Thinking about a newsletter

Pro:

Your information is customized. You control what your newsletter will look like, but you can also customize its content, appearance and release so that it only relates certain kinds of information to specific groups. Your staff, your board, the parents, all of them.

Con:

Too many e-mails. People are inundated with e-mails from everyone and everywhere. It’s easy to overlook a couple of e-mail items without high priority, especially if the recipient has a lot of them. Unfortunately, your e-Newsletter might be one of those emails that is overlooked.

If you decide to go ahead, find out how parents and the local community wish to receive news about the school and its events. Offer a range of options.

School community newsletters should provide the means to inform, promote, gather solutions and ideas, and educate. Decide on how you want the balance of these four tasks in each newsletter.

To ensure your intended audience reads your news, it is best to be brief, stick to the point, and customize the message. Take into account the amount of information people must deal with today.

• People have become very discerning information consumers.
• Ensure the newsletter provides the means to convey important messages about your school’s vision, values, strategies and plans.
• Align the messages with your key leadership activities: leading change, leading learning and problem solving.
• Establish and stick to a regular publication timetable.
• Use a template for easy preparation of each edition.
• Enlist others as reporters, such as student volunteers and staff.
• Quality is important, but you need to stick to the budget. Establish the highest standards for accuracy of detail and grammar. Keep in mind that in your communication, you act as a role model. Have a neutral proof reader.
• Make sure the school has parental permission to use any photos of students included.
• Set aside and devote a specific to do your part of the newsletter, preferably several days before the publication due date.
• Ensure that digital newsletters are easy to read online or to download and open.
• Remember that you bear the overall responsibility for your newsletters. You must have the final say on what is included and how it is written.