Rendcomb College is an award winning all-through co-educational, independent day and boarding school set within 230 acres in the heart of the Gloucestershire countryside. Its mission is to develop thoughtful, adventurous and ambitious young people who are life-long learners.

Differentiating the school offer

As soon as the school was introduced to Kampus24, they were easily able to see how the concept could support their student admissions strategy. Chris Elliot-Jones, Head of Marketing and Communications said, “More and more, we are looking at ways to differentiate our school, whether it be for first-time buyers of independent education or parents who already buy into this sector. Being able to offer a more personalised experience through Kampus24 is a key differentiating factor.”

Despite the platform being in its infancy when they joined back in Autumn 2021, the forward-thinking school saw Kampus24 as a new way of engaging with prospective families, and driving decision-making. Chris says “We were confident that Kampus24 would become more embedded into the admissions process in the independent education sector, so we wanted to be one of the first schools to use it.”

Communicating in a post-lockdown world

In a post-pandemic world, the way schools are communicating with prospective parents has changed and the way they are researching schools has become increasingly digital. Rendcomb College has been quick to recognise this shift in the way parents buy independent education and implemented Kampus24 to support this transition. Chris comments, “Kampus24 is a great way to respond to the way customers want to interact with schools nowadays. Particularly, post-lockdown, parents are doing all their school research electronically and will often have done their due diligence on a school and created a shortlist in advance of attending a physical open day. Buying behaviours have certainly changed from when parents used to attend open events to help create their shortlist of schools. Using Kampus24 to produce something bespoke for the parent is helping to support their initial decision-making, with the school open morning being the culmination of their research.”

Saving the school time and money

The Admissions team at Rendcomb College naturally had some initial reservations about implementing a new digital tool like Kampus24 but Chris assures that “they are now starting to see the value in Kampus24 as a means to alleviate some of the administrative burden their team faces.”

One example of this has been the New Starter Packs they created using Kampus24 for their Year 7, 8 and 12 joiners. Previously, the school used to send out all the documents for parents to complete via a link but with Kampus24, the school has been able to create segmented experiences based on the child’s year group and whether they are a UK or international student. Chris says, “Usually sending out the new starter link would have created a lot of enquiries but we’re noticeably getting a much smaller volume of queries after sending out our Kampus24 Starter Packs this year. Kampus24 has therefore really helped us save time and money, and alleviated the volume of administrative interactions we face every year.”

Another challenge the school faced initially was content generation but they soon learnt to repurpose a lot of their content and create new authentic videos on smartphones. Chris says, “We learnt to be smart with our content and use it more effectively.”

The final word

“It’s a fabulous tool for school marketing. We have seen anecdotally how families who were wavering on whether to choose Rendcomb College, have converted after being sent a Kampus24 experience. It’s really helped them with their decision making process.”

Chris Elliot-Jones, Head of Marketing and Communications