May the "Fours" be With You
As Catholic Schools Week begins next week, you may still be searching for some type of "remarkability" in your school - what certain trait (or activity, aspect or something that you might think is routine) makes your school stand out from the crowd of other schools. Maybe it's a "Buddy" program you have in place at your school, where the 8th graders buddy-up with the 1st graders or Kindergarteners. Such a program reinforces a commitment to stop bullying in a school, since the "big kids" are given a responsibility for the little ones. It's a great life lesson, too.
Perhaps, you've found those things, but you're looking for a way to succinctly get the message out there. Consider what I like to call the "Four Marks" approach.
To explain, what are the four marks of the Catholic Church? The Catholic Church is one, holy, catholic, and apostolic. A previous Marketing Matter spoke about The FACE of Catholic Education. Click the link to find out what the F, A, C and E stand for.
Some schools have adopted this approach in memorable ways. Padua Academy, an all-female High School in Wilmington, Delaware, uses four S's: Spirituality, Sisterhood, Service, and Scholarship. St. Joseph High School in Natrona Heights, Pennsylvania (recently chosen as one of the top 50 Catholic high schools in America!) uses SJHS as their springboard for their marks: Sanctity, Justice, Honor, and Scholarship.
Just as every memorable song has to have a "hook" in order to make it memorable, these marks can act as a "hook" to keep your school top of mind in your prospective parents.
© Michael V. Ziemski, SchoolAdvancement, 2009 (Original Publication date: 20090119)
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