In this story illustration, we meet Joe, Marketing Manager for a large MAT which has multiple schools across the country, both primary and secondary schools. Here, we see how Joe can use Admissions+ and the MAT / Group Dashboard within his trust!
The MAT/Group Dashboard is currently being used by ARK Federation, Academies Enterprise Trust, GDST, and Haberdashers, to name just a few….
Meet Joe, Marketing Manager for a large MAT which has multiple schools across the country, both primary and secondary schools. One of Joe’s responsibilities is to support the individual schools with their marketing, their recruitment targets, and their admissions process including ensuring timely and effective communication with current and prospective parents.
So what does Joe do?
He needs to be able to see a snapshot of each of the schools in the Trust. How are enquiry numbers stacking up for each school? Does one school require more assistance than others?
Joe needs to gather a lot of data from each school in order to make informed decisions but….different Admissions officers keep different data and they don’t all report it in the same way. Without consistency of reporting, it is very difficult for Joe to know what’s going on. Admissions Officers change as the year progresses and data is often unreliable. Staff are stretched and there is always going to be pressure to meet recruitment targets. If he doesn’t have accurate data, it will lead to poor insights and Joe knows that that could lead to poor decisions.
- Which schools need help the most?
- Where is Joe going to focus his efforts and allocate his scarce resources?
Joe and his team are left scratching their heads. There must be another way…
There is!
If Joe uses Admissions+ and the MAT Dashboard. What’s that?
In this scenario, Joe’s schools are all using Admissions+ to manage their end-to-end admissions and enrolment process digitally. It’s bliss, admissions managers are spending more time with families interacting with them and getting to know them. Joe can see real-time data on each school using the MAT or Group Dashboard.
Now Joe and his colleagues have access to all the benefits of Admissions+ and he has a complete view of how each school is performing. This means Joe’s marketing is more informed and he can be more strategic about planning the spend of his budget and can make a firm plan to meet his goals.
He can track key performance indicators whenever he needs to, meaning he is always aware of how close he is getting to hitting his targets. The KPIs he can see include the number of enquiries, registered applications, completed applications, offers made, offers accepted, and how many students are enrolled in each school.
Joe can see where applicants are being lost which means he can now make data-driven decisions to guide his strategy and can support his schools more effectively. He can also see which schools are performing really well and can share best practice across the Trust leading to economies of scale. He can track performance over time, and see how each school’s numbers change year on year enabling him to draw trends and to set benchmarks for each school. He is also able to create email templates centrally and share them across the Trust. 
Admissions Officers are happy because they have tailored email content to which they can add tokens such as a person’s name etc. This saves a huge amount of time across the group.
Joe is happy because the communication and messaging that prospective parents receive is consistent and messages are branded for each school. Parental engagement is high because parents are kept up-to-date with what’s going on at school, they feel confident that the school has a comprehensive view of their child, including learning and emotional needs, as well hobbies and ambitions. Even parents whose children have not yet joined the school are sent newsletters and timely updates meaning they feel a part of the school community before they’ve even started! The pieces of the jigsaw are now starting to fit together!
In September, parents feel confident that their children will have a great start to their school journey and the children are feeling confident and excited about their first day at their new school. The icing on the cake is that Joe can create and design questions for admissions forms centrally adding some core questions to each school’s form. This means he sees consistent data and can make like-for-like comparisons between schools. The data can be transferred directly into the school’s MIS without the need for manual data inputting and everyone can see the MAT Dashboard.
Joe is now flying and so are his schools’ admissions numbers. Admissions Officers are happy, Headteachers are delighted and the Trust CEO is thrilled. But most importantly of all, parents and students have had a great experience from Joe’s schools before they even joined! What a great first impression they’ve had. What a way to start. Well done Joe!
Testimonials from Admissions+ Customers Using the MAT Dashboard
“We were so pleased that Applicaa had developed the MAT Dashboard as this has really helped us to see a top level overview of the admissions numbers in each of our schools. We can see what schools we need to focus on and put further resources into supporting that school”
Sarah Dawson, Executive PA to Joanne Harper – Chief Executive Officer ALET
“The MAT dashboard easily enables us to see the progress all our schools are making, allowing us to make quick interventions. Being able to create and share content and push out to all our schools, saves time, and ensures consistency across the Trust.”
Joe Nicel Marketing Manager of Academies Enterprise Trust
“The MAT dashboard has saved so much time as I can instantly see applications in all Sixth Forms. This has helped us be more strategic in our marketing. As we move forward it will also help us to have a more consistent approach across the Trust especially when sharing key messages. It is also proving to be invaluable for staffing and curriculum planning as I can see the numbers for each subject across all academies”.
Susan Sharp, Trust Director for Post 16
“We are very impressed by the MAT Dashboard, it gives us an early understanding about our potential applicants and the progression that has been made in their application forms. From a MAT perspective, consolidating real-time information across our schools helps us to continually improve and tailor the experience to make changes that are notably impactful through better results”.
Phil Bourne, Director of Insight and Analysis, Haberdasher’s