Wow Ellen what a great idea

Hi,
Im working in Private For-Profit Institute. We were established just.. um a month ago But we are part of corporation in which plans is to grow from one physical campus and online area which is what we have no, to multinational institute with campuses around Europe. What was said to us is to look for other schools that we could partner with. Maybe it is a good idea? If you are lets say in USA. It is good idea to partner along, as a further and higher education institution we could become you partners. Provide mutual programs , provide double awards etc.
As for making your school bigger, the above named works well, as you are on the institutes website as well as institute is on your website,so you show yourself as bigger then you actually are. Another thing is online advertisement on search engines work very well as well as membership and third party accreditation. his is what we are choosing - but it is expensive, and if you dont have someone to back you up,then this is not the best choice. Maybe blogs?
So for a small school:
1) Partnership with larger player (show yourself bigger and stronger then you actually are)
2) Online advertisement on search engines (may cost as much as 0.3$ per add showing, bit expensive)
3) Blogs, some people use blogs to promote schools , products etc.
4) Membership of educational organisations ( expensive, we chosen couple of memberships and some fees go as much as 2000Euro)
5) External accreditation or awarding body - show your quality (some memberships show this as well) attract more students with quality and accreditation.

I know that this discussion is extremely old, but if you are high-school we ourselfs also could be interested in partnership. So feel free to contact me directly on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and we may arrange something up.
Hope this helps,
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

This is my second year as PTO President for our K-5th grade school. We are a fairly new school on year number 4.
I think the key is to hold an event that involves more than just the school community. For example, last year we held our "first annual jog-a-thon" This worked great for bringing attention for our school. We had local running groups sign up, military installations involved, local business and many people who live in the community participated! And... we earned over $6K for our school!!!

Another idea is to hold a monthly "free movie night". This is super simple to do! Just put out the flyers to students and make some signs to put around the school. You could even distribute signs to neighboring schools. Admission would be free and then sell soda, water, popcorn, candy for $.50. You will make a "little" money but more important you are providing a great service to the students and community. All you need is a projector, laptop computer and a blank wall. We started this last year and average close to 200 people at each movie night!!!

Hope that helps,
Michelle

It helps us to have our own PTO website. We had over 330 parents on it last year. We use www.e-pto.org .

Get a booth at a local Street fair or festival with flyers about your school to hand out. When people come to your booth get their email address and followup with them. Have some kids in the booth maybe selling brownies or some kind of baked good to reel the people in.
Most festivals have half discounted booths for schools.

Joining the Chamber of Commerce also helps.

In my opinion, a great way to get news out about your school is through your mascot. If you look at big public schools, people usually associate them with their mascot. Football fans think of the football team and the mascot when they think of the school. The mascot is a key part of the school spirit. Get the public enthused about your school mascot and they'll bring publicity to the school.