SA/NT eNEWS – October 2023 - 13 October 2023

From the President

As I sit down to reflect on the recent Nexus Summit, I am overwhelmed with gratitude and excitement. It was an amazing journey!

For the past ten months, we’ve been planning and working on it together. It was a big effort, led by a remarkable organising committee and a team of volunteers that make up the SA/NT Committee. Although my role was smaller, every bit of planning brought us closer to our vision. It was a true team effort.

I want to say a big thank you to the people who made the Summit a success. First, our hardworking Educate Plus Staff – Mandy, Sona, Danielle, Sandra, Tina, and Michelle – your dedication and hard work were crucial.

I also want to thank our Summit Committee members: Vanessa and Sue, who made things fun and paid great attention to detail; Ale, who added beautiful art; Julie, who beautifully looked after our Partners and Exhibitors; Beck, who was a reliable friend that kept everything on track; and Helen, who had a calming presence, a strong vision, and brought people together. Together, you formed an exceptional team that created an event we will cherish for years to come. Thank you for working together and being the driving force behind our success.

I also want to show appreciation to our Committee members – Janine, Victoria, Joanna, Jo, April, Steve, and Paul. You all worked together well, from leading sessions to helping with tasks, welcoming attendees, and making sure everything ran smoothly. Your dedication and teamwork were impressive.

One of our proudest achievements was getting excellent speakers from different areas of Advancement. The knowledge they shared was truly inspiring. But what makes the SA/NT Summit special is our community. We worked hard to get the word out, and a lot of people came. It shows how much our members enjoy each other’s company and are eager to learn.

During those two incredible days we spent together, there were so many exciting ideas and conversations. It was a whirlwind of inspiration, and by the end, I felt both tired and excited. I’d like to compare it to something I’ve heard about but never felt myself: the “runner’s high.” It’s like feeling tired and happy at the same time!

As we move forward, let’s keep the spirit of the Summit with us. We’ll embrace both the tiredness and the excitement. Together, we’ll keep learning, growing, and inspiring each other to do great things.

Best regards,

Ana Gozalo | Educate Plus SA/NT Chapter President

e: ana.gozalo@pulteney.sa.edu.au | t: 08 8216 5537

New Member Welcome

We can’t wait to meet you …

We extend a very warm welcome to our latest Members, who have recently joined us this quarter. We are thrilled to have you as part of our SA/NT Chapter community!

While it’s a little way off, we do hope that you will be able to join us at the next ‘New Member Meetup’, to be held as follows:

Event Details
Date: Wednesday 8 November, 2023
Time: 1pm-1.45pm AEST (10am AWST; 3pm NZST)
Place: Online (via Zoom)
Cost: Free for members
Register: CLICK HERE

Information regarding the next ‘New Member Meetup’ will be sent to all new Members, closer to the date – but for now, make sure to save the date in your calendar.

These sessions are a wonderful, informal way catch up with other new Members, and to hear more about the benefits of being a Member and what is available to you on our website.

And of course, we look forward to welcoming you to any upcoming SA/NT in-person events. It was lovely to catch up with some of you at the recent Summit in the Adelaide Hills, and there will be more opportunities for getting together for professional development and networking, as the year continues.

Welcome to our newest Members:

Name	Position	Institution
Bell, Jennie	Community Engagement	Mercedes College, SA
Bielby, Imogen	Manager Alumni Services	University of South Australia
Botha, David	Marketing Manager	Westminster School
Darcy, Keeley	Enrolment Registrar	St Martins Lutheran College
De Porteous, Alex	Communications and Engagement Coordinator	Mercedes College, SA
Grace, Patrina	Events & Marketing Officer	Encounter Lutheran College
Gray, Zoe	Advancement Officer Fundraising	University of South Australia
Jones, Nicole	Manager of Enrolment Operations	Concordia College
Littlejohn, Monique	Senior Philanthropy Manager – Major Gifts	University of South Australia
Netolicky, Deborah	Principal	Walford Anglican School for Girls
Newell, Holly	Enrolments Manager	St Peter’s Girls’ School, Adelaide
Paterson, Nicki	Executive Assistant to the Headmaster	Prince Alfred College
Van Breda, Anton	Business Director	Faith Lutheran College
Vlachos, Angela	Community Engagement Coordinator	Walford Anglican School for Girls
Weston, Amelia	Marketing and Communications Coordinator	Pembroke School

Last Coffee Catch-up for 2023!

How does a free coffee sound to start the day?

As we race towards the end of Term 4, the SA/NT Chapter Committee invites you to join them for the final Educate Plus ‘Coffee Catch-up’ for the year on Thursday 9 November.

With three different locations to choose from, please join us to celebrate our collective achievements over coffee and conversation.

Event Details

Date: Thursday 9 November
Time: 7.30am – 9.00am
Cost: Your first coffee is on us!
Venues: For your convenience, we are hosting Coffee Catch-ups at three different locations.

To Register:

More Info / Register

AGM and Christmas Drinks

Join us for our last event of the year …

We invite you to an evening of camaraderie and festive cheer at the Educate Plus SA/NT Executive Committee’s Annual General Meeting and Christmas get-together.

The AGM is an opportunity to learn more about the work being done at a Chapter level, both current initiatives and achievements, as well as future goals.

After the AGM, we invite all members to enjoy some delightful refreshments and finger food courtesy of the Chapter. So, don’t forget to bring your holiday spirit as we come together to celebrate 2023 and the approaching festive season.

Event Details

Date: Wednesday 22 November
Time: 5.00pm: Networking Drinks and AGM; 7.00pm: Dinner (optional).
Cost: Free for Members. We’ll provide refreshments and finger food. As tradition dictates, members are welcome to join us for dinner afterward, with expenses on their own.
Venue: The Robin Hood Hotel, 315 Portrush Rd, Norwood SA 5067.
AGM Agenda: CLICK HERE

Please Register by Friday 17 November. Please note that this event is exclusively for members.

More Info / Register

Official Notice of the SA/NT AGM

In accordance with the Company’s Constitution, Rules of a Chapter, Clause 8, the Agenda of the SA/NT Chapter AGM, to be held on Wednesday 22 November, from 5.00pm, is as follows:

Meeting opens, quorum established
Present and apologies
Registration of Proxies
Confirmation of the Minutes of the 2022 Chapter Annual General Meeting
SA/NT Chapter President’s Report and financial statements
Appointment of Chapter Officers and Committee
Any special business (thirty (30) days’ notice is required)
Ordinary business
Close

If you are unable to attend the AGM, to access the AGM Proxy Form, CLICK HERE

Join the Committee!

We invite you to consider joining the SA/NT Chapter Committee. The strength of our Chapter relies on the dedication of its Committee, and our volunteers are highly valued for their contributions.

Is it worthwhile? Absolutely. There’s nothing quite as fulfilling as seeing your ideas put into action and making a positive impact on the Advancement profession.

Is it hard work? Well, at times, it can be challenging. But it’s also incredibly rewarding and a whole lot of fun. You’ll have the chance to acquire new skills and take on responsibilities that help steer the direction of the SA/NT Chapter.

If you’re curious about becoming a member of the Chapter Committee, don’t hesitate to reach out to one of our Committee Members. They’ll be happy to provide more information.

Remember, all nominations must be submitted by Wednesday 21 November, 2023

To access the Committee Member Nomination Form, CLICK HERE

Upcoming Webinars

We invite you to register for this upcoming Webinar:

WEBINAR: Improving Engagement via Social Networks for Alumni (and other overlooked community groups!)

We easily focus engagement activities on the community groups in front of us. However, it would be remiss to overlook former students, past parents and previous staff. Especially as they are larger in number (and potential impact) than those on site each term. Collectively these segments are geographically dispersed. They cross many life stages. This makes engagement more challenging. Social networks can help to bridge the divide. Activities via socials can be more regular than events and more relational than emails or publications.

But are we maximising the opportunity? We know more can be done than the occasional alumni achievement post. But what works? And which channels should get your attention?

Key Takeaways:

How to strategically use social media & networks for engagement of your ‘past’ communities.
How to balance the challenges and opportunities of social media for your institution
What merit there is in owning one of your own.
What ‘content themes work and see examples from other educational organisations.

Who Is This Webinar For:

Community Engagement professionals
Alumni Relations professionals
Marketing Communications professionals

Event Details:

Date: Tuesday, 24 October 2023
Time: 1pm–2pm AEST
Location: Online via Zoom
Cost: Free for Members, $35 (+gst) for Non-Members

Presenters:

Merryn Parks: A service marketer by trade Merryn Parks spent a decade (or so!) working in telecommunications across a variety of Director level roles at Optus including brand, retail, segment and product marketing. With a heart leading her to the ‘For Purpose’ industry Merryn switched to education working in Advancement. She launched the Alumni program from scratch at Oxford Falls Grammar and drove their philanthropic efforts in conjunction with the Foundation. After being an early local ToucanTech customer she switched sides, and is now ToucanTech’s General Manager, APAC. ToucanTech supports marketing, advancement and development teams through software and digital technologies.
Catherine Rainbow: Catherine serves as the Development Coordinator at St. Peter’s College, Adelaide. With a robust background in CRM systems, Catherine embraced the challenge of launching the School’s Alumni Connection platform “SPOC Connect” in late 2021. To date, the platform boasts nearly 1900 online members and has proven to be a formidable tool for maintaining connections as students transition to Alumni.
Rebecca Healy: Rebecca is the Director of Philanthropy at Scotch College and Executive Officer of the Scotch College Foundation. She has over 20 years’ experience across the educational, not-for-profit and corporate sectors in the areas of philanthropy, stakeholder engagement, marketing and communications. With a strong focus on stakeholder engagement and building community. Rebecca is focused on the donor experience, understands the power of story-telling and is motivated by the role philanthropy plays in the educational sector.

To Register:

More Information / Register

Introducing … Helen Karapandzic

Meet a Member …

Each eNews, we would like to introduce you to one of our wonderful Chapter Members, through a Question & Answer type interview article.

Therefore, in the hotseat this edition, is Helen Karapandzic, SA/NT Chapter Vice Present, recent SA/NT Summit Chair and Director of Philanthropy at Prince Alfred College

1. Tell us something that might surprise us about you …

I love the ocean and cold-water swimming. I have swum in glacial meltwater lakes in Norway and Scottish lochs. In Adelaide, I swim all year round … but only during daylight hours. One of the scariest things I have done was night diving in California with an array of nocturnal creatures at close range!!

2. What lead you to your present role? What is your favourite aspect?

I have always worked in roles with a strong focus on relationship building, communications and event planning. Working in educational Advancement, and specifically in Fundraising, brings together these skills to make a difference in the lives of young people, which is an amazing privilege.

3. How long have you been a member of EP?

I have been involved in Educate Plus as a Member and Committee Member since 2013.

4. What has being a member done to help your career development?

One of the wonderful things about Educate Plus is how willing our community is to connect and share knowledge and experience. During the early stages of my career, I learnt a lot from others and it is a great feeling now to be able to give back through participation on committees, speaking at conferences and events, and providing mentoring and advice.

5. Who would you like to have lunch with and where?

The global pandemic and a young family meant that we didn’t see our family overseas for seven years. Meeting my niece and nephew for the first time in July was incredibly precious – I would take a sausage sizzle in the back yard with them over a fancy restaurant any day.

6. Favourite food and why?

Bread – baking it and eating it. Nothing beats the smell of freshly-baked bread.

7. Where is your favourite travel location and why?

My hometown – Cambridge. It is hard not to get swept up in its historic architecture, beautiful parks and gardens, and cultural vibrancy. Not to mention the fact that everyone in Cambridge cycles – so good.

8. What does success look like to you?

To live each day with purpose.

9. What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?

Be true to yourself.

10. When you die, what do you want to be remembered for?

Being a good friend, a loving mother and an eternal optimist.

Thank you Helen! It’s been wonderful to get to know you!

The Science of Success

This article is a summary of the Presentation, titled “The Science of Success”, delivered by Matthew Michalewicz (Speaker, Author, Entrepreneur and CEO, Complexica), at the recent SA/NT Summit. The summary has been provided by communikate et al, partner of the 2023 Educate Plus SA/NT Summit

‘Plan A’ for 16-year-old Matthew Michalewicz was to become the next Arnold Schwarzenegger.

But, after reading Arnie’s 600-plus page Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding, Matthew realised that the book neglected to mention the extra two percent you needed to become an elite bodybuilder – unbelievable genetics and a pharmacologist to support you every step of the way.

It was that realisation that led the highly acclaimed speaker, author and entrepreneur to later research his ‘fact-based’ formula for achieving success in life and business.

At this year’s Educate Plus SA/NT Chapter Summit, Matthew Michalewicz outlined five “simple things that if you do in your life, your chances of succeeding are going to be much, much greater”.

Here is Matthew’s proven path to personal and professional success:

Create clarity through precise goals

“More than 80 years of research proves that people in organisations with goals outperform the organisations without,” Matthew said, because they had “focus and context”.

However, Matthew says goals must be precise and “in the language of mathematics – that’s minutes, hours, volume, length, percentage etcetera.

A goal shouldn’t be to grow quickly because that’s not measurable. A goal should be to increase your school’s fundraising by 10 percent in the next 12 months.

These precise goals give clarity, and people with clear goals make better decisions and ask better questions.

Align your goals to your desire

“Desire equals effort” and the more aligned our goals are with our true desires, Matthew says, the more effort we’ll put into achieving them.

Often our goals don’t reflect what we really want to achieve and they need to be re-framed, and if we’re constantly telling ourselves we can’t do something, it’s more likely because we don’t want to do it, than that we can’t actually achieve it.

Examples that Matthew gave included whether a personal goal should be to lose more weight, versus wanting to have more energy, or whether you want to spend more time with family, versus wanting to be a better role model.

Change your belief by changing your environment

What we believe is more important that what is real, Matthew argues, because we act in a manner that is consistent with our beliefs.

Belief is a better indicator of performance than actual capability, Matthew says, pointing to school students as an example. If they don’t believe they are good at a subject, then they’ll get bad grades, even if they’re more than capable of doing it.

Nothing about our beliefs is genetic and is entirely dependent on those around us. The greatest influences on us, Matthew says, are the five people we spend the most amount of time with besides our families. That’s why we must surround ourselves with friends and mentors who believe in us and support us to achieve our personal and professional goals.

Invest in knowledge

Matthew says he often hears people say that education is too expensive, and it’s stopping them from being successful, however “the most expensive thing you’re ever going to encounter in your life is ignorance”.

“Ignorance is the difference between where you could have been and where you are, but you lacked the knowledge to close that gap.”

If you can only invest in one thing, invest in yourself.

Take daily action towards your goals

When goals are so great, they demotivate us to achieve them.

However, according to Matthew, “research has shown that if you can take your goal and break it down into steps or label milestones, they become more achievable and people are much more likely to follow through on the action”.

Coming back to the weight loss example, Matthew said if you wanted to lose 40 kilograms, that’s the big goal. That’s the goal that seems unachievable and makes you lose motivation.

Instead, break it down – the first goal might be to make an appointment with a nutritionist, the second might be to have a personal trainer work with you 2 – 3 times per week, and the third step might be joining a support group of other people working to lose weight.

Thank you to communikate et al, partner of the 2023 Educate Plus SA/NT Summit, who have provided this summary article for the SA/NT eNEWS.

Potentiality Leads the Way with the ‘Privacy Detector’ Booth

Article supplied by Isabella Blick | Head of Asia Pacific Customer Experience | Potentiality

At the recent Northampton conference, we rolled out an unprecedented experiment: a “Privacy Detector” booth. Participants from academic institutions across the UK and beyond had the opportunity to delve into the privacy health of their school websites. Utilising a custom Chrome extension and some smart circuitry, this detector would trigger an alerting siren if it detected user engagement data being channeled to marketing powerhouses like Google or Facebook. Instead of the “out of sight, out of mind” approach, we turned it on its head and sirens took center stage! Schools with no data leakage would walk away with a £50 gift voucher. Over 100 schools dared to test, but the results were staggering: none passed. *

We were aware these tools were common, but the unanimous adoption was a jaw-dropper. As the time-honored saying goes, “if you’re not paying for the product, you are the product.” but here the narrative takes a more sinister turn. When schools or software providers decide to use free tools offered by giants like Google or Facebook, they turn their communities into the product without any reasonable opportunity to consent. There’s a lot of controversy about the privacy implications of individual usage of online resources like Facebook and Tik Tok, but at least with those sites it’s a conscious decision which each individual controls.

In today’s digital landscape, schools and educational institutions are increasingly leveraging potent web analytics to optimize their online presence. Industry bigwigs such as Google Analytics and Facebook Pixel offer insights that can significantly enhance the user experience and amplify website functionality. So if all this is free, who’s footing the bill?

On inspecting one site, we discovered that user donation amounts were shared with these marketing companies. The eventual fallout? The user ends up being marketed to based on a donation made to the school. That’s a pill I doubt they’d swallow willingly…

Navigating the privacy policies of these companies can feel like walking through a maze. Google Analytics, arguably the most guarded, sports a very complex set of policies. They claim data anonymization, but truthfully, they don’t need to know who you are to market to you. They also note that site visitors can control their marketing exposure via their Google profiles – a process trickier than visitors would reasonably anticipate. I won’t dive into all the legal intricacies in this article, but if these companies weren’t planning on marketing based on site usage, wouldn’t they simply state “we don’t use this data to target marketing to your visitors”?

A recurring misguided belief among the UK schools we interacted with was that these tools were vital for boosting their Google Search visibility (SEO). That’s a completely different ballgame. They were also caught off guard to learn that switching to incognito mode or disabling cookies had zero impact! These tools aren’t cookie-dependent so that makes no difference. In my view, the offer to disable cookies which is creating a false sense of security is not just misleading,but ethically questionable.

In almost all instances, schools were employing website providers that had their products integrated with these free tools. Marketing companies simplify this integration, consequently bolstering the website provider’s product offerings. However, at day’s end, it’s a shortcut that compromises the privacy of the client’s community to enhance their own product features. Implementing private and secure analytics tools does require time and effort, but the payoff is retaining ownership of the engagement data within the school, yielding more profound and relevant analytics than what Google Analytics and Facebook Pixel can offer. As an example, our latest product release – “Potentiality Shield” (purposefully named) enables us to track not just the hits, browsers, devices, and locations of each visitor, but often precisely who is visiting what pages. This can be used collectively with all other automatically collected engagement data such as purchases, event attendances, archive views, click and reads on emails etc, to build warmth profiles for fundraising or volunteer management. You can even use the data to train our bulk AI comms tools which draft mass individually personalized messages based on user engagement. The possibilities are powerful, exciting and scary all at the same time. Which is the reason why these companies want schools to give the data to them. For a school to manage and utilize this data themselves also introduces a host of ethical questions, but at least the school and their community retain control and aren’t unknowingly feeding data to major marketing companies.

So what can we learn from this experiment and where to from here? There was certainly a lot of surprise amongst our stall visitors when they saw what was going on. So it’s certainly a positive that our participants are more aware and perhaps making a more informed decision on what technologies they use. However the tricky part here is that it’s their community paying the price, so shouldn’t their community be granted the same awareness if the commodity in question is their engagement data? Do schools replace the cookie control popups with warning banners telling visitors that there’s nothing they can realistically do to prevent marketing companies targeting advertising to them based on their use of the site? One suggestion by a school, as the only way to guarantee privacy, was for their site visitors to use a Tor Browser (a browser used mostly to access the dark web). I’ll leave it to the readers of this article to decide if they want to put that on their school website!

While I loathe being the purveyor of grim tidings, I can’t see that these tools are acceptable or even ethical to use in an educational environment. Schools aren’t just institutions; they’re communities, distinct from regular websites. If an airline site shares data with marketing sites, they might just shrug it off as “business as usual”. Schools however embody a community and should hold the privacy and security of that community sacrosanct. If community members are uncomfortable being tracked by marketing companies without their express permission or even knowledge, then their data simply shouldn’t be shared.

It’s time to shield our communities and ensure their digital safety. Remember, privacy matters. Let’s act like it does.

* Potentiality clients were excluded from the free voucher giveaway, as we utilise our proprietary analytics tools which naturally pass the privacy test. The data collected stays wholly owned by the school and is not shared or used by other companies or clients in any way

International Conference: See You in Perth 2024

Save the Date!

Preparation is underway for next year’s Educate Plus International Conference, to be held in Perth, from 10-13 September, 2024… and we are incredibly excited to share the following details with you, so that you can start your planning now.

Budget Now… Registration Opens VERY SOON!

Do you have any leftover budget from this year?
Are you in the midst of finalising next year’s budget?

Below is what you need to know to get your planning in place so you can capitalise on this opportunity to invest in yourself and in your team.

The Empowering Success Conference will include:

2.5 Days of Professional Development Sessions, with 6 concurrent streams
A choice of Half and Full Day Pre-Conference Workshops
International Speakers
Expert and Experienced Practitioner-Led Presentations
A new ‘People and Culture’ stream (for Legal, HR & Business Managers)
‘Leadership’ sessions (for Principals & Executive Teams)
Admissions, Alumni & Community Relations, Marketing & Communications and Fundraising streams (for all levels of Advancement teams, from beginner to experienced)
A Welcome Event
EdX Style Presentations
An Industry Awards Lunch (Nominations for our Excellence Awards also open in October)
A Conference Celebration Dinner
Amazing Networking
An invaluable opportunity to learn and enjoy leisure time with colleagues in an environment that will empower success!

International Conference Rates:

Prices are in $AUD
Prices are GST exclusive
Early Bird Closes on Sunday 31 March, 2024
There will be travel grants available!

Save the Date … Registration Opens in October 2023

Five Steps to Perfect Your School Website Design

Article supplied by Rachel King | Events Manager | Digistorm

Designing a website for a school is not like designing a standard website. There are distinct groups of audiences to consider, specific technical capabilities required and most importantly, a strategic plan with goals that need to be achieved. From the way you structure your navigation menus to the hierarchy of your homepage, the photography, the colour scheme…a school website needs to shine professionally and project the unique values of your school.

If that all sounds a bit overwhelming, here’s some good news: there are preparation steps you can take that will make all of these questions and decisions much simpler!

Step one: define where you’re at with your current school website

This may sound really simple but the best place to start is reflecting on what you do and don’t like about your current school website solution. This means considering what’s working, what’s not working and what your frustrations are.

From our experience, many schools will just say they want to start again, they don’t really like anything about their current site. We’d urge you to look a little deeper. Consider if your brand colours are shining through correctly, how your drop down menu is structured, how you take online enquiries, and what your images are like! Getting a detailed list of considerations is a great way to begin thinking about your new school website design.

Step two: set your team’s project goals for the new website

Going granular on the goals of your new school website will help to inform the new design. Though you may have considered these goals already, writing and sharing them will ensure everyone stays aligned and focused with the vision of your website. By collaborating on the goals, you may realise different stakeholders have different ideas, meaning further discussions are required before you can kick off.

Getting everyone on the same page early on in the process will ensure there is a strong shared goal. This will save you time and frustration down the track, as it ensures different stakeholders don’t present new ideas when your designs are almost done and there’s no room for turning back.

Every school is unique and has different goals, but it’s best to curate a few measurable action items on what you want to achieve with the website. Gather information, reflect on your branding, do some research, and consult important stakeholders. Keep in mind that it’s okay to have more than one goal for your website, but it’s a great idea to prioritise them, so that it’s clear where the importance sits. Some example goals include:

Attracting ideal students
Building a strong sense of community
Becoming the school of choice in a very competitive area

Reflecting on your goals throughout the process is a great way to check progress and make sure the website is ticking all of your stakeholder’s boxes. Creating a goal statement is also a guiding light for your website designers; giving the project a clear vision and direction.

Step three: define your unique advantage

It goes without saying that your website needs to showcase what’s wonderfully unique about your school! To start thinking about this, begin with a very quick competitor analysis. List out who your competitors are and what their advantages are over your school. Maybe they have a stronger academic program, or a stellar music offering?

Once that’s defined, we want to look at what your school does better than the competition. You might be able to list these things without much thought at all. But if you’re in a competitive area, this could be tough, as many of your advantages could be shared by other schools (think about a great sense of community for example!). Spend some time diving into this question and discuss it with others, you may find your uniqueness sits in something you haven’t yet considered.

Then it’s time to think about how you could display this organically and dynamically on your school website. This will form an important part of how information is prioritised on your homepage, in your navigation and on your content pages.

Step four: understand your school website’s audience

We can’t overstate the importance of knowing who your audience is and what they want to do when they visit your school’s website.

Looking at your website’s analytics is a great first step in learning this. You may find your enrolment page is one of your highest rankers, meaning prospective families are the majority of your website visitors. Or perhaps you’ll see your news page or parent portal up top in terms of views and visits, which means your current families love using your site. Beyond analytics, you may wish to:

Speak to families who already have children at your school and ask what information they need on your site, and what information would be important to them if they were newly enrolling.
Look at the questions that come through your enquiry forms as these often give you a clue of information missing or hard to find on your website.

After you define who your core audiences are and figure out why and how they use your site, you want to make sure that the information showcased on your site connects well with these groups and needs. The right information needs to be easy to access, engaging and create a good customer journey. Your website should be tailored directly to your audiences.

If your school’s website is multipurpose, like it is for more schools, don’t be afraid to prioritise your audience groups. It will help with the structure and design hierarchy of your website!

Step five: decide on your school website solution

There are different types of websites and pages you can implement for your school. The main decision is whether to go custom or themed.

Custom websites are tailored completely to the needs of your school, and can have highly specific features, pages and functionality. As it’s built from the ground up, just for your school, it’s the more expensive of the two website options and requires more time from start to finish.

Option two is a theme website, which is based on a set structure, but filled up with the personal elements of your school like colours, logos, images and content. Theme school websites are great if you need a really quick time turnaround and you’re on a tight budget. Theme websites by Digistorm cater to various goals, such as increasing applications or building your sense of community.

No matter the scope of your project or the budget at hand, you’ll be able to create a visually appealing and modern website that suits your school’s needs.

Wrapping up

If you found it tricky to brainstorm some of these things, don’t worry! Our team deals with challenges like this every day and we’re more than happy to help out and suggest ideas. Creating a new school website is a big project, but the hard work will most certainly be worth it.

For more strategies and ideas, read Digistorm’s article here!

Supporting Your Own Wellbeing

This article is a summary of the Presentation, titled “Your Personal Wellbeing Toolkit: How to ignite joy amongst the chaos“, delivered by Madhavi Nawana Parker (Managing Director, Author, Coach and Speaker, Positive Minds Australia) at the recent SA/NT Summit. The summary has been provided by communikate et al, partner of the 2023 Educate Plus SA/NT Summit

Working in education can be a highly emotional career.

We know this through our own experiences, however as Director of Positive Minds Australia Madhavi Nawana Parker highlighted at this year’s SA/NT Summit, advancement professionals in schools are often called upon to help regulate other people’s emotions too.

Humans, as a species, aren’t good at managing their emotions, the wellbeing expert said in her keynote address.

“The first thing we do when we’re stressed is we need a place to dump it or something to blame it on,” she said.

“Quite often in roles like yours [advancement], you’ll find that your inbox is full of demands and expectations and the need to co-regulate other people’s emotions throughout your day.”

Madhavi said that by listening to others talk about their stress and sharing their emotions, our own bodies start to take that on, and we accumulate high levels of stress hormone cortisol.

That insight set the tone for the remainder of Madhavi’s presentation, as she shared some evidence-based strategies we could use to support our own wellbeing, as well as that of those around us.

“When we have healthy wellbeing, we are able to cope with frustration, sadness, anger, disappointment and all of the normal emotions of life much better,” Madhavi said.

“It increases our longevity, improves our immune system, it helps us feel better, think better and most all of can broaden our perspective on life.”

We’ve collated three of the easiest to implement strategies and shared them here.

Our actions matter

Research by psychologist Barbara Fredrickson shows positive, joyful emotions move quickly through our body and mind, whereas uncomfortable emotions like stress, disappointment and frustration “stick like Velcro”.

Madhavi recommended writing a “reverse bucket list” of all the things we do that are impactful. How are you impactful in your workplace? How are you impactful in your family, or in your community?

Then, once you’ve got a list, created micro-moments throughout every day to remind yourself of them. Set a reminder, on your phone, on a post-it note, or something you wear around your wrist, and those micro-moments of joy throughout the day will release dopamine instead of cortisol and contribute to better wellbeing.

Be thankful

During intense hardship, our ability to cope depends on the depth and breadth of our social connections – that’s why it’s important to spend as much time as we can around those who bring out the best in us.

Madhavi encouraged us to reflect on that and in a practical exercise, think of someone in our life who has had a significantly positive impact on us, and send them a thankful text message.

She said that emotions are contagious and by doing good, we feel good.

Reverse engineering

“Our central nervous system was never designed to be this switched on and contactable all day long,” Madhavi said.

“You open your inbox and even if you don’t have time to answer the emails, you’ve already got all the problems sitting in your head. Now, we never feel like we can get to the end of our to-do list.”

Her solution? A ‘done list’. Madhavi recommends at the end of the day writing a list of all the tasks you’ve finished, all the jobs you’ve helped someone else to complete. That way, your body releases dopamine by celebrating what you did do, instead of cortisol, by stressing about what you didn’t do or still have to do.

Thank you to communikate et al, partner of the 2023 Educate Plus SA/NT Summit, who have provided this summary article for the SA/NT eNEWS.

New! Virtual Learning Hub

The Perfect Solution!

Are you time poor – and find it hard to get away from the office for PD?

Or, do you live in a regional location – and find it difficult to attend city-based PD?

If so, then read on...

We are thrilled to introduce our new Virtual Learning Hub – an easily accessible, virtual repository of Online Self-Paced Advancement Practitioner Training modules, comprising training and learning resources ideally suited for members who work and live regionally.

Regional PD Opportunity … We know it’s not always possible to get to the cities where the face-to-face Advancement Practitioner Training is held annually, so whether you’re looking to refresh your existing knowledge or acquire new skills, our online platform offers the convenience and flexibility to enhance your professional development.

Self-Paced Flexibility … The greatest advantage of the online training is the flexibility it provides. You can tailor your learning experience according to your own pace, ensuring maximum retention and the ability to revisit specific modules whenever needed.

What’s on offer?
The Virtual Learning Hub – Online Self-Paced Advancement Practitioner Training modules feature four comprehensive courses, each offering recordings of the face-to-face Advancement Practitioner Training held earlier this year in Sydney.

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These sessions have been carefully edited to preserve their interactivity, including the valuable questions and answers raised by participants.

To find out more …

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Partner Thank You

With Gratitude …

We’d like to extend a huge ‘Thank You’ to our valued Educate Plus Strategic Partners, who support us in our activities and enable us to provide wonderful opportunities to our Members and Non-Members. We ask that you please consider supporting them, so that in turn, they can continue to support us.

Thank You to our Educate Plus Strategic Partners

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