The Enrolment Ecosystem is as much about caring for your team as it is about your families.
After working a number of fast-growing schools, I see the same script playing out repeatedly: good, capable admin and admissions teams being let down by systems that simply weren’t built for their current reality.
The Breaking Point
Your admin office was probably designed around — believe it or not — doing administration. The Registrar was there to process enrolments. That worked well at 200 or 300 students.
But I consistently see schools trying to force the same system to work at 400, 500, even 800 enrolments. To be frank: that’s too much work and responsibility for people who, five years ago, were handling comparitively straightforward administrative tasks.
The Warning Signs
Does any of this sound familiar?
The frankenstein role:
- Marketing Manager / Office Manager / School Nurse
- Social Media Coordinator / Executive Assistant / HR Manager
The indispensable employee:
You have one superstar who’s genuinely good at everything, but nobody knows exactly how they do what they do. Oh, and they keep taking stress leave every three weeks.
The parent experience breakdown:
- “I tried to book a tour but no one returned my call”
- “I spoke to your receptionist and she said Kindergarten was full” (Who needs waiting lists anyway, right?)
Why Traditional Solutions Don’t Work
These problems persist because schools try to patch old structures with quick fixes. You might hire another admin person or ask existing staff to “just handle” enrolment inquiries on top of their current duties.
But an old structure can’t be shoehorned to address challenges it was never designed for. The foundation simply isn’t there.
What Actually Works
There’s no “How to Grow From 400 to 800 Enrollments Without Burning Out Your Team for Dummies”—and frankly, such a guide would never work anyway. Schools and people are too complex and dynamic for cookie-cutter solutions.
What does work is structured thinking combined with careful change management. This means:
- Systematic assessment of your current enrollment journey
- Intentional restructuring of roles and responsibilities
- Gradual implementation that brings your team along rather than overwhelming them
- Outside perspective from someone who can see what you can’t see from inside your school’s daily operations
At Bolsta, we use the Enrolment Ecosystem Pulse to help schools make this transition thoughtfully. We partner with school leaders to move their teams from one structure to a new one with empathy and care.
Your Next Step
If this resonates with your experience — whether you’re a school leader watching your team struggle or an admin team member feeling the strain — it’s time for some honest reflection.
Ask yourself: is our current enrolment system serving both our families and our people? If the answer is no, then it’s time to start redesigning the journey.
The next step doesn’t have to be overwhelming. It starts with one simple question: what would it look like if enrolment actually worked for everyone involved?
About the author
Jacob Shultz
Founder, Bolsta Education
Jacob is a specialist in experience strategy for schools. His focus is on improving the lived experience of schools — through story, systems and the small moments that shape how families feel.
