What's Happening and Why? #
As Rehoboth continues to grow and we reach the point of 1,000 enrolments, the process of communicating with the College community becomes more complex, especially as we continue to promote ‘One College’ with a shared vision, mission, and educational programs. Unfortunately, comms are often among the last things we think about as we plan events and activities but they’re the first thing parents will see or hear about them. We haven’t always put our best foot forward in these instances.
In an effort to improve what, how, and when we communicate with our community, we’ve introduced some significant changes to our comms process. Effectively, we’ve brought comms ‘in house’ to the Business Office (Sharisse and Seth) for a period of time. How long that period is will depend a lot on how quickly we collectively step up our comms game, how and when any new system might be implemented, and what feedback we might receive from parents.
During this period, we’ll be keeping a record of the various comms that are sent so that we can assess the breadth and type of comms being sent (who sends what when, where, and why), ensure consistency of presentation and messaging across the College, and that each communication is relevant, timely, and sent via the appropriate channel.
Newsflashes and blogs will continue unchanged. This new process will mainly effect larger written and general comms to year groups, schools, or whole-College. So that means there are some exceptions – for example, we aren’t looking to replace the personal touch that many of our comms require with corporate-speak, and we’ll work to ensure that remains unchanged. We also aren’t including one-to-one communications in this process (e.g. teacher to student, teacher to parents, admin to parents). But we do want to assess all other communications to determine the best methods available. So, if you’re unsure about what you’ve got to send, please put it through the process below.
In the short term, there will be some ‘tightening of control’ over communications as we seek to understand what is being sent and fine tune our processes. Your access to Schoolzine, Cognito Forms, and SEQTA are all still in place, as we know you need these to be able to check past communications, edit contacts, etc. But we ask that you no longer send any general comms out directly from these platforms (Schoolzine notices, SMS, Direqt messages, etc). These will come through Sharisse and I for an assessment before they’re sent, and so that we can regulate the flow of communications.
We appreciate this will be frustrating at times, such as when you just want to send a simple message or reminder, but we hope you’ll see it’s in the best interests of our community as we aim to significantly step up the quality and consistency of our comms.
In the long term we aim to ‘loosen’ control again when everyone is on the same page and we’re confident that all comms will be at an exceptional level. This may involve using some of the platforms we currently have in different ways, or possibly introducing a whole new system if one seems more helpful.
How to Have a Communication Sent #
- A person drafts what they would like to send, including all the necessary details (dates, times, costs, etc).
- That person sends the draft to their Admin (and Principal, if appropriate) for review.
- Admin will add the draft to the ‘Articles’ folder in the shared Communications drive.
- Admin will complete an entry in the ‘Communication Schedule’ spreadsheet in the Communications drive. This schedule will let the Business Office know what, when, and to whom the communication should be addressed.
- The Communication Schedule will be reviewed once in the morning and once in the afternoon.
- The communication will be proofed and prepared, reviewing the type of communication, tone, spelling and grammar, etc. before scheduling it for sending. We may come back to you with suggestions.
- Comms should be added at least one week prior to the send date. This will require some planning ahead on the part of Admin, teachers, and anyone preparing a draft. Most comms we send are known about in advance, so there’s little reason it can’t be drafted with enough time to properly review and prepare it.
- We understand urgent and unplanned things come up – that’s no problem. Follow the same process as above, but give Sharisse or Seth a call to notify that it is an urgent matter. What we want to avoid is every communication being urgent because it’s been left to the last minute.