Find the words for what makes your school special
Messaging Workshop
No shared language for how the school tells its story. You either sound like every other school, or staff and families are using language that isn't reflective of you really are. Both extremes feel unhealthy.
- 01 Pre-workshop interviews
We interview your key staff beforehand to hear how they currently talk about the school. This surfaces the gaps between what different people say and what families actually hear.
- 02 Workshop day
We guide you through curious, engaging conversation to reveal your core school character, the messages that carry it, and the stories that make those messages memorable.
- 03 Messaging document delivery
We synthesise the workshop into a finished messaging kit covering pillars, stories, and character.
Story Strategy
Your school has changed, but the brand story has not kept up. You need a comprehensive strategy that is co-designed with your community, not delivered top down.
- 01 Working groups
We run working groups with your students, parents, staff and leadership. Each group brings their lived experience to the table, as we explore the emerging common threads.
- 02 Strategy development
We synthesise what your community has shared into a strategic framework. Each element of the strategy is built from the language and convictions your people already hold. We manage the process end to end, so the strategy is yours without becoming another project your team has to completely own.
- 03 Strategy delivery
Your school receives a brand story document covering its character, messaging pillars, signature stories, brand narrative, moodboards, and creative manifesto. Plus, experience principles that give your team a practical filter for daily decisions, and AI prompts for generating on-brand content. The strategy is designed to anchor everything that may follow: visual identity, communications, and the moments families experience.
Custom scopes
We regularly work with schools on custom scopes, unique to their particular situation.
- 01 Tour experience design using Bolsta's tour design canvas
- 02 Custom story and experience engagements
- 03 AI prompt development for messaging and content
- 04 Voice and tone development
- 05 Storytelling training for staff
- 06 Newsletter and content strategy
What schools say
“Jacob's Enrolment journey-building concept cards were fantastic tools to help us think critically and creatively about the entire journey — from first contact through to enrolment. It was especially powerful to see how experience design principles can support meaningful change in a fee-free, independent school setting like ours.”
Katy Devers Marketing & Administration Manager Kairos Community College
Frequently Asked Questions
We’ve done this kind of work before and it didn’t change much — how’s this different?
In our experience, story or brand work that doesn’t stick was either done to the school rather than with it, or the school was never properly equipped to own what got handed over. We only work with schools, so the whole process is built around how schools actually operate, and we keep refining it for the longevity and usefulness of the work. It’s also why we increasingly hand over generative principles your team can apply, rather than fixed guidelines that gather dust on a shelf.
How long does this kind of work take?
It depends on the engagement. The Messaging Workshop and Experience Design are single or half-day sessions with some pre-work beforehand. The fuller pieces, like Story Strategy, run across about two school terms, and we’d want you going in eyes open: this is meaningful, foundational work, and that means it takes time to do well, including the approvals along the way. We’d rather set that expectation up front than rush something this important.
Will this improve our enrolments?
It works on what enrolment growth is built on: how clearly families understand and trust your school. It isn’t a quick lever like an ad campaign, it’s the foundation the rest stands on, so we’re honest that it’s slower and deeper than a tactic. If you’re weighing levers like advertising, this is the work to do first, so any campaign is optimised, working with your culture rather than against it, and pointed at long-term results.
Why is storytelling important for schools?
Because a school isn’t a product, and families aren’t really shopping. They’re anxious, hoping to choose well for their child, looking for somewhere they belong. Story is how they work that out. Not the polished, aspirational kind every school reaches for, but the kind grounded in what’s actually lived on your grounds each day. Told honestly and consistently, it does two things at once: it helps the right families recognise themselves and choose with confidence, and it helps the school recognise itself. A mirror held up to the community, not a megaphone pointed past it. That, for us, is the shift that matters: from school marketing to school storytelling.