Warden Hill Primary School in Cheltenham is an ‘outstanding school providing an oasis of educational excellence’ (OFSTED 2008).
But at the admission of Head Teacher, Georgina Flooks, the school branding and communication material fell short of the same standards. “When I came into post in early 2017 high on my agenda was investing in our school brand and marketing. What’s followed has been an exciting process with outstanding results.
The guys are a fantastic team to work with, who really listen to your ideas and turn them into reality. Nothing was too much trouble and the little details really do count. We have had brilliant value for money.”
To complete an overhaul of the school branding, website and communications material.
From early conversations it was clear that a contemporary, clean design style was most appropriate. In addition, the overall theme needed to reflect a core component of the school – the pupils feel part of the whole school family, yet are proud members of four houses that offer keen competition across many disciplines.
For a brand to accurately represent its school, and to ensure it is successfully adopted, we believe two things are paramount. First, the people within the school are engaged with the process from the outset. And secondly, a core set of values are identified and agreed within the school.
We subsequently provided exercises to the SLT to help them create a picture of what the school represents, and ultimately why and how it’s different. Staff and pupils were then asked to identify the core values at the heart of the school. Some strong themes quickly came through, resulting in the values – Belong, Explore, Succeed.
“The SLT were thrilled, but not surprised, by the way all our staff enjoyed being involved in creating a vision for our school. Furthermore, the nature of the feedback provided by our pupils mirrored all the things we hold dear.” Georgina Flooks, Head Teacher.
With that input as our foundation, we set about developing logo identity concepts. With a concept chosen, this was expanded across stationery and signage visuals to show how it could come to life. Following unanimous approval, we designed a full range of printed material and built the school’s new website. The website being a contemporary, uncluttered site that provides easy access to information for all the school’s stakeholders.
Within the process we worked closely with our partner printers and photographer to ensure a coherent delivery of material.
