Architect, not decorator
We listen before we design. The best school stories are already being lived. We surface those and give them shape. Strategy and creative are grounded in what we hear.
Story and Experience
Your school has a story worth telling, but unearthing and articulating that story is challenging. You can see the result of not investing in this area: the website says one version, the prospectus says another, and misconceptions are creeping in to your community.
Messaging Workshop
Format Single intensive day
Best for For schools who sound like every other school.
For schools who sound like every other school.
Your situation
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.
The work
- 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.
You get
A comprehensive messaging kit, tailored for school use.
A set of custom AI prompts to help your team stay on-message
Shared language your people draw on for website copy, prospectus content, social media, and daily conversations
Experience Design Workshop
Format Half-day workshop
Best for For schools where a specific moment (like a tour) has room for improvement.
For schools where a specific moment (like a tour) has room for improvement.
Your situation
There are a handful of crucial moments throughout the enrolment journey (and school lifecycle). You might have noticed that they depend heavily on who is running it. That there is no strategy or 'playbook'. Or that the people who it's meant to serve are finding it more frustrating than delightful.
The work
- 01 Observation and interviews
We speak with your team to get a deep understanding of the specific goals of the moment, and how its functioning as things stand.
- 02 Half-day workshop
Together, we employ design thinking and a human-centred design via the Experience Builder to design every facet of the moment. We consider all nine dimensions of experience: Moment, Hero, Jobs, Friction, Transformation, Posture, Action, Frontstage, and Backstage.
- 03 Playbook delivery
We turn the workshop output into a finished experience playbook your team can use (and build on) to deliver the redesigned moment.
You get
An experience playbook for the specific moment.
Shared language for future experience designing.
Brand Story Strategy
Format Two terms, around six months
Best for For schools whose current brand story no longer fits who they have become.
For schools whose current brand story no longer fits who they have become.
Your situation
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.
The work
- 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.
You get
A comprehensive brand story strategy
A strategy your own people have shaped, ready to anchor communications, experience design, and creative work
Unique aspects to our approach, like experience principles and the creative manifesto, give you usable, inspiring ground to power your creativity and communication into the future.
Custom scopes
The three offers above are common starting points. 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
Is this you?
Schools come to this stream when...
If any of these sound familiar, it's worth a call. I've started here with many of the schools I work with.
- 01
There are misconceptions about your school creeping in.
- 02
Your website copy could belong to any school in the area.
- 03
A tour is the best chance a family has to feel your school, and it depends entirely on who runs it.
- 04
Your school is special, but you fear it's heavily dependent on personnel, and want to ensure that the culture is embedded for many years to come.
Our approach
How we work
Compass, not manual
We build your capability by designing principles, systems and guardrails that give you a new lens for your work. We want to see you extend, adapt and build excellent and coherent work long after the project is complete.
Lantern, not spotlight
A family's journey with your school starts well before they enquire and continues well after they enrol. We design for that whole arc, so that every touchpoint helps families find their way to a place that is right for them.
Mirror, not megaphone
We help you hear yourself clearly, and then reflect back to you what you need to understand to make progress. Real partnership means being honest about what's working, what isn't, and where the real wins lie.
If you're wondering if one or more of the engagements on this page could benefit your school, let's have a conversation.
Book a 30-minute call
With Jacob
jacob@bolsta.education
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 Brand 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.
When to call us
We partner with school leaders and their teams.
Something that once felt strong has started to fade, and misconceptions are creeping in to fill the gap. The team no longer shares a clear, confident sense of who the school is. We help you re-find and re-anchor the core story, mission and culture, then build the language to hold them.
See related case studiesWhat families see doesn't match how good the school really is, because the visible work has aged out of step with it. We make the rebuild a chance to align story, system, and creative, instead of replacing one piece with another that still doesn't fit.
See related case studiesFamilies slip away between enquiry and enrolment, the journey feels clunky, and the tour depends entirely on who's running it. We map the whole journey and design the moments that decide how a family feels, from the first phone call through to day one.
See related case studiesAdmissions, marketing, communications, and leadership are each holding a different version of the school, and there's so much to fix it's hard to know where to start. We diagnose first, then bring everyone into one map and one language with a sequence matched to your capacity.
See related case studiesWhether you need more of the right families enrolling or the staff to grow with, sustained growth, or sustained slippage, is rarely about marketing alone. We look at the whole enrolment ecosystem and identify the few moves that will move the most.
See related case studiesA new principal, a strategic plan reset, an anniversary, an expansion: moments where the school's story needs to be re-told. We work with leadership to make sure the new chapter is actually heard and felt, and embedded into culture for years.
See related case studies