Hi. I’m Pauline and I am part of the data management team here at Sprint.

In a past life I was a teacher. I taught Science across all secondary stages and ended up as Head of Science in a Middle School. Data has always been very close to my heart and I have spent many hours counting oxygen bubbles being emitted from pond weed, the time taken for a pendulum to swing, or a ruler to stop vibrating.

Pupils needed to be taught that accurate data was the basis for all scientific progress. Of course, most of my data at this time would have consisted of tables of measurements – numbers, I adore them!

I’m sure many of you are involved with data. Not so much numbers though, but rather school names, addresses, emails and staff names etc. When you are managing your own education data for your marketing, remember just how important it is to keep it up to date.

Things can change in the blink of an eye. It is time consuming, demoralising, and often a waste of money trying to contact a teacher who has left or a school that has closed or changed its name. It also does nothing to foster school confidence in your business.

I have been doing some research into just a few of the changes that we all need to keep abreast of:

1. Status changes are all the rage at the moment

In 2014, 828 schools converted to Academy status with many having a complete name change.

2. The rise of Free Schools

At the beginning of 2015 there were over 300 Free Schools, but of these 5 have already had a name change and 3 have closed down. During this year at least another 110 Free Schools are lined up to open.

3. Schools are opening and closing every day

Already in 2015, 118 establishments are due to close with another 166 due to open. And we're only 6 weeks into the new year!

4. Leadership teams are changing constantly

Just taking one Times Educational Supplement from last year (they come out every week) I counted 50 adverts for new Head Teachers and 43 adverts for Deputy and Assistant Heads.

5. The endless retirement, promotion, relocation merry-go-round

It’s hard to find current numbers for teachers but in Scotland in 2013 there were 49,790 and in England there were 451,000. Remember a lot of them will be on the move, whether due to retirement, the need for promotion, or just looking for new horizons.

Of course, all of this adds up to one massive challenge for anyone who has just bought schools data and is trying to keep it up to date!

Every day my research team and I are beavering away updating the Education Database, so that each time our clients log in they get fresh, accurate data. We will have found out which schools have opened and closed, changed status or moved to a new site, which staff have left or joined a school, and checked that schools have not changed their email addresses.

And, do you know what? I just love doing it!

Tags
Marketing to Schools Emailing Teachers Schools Database Email Head Teachers School Addresses UK List of Schools in UK List of Schools in England Primary School Email Addresses

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