but unfortunately much of the case study was drawn from real examples! In a crisis you clearly need to act swiftly and efficiently but not forget the core principles around who you need to tell what to, when and how.

‘Amongst the issues raised was the use of social media and some governors felt that once something is being discussed online the school is already running to catch up. My advice is always to take a step back, and be clear why and how you want to participate in online debates. I think schools can definitely benefit from communicating online, but I caution against getting weighed in just because it’s there.

‘Emotions are usually running very high in a situation like this and a school that thinks it has to address every strongly worded comment or allegation can easily lose site of its strategic aims to contain the crisis, provide reassurance and move the school on.’

November 2010