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Q&A: Education PR and Communications with Sparrowhawk Communications

 

What can PR do for an education organisation?

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Done well, PR builds the kind of trust and recognition that formal marketing cannot buy. For a school or trust, it can shift perception in the local community, attract staff in a competitive recruitment market, reassure parents and carers during a difficult period and demonstrate impact to governors and funders. For a university or college, it can attract home and international students and support partnerships with employers and research bodies. For an EdTech company, it can open doors in procurement conversations, build credibility with senior leaders deciding whether to trial a product and generate the third-party endorsement a company cannot generate for itself.

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Many organisations do not think they need PR until they are facing a damaging news story, a recruitment crisis or falling rolls. A school or trust that has been consistently communicating its work is in a far stronger position to weather any of those situations than one starting from scratch. PR is not just for emergencies and it is not just for large organisations. It is for any education body that wants the public narrative about it to reflect reality.

 

When should an education organisation hire a PR consultant?

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Earlier than most do. The organisations that get the most from PR consultancy are those that engage before the pressure arrives - when they are growing, changing, launching something or simply trying to build a stronger reputation in their sector. A consultant brought in early can shape strategy, build media relationships and prepare an organisation for difficult moments rather than managing the fallout from them. Sparrowhawk Communications works with education organisations at all stages and can scope engagements to fit budgets of different sizes.

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What types of PR are available to education organisations?

 

• Media relations - building relationships with journalists and securing coverage in publications that matter to your audiences

• Thought leadership - positioning senior leaders as credible voices on the issues the sector is debating, through opinion pieces, interviews and published research

• Crisis and reputation management - being ready when things go wrong and knowing how to respond when they do

• Stakeholder communications - targeted communications to governors, parents/carers, local authorities, neighbouring schools and trusts, community organisations, funders and partners

• Owned content - blogs, reports, case studies and newsletters that build authority and give your organisation something to say beyond reacting to the news agenda

• Speaking opportunities and awards - securing platforms at sector conferences and events where your leaders can reach the audiences that matter

• Podcast and broadcast - sector podcasts can establish a leader's voice very effectively

• Networks, associations and policy engagement - building relationships with the people shaping policy and sector debate

Each organisation needs a different mix depending on its goals, its risk profile and its audiences. It's often useful to audit what you are already doing.

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What does PR cost?

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For schools and academy trusts, project fees start from £500. For multi-academy trusts wanting sustained support, retained arrangements start from £1,000 a month. We do not always think a retainer is the right model for schools or trusts earlier in their communications journey and are happy to discuss what would work best.

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For universities and further education colleges, project-based work is scoped individually and retained support starts from £1,000 a month.

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For EdTech companies, fees start from £500 for a defined project. Early-stage businesses often benefit from scoping work around a specific moment - a funding announcement, a product launch or a contract win - before committing to longer-term support.

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Why work with a specialist education PR consultant rather than a generalist agency?

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Education is a distinct sector with its own media landscape, its own regulatory environment and its own decision-making culture. A generalist agency will spend time learning what a MAT is, who Schools Week writes for and why an Ofsted judgement lands differently depending on context. Sparrowhawk Communications works exclusively with education clients - schools, trusts, universities, colleges, education suppliers and EdTech companies - which means we have sector knowledge, media relationships and strategic instincts from the start.

 

Should I hire an in-house communications manager or use a consultant?

 

Both models work. An in-house hire gives you someone embedded in your organisation who understands its culture and can respond quickly to day-to-day needs. A consultant gives you senior expertise, sector-wide perspective and sector relationships that an early-career in-house hire is unlikely to have - usually at a lower total cost. Many growing MATs and EdTech companies use a consultant to establish strategy and handle high-stakes moments while managing routine communications internally. The question worth asking is what your organisation actually needs in the next 12 months - and whether the budget for an in-house hire would buy more impact as consultancy.

 

Sparrowhawk Communications is happy to have that conversation honestly, including when an in-house hire is the better answer.

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How do you measure PR?

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It depends on what you are trying to achieve and anyone who gives you a single metric as the answer is oversimplifying. Useful measures include media coverage volume and quality, share of voice relative to comparable organisations, inbound enquiry trends, website referral traffic from earned coverage, sentiment tracking over time and, where relevant, direct attribution to recruitment or sales outcomes. Sparrowhawk Communications builds measurement frameworks at the start of every engagement so clients know what success looks like before the work begins.

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Who does Sparrowhawk Communications work with?

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Sparrowhawk Communications is a specialist education PR and communications consultancy based in the UK. Clients include multi-academy trusts, universities, further education colleges, EdTech companies, education suppliers and sector bodies. The consultancy is led by Jessica Shepherd, a former education correspondent at The Guardian and Times Higher Education who has also worked in government communications and in-house communications roles in the education sector. Sparrowhawk Communications offers retained consultancy, project-based support and interim communications leadership.

View our case studies

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Get in touch
To find out how Sparrowhawk Communications can help your organisation, contact Jessica Shepherd at jessica@sparrowhawkcommunications.com

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