Solution

We spoke to current pupils, boarders, staff, parents, alumni and Governors to establish exactly what made Pocklington what it is, and particularly what makes it different to other schools both locally and across the country.

With a new positioning of ‘Inspired for life’ we ensured that they became much more vocal about the type of education on offer - one focused on a child’s individual talent and inherent strengths. For the Prep School, this was about inspiring a love of learning; for the Senior School, inspiring self-determined success; and for the Sixth Form, inspiring students about their future opportunity.

We also created the School’s first cohesive identity, suitable for both print and online. For the schools we developed a modern interpretation of the wheatsheaf symbolism within the founding family’s 500 year old Coat of Arms that helped the schools appear to be more joined up. And a reworking of the coat of arms, made it easier to reproduce across all channels, whilst reserving it for more formal applications.

We commissioned a series of photo shoots with Guy Farrow to capture the spirit, friendships and characters of the students themselves, and along with new messaging helped connect the brand with the challenges of modern family life, showing that everything was open to all, particularly helping integrate boarding-based activities into the pre and after-school experience.

We also identified a number of opportunities to build on the substantial word-of-mouth support that the school enjoyed. We focussed on Social media, and developed a strategy to harness the enthusiasm within the school to create a strong on-line profile from everyday activity, helping Pocklington become visible beyond the local community.