About me...
I have been working within schools for 13 years and I love the fact that no two days have ever been the same. I originally started my marketing career at Dulwich College Shanghai after initially finding myself in Shanghai as a 'trailing spouse' with two young children. It was an extremely different environment to the one from which I came from and I decided that the only way to understand the culture better was to learn to speak the language and to work with its people. Both proved to be no mean task with a steep learning curve, but highly rewarding in the end.
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The interesting phenomenon in developing cities, is that employers are constantly on the look out for resourceful people. I was fortunate enough to be recruited into Dulwich College Shanghai where my children were at school. The school was brand new so they just needed people that could think on their feet and do anything and everything at a drop of a hat. I worked closely with the Director of Development as she set up the Admissions and Marketing Department. This department was very much on the front line, exposing me to the entire school community from students, teachers and parents. I love a challenge and can rarely say 'no' to a request, so I very quickly became the go to person. Realising that I needed to develop my technical skills to support an ever growing school, I learned to manipulate a number of different software and applications to bring in-house a lot of the media and communications. This included the school newsletters, termly magazine, handbooks, curriculum guides and the managment of the school calendar and website. All schools have a number of events and I was instrumental in orchestrating many of these including putting together appropriate working committees to set them up.
In addition, my excellent oral and written communication abilities, allowed the headmaster to rely on me to be the main liaison between senior management and other stakeholders including management, colleagues, parents, students, press and vendors. I also really enjoyed working with the Chinese nationals in the administration departments, and it gave me an excellent opportunity to become highly competent in speaking Mandarin.
After my children graduated and returned to the UK for university, I decided it was time for me to return to the UK so that I could be on hand if they needed support. So sadly, my Chinese adventure came to an end and a week later I found myself in North London meeting David Rose, who was at the time, the Head of Dwight School in London. I was so excited to be able to find another school within which to continue my career journey.
Since joining Dwight I have implemented a new online admissions system and upgraded their online presence by creating a new website. I have moved their communications from paper to digital and introduced online forms and payment systems for items such as music lessons and trips. I have built up their social media activity and introduced Instagram and Snapchat to go alongside their Facebook and Twitter accounts as well as set up a Facebook group specifically aimed at alumni. One of my most recent accomplishment was working alongside ITN Productions to create a promotional video for the school in line with the International Baccalaureate’s 50th Anniversary. I have introduced processes to track Marketing success and worked closely with the Director of Admissions to improve the families’ journey throughout the school. As an international school, transition has been an important part of improving the internal marketing and thus retention. In addition to this I work closely with the admissions team on events such as Open House.
The school is divided into two campuses over four sites; I have enjoyed the challenge of working with the Senior Management Team to set-up strategies to improve retention especially around key stages when the school traditionally haemorrhaged. It has been a challenge to get the support of faculty, as well as parents, to see it as one school rather than separate Primary and Secondary Schools, but with perseverance, this has improved immensely. All communication, both external and internal is sent to me for proof reading and distribution as I also manage the communications database as the different systems currently do not communicate, although this is something that I am now working on with the companies concerned. I often shadow-write for the Head of School and I am very aware that conveying a message accurately to a culturally diverse parent and student body requires both sensitivity and clarity. I write all press releases and advertorials seeking input from academic staff when necessary. I have introduced a termly magazine, which I not only share with students, parents and faculty, but also with feeder schools, educational consultants and other key stakeholders. The introduction of an annual Yearbook at the school has also been a very successful project.
I have been key in organising many school events, such as parent and teacher conferences, staff functions, sports tournaments, drama festivals, School Fairs and Graduation.
I work comfortably with all Adobe software, including inDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop and have bought all the design work in-house, saving a huge amount of the marketing budget. I produce all the artwork for both online and print adverts, posters, magazines, tickets and programmes; I also enjoy working with students on creative projects and sharing my knowledge with them, often learning new skills from them too. I have in the past also written briefs for external graphic designers when required, ensuring they adhere to branding guidelines and monitor print quality.
I am the school Parent Association representative, and I sit on the School Consultative Group Committee, these roles have helped me focus on internal Marketing issues and react accordingly. Recently I led a focus group of teachers, parents and admin staff that looked specifically at Partnering with Parents, this covered everything from the website to Reporting. Last year I was asked to present at an Admission’s Conference in Doha and I am very comfortable in a networking setting.
I am flexible and adaptable and am used to being called upon to carry out a variety of tasks outside of office hours and understand the importance of this. I am a self-starter and able to work within varying time constraints and structures. I have an excellent working relationship with my colleagues, and have also fostered good relationships with all stakeholders in the Dwight community.
If you would like to know more, please do get in touch. In the meantime, please enjoy exploring my portfolio using the linked headings above.
After my children graduated and returned to the UK for university, I decided it was time for me to return to the UK so that I could be on hand if they needed support. So sadly, my Chinese adventure came to an end and a week later I found myself in North London meeting David Rose, who was at the time, the Head of Dwight School in London. I was so excited to be able to find another school within which to continue my career journey.
Since joining Dwight I have implemented a new online admissions system and upgraded their online presence by creating a new website. I have moved their communications from paper to digital and introduced online forms and payment systems for items such as music lessons and trips. I have built up their social media activity and introduced Instagram and Snapchat to go alongside their Facebook and Twitter accounts as well as set up a Facebook group specifically aimed at alumni. One of my most recent accomplishment was working alongside ITN Productions to create a promotional video for the school in line with the International Baccalaureate’s 50th Anniversary. I have introduced processes to track Marketing success and worked closely with the Director of Admissions to improve the families’ journey throughout the school. As an international school, transition has been an important part of improving the internal marketing and thus retention. In addition to this I work closely with the admissions team on events such as Open House.
The school is divided into two campuses over four sites; I have enjoyed the challenge of working with the Senior Management Team to set-up strategies to improve retention especially around key stages when the school traditionally haemorrhaged. It has been a challenge to get the support of faculty, as well as parents, to see it as one school rather than separate Primary and Secondary Schools, but with perseverance, this has improved immensely. All communication, both external and internal is sent to me for proof reading and distribution as I also manage the communications database as the different systems currently do not communicate, although this is something that I am now working on with the companies concerned. I often shadow-write for the Head of School and I am very aware that conveying a message accurately to a culturally diverse parent and student body requires both sensitivity and clarity. I write all press releases and advertorials seeking input from academic staff when necessary. I have introduced a termly magazine, which I not only share with students, parents and faculty, but also with feeder schools, educational consultants and other key stakeholders. The introduction of an annual Yearbook at the school has also been a very successful project.
I have been key in organising many school events, such as parent and teacher conferences, staff functions, sports tournaments, drama festivals, School Fairs and Graduation.
I work comfortably with all Adobe software, including inDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop and have bought all the design work in-house, saving a huge amount of the marketing budget. I produce all the artwork for both online and print adverts, posters, magazines, tickets and programmes; I also enjoy working with students on creative projects and sharing my knowledge with them, often learning new skills from them too. I have in the past also written briefs for external graphic designers when required, ensuring they adhere to branding guidelines and monitor print quality.
I am the school Parent Association representative, and I sit on the School Consultative Group Committee, these roles have helped me focus on internal Marketing issues and react accordingly. Recently I led a focus group of teachers, parents and admin staff that looked specifically at Partnering with Parents, this covered everything from the website to Reporting. Last year I was asked to present at an Admission’s Conference in Doha and I am very comfortable in a networking setting.
I am flexible and adaptable and am used to being called upon to carry out a variety of tasks outside of office hours and understand the importance of this. I am a self-starter and able to work within varying time constraints and structures. I have an excellent working relationship with my colleagues, and have also fostered good relationships with all stakeholders in the Dwight community.
If you would like to know more, please do get in touch. In the meantime, please enjoy exploring my portfolio using the linked headings above.