How AI can support a school or trust rebrand

By Nicky Dussek

Rebranding a school or multi-academy trust is no small task. From updating your website and prospectus to changing signage and refining your messaging, it’s a strategic process that reaches into every part of your school or trust's identity.

At its core, a rebrand should be rooted in clarity - understanding why you're rebranding, what you want to achieve and how success will be measured. Alongside a clear strategy, the implementation plan should include stakeholder engagement, staff consultation and a realistic timeline for delivering the new identity.

AI is increasingly used to support education teams with planning and productivity. But how can it help with something as creative and complex as a rebrand?

Use AI in the early stages

AI can be a helpful tool in the initial, exploratory phases of a rebrand. With the right prompts, it can offer ideas for visual direction, tone of voice, colour palettes, logos and even sample taglines. This can save time when developing a brief for your designer or branding agency.

You might use AI to generate a mood board, map out early ideas or test out language options. If your school or trust already has a clear vision and values, AI can help you experiment with how these might be expressed visually or verbally.

That said, AI does have its limitations. It can’t explain the rationale behind the designs or phrases it suggests, and its outputs are based on common patterns, rather than original thinking. For example, asking AI to design a brand identity for a modern Catholic girls’ school, in south-east London with strong academic outcomes and a nurturing ethos, might produce similar ideas to prompts submitted by other users. The result can feel very generic, so don’t rely on it to define your brand.

Instead, use it to help clarify what you do and don’t like in the early stages.

Use AI to research the landscape

AI tools can offer insights into how other schools or trusts present themselves online. It’s possible to scan competitor websites, parent reviews and social media channels to identify patterns in tone, visual identity and messaging. Some tools can even analyse audience sentiment or highlight perceived gaps in the market.

This kind of analysis can be useful for spotting trends or identifying what makes your own school and trust distinctive. However, AI is very likely to miss more subtle and important aspects, such as a school’s ethos, local reputation or relationship with its community. These are far better understood through human insight.

Use AI to support your planning

There are several practical ways AI can support your rebrand planning:

• Generate a visual mood board or early-stage presentation to share with your SLT, governors or design team

• Draft a questionnaire to gather feedback on your existing brand from staff, parents and carers

• Break down the project into phases to help you identify key milestones, timelines and the right time to involve different stakeholders

Even if you don’t follow every suggestion, using AI in this way can help you structure your thinking and avoid missing important steps in the process.

Your knowledge is your strongest asset

While AI can offer inspiration, only your leadership team can define your voice, vision and values. The insight you hold about your school or trust, shaped by years of experience, feedback from families and your understanding of your community, needs to sit at the centre of any rebrand.

To talk to us about your website or any of your PR, communications or marketing needs, contact: jessica@sparrowhawkcommunications.com