finleysmaid Posted November 8, 2018 Posted November 8, 2018 Well I know many of us are trying to find elusive children to swell our ranks, I have just ordered a few posters and leaflets to get our name out there a bit more. Do any of you have any ideas as to where best to put them? What's worked best for you??? any gems I might not have thought of?????
Panders Posted November 8, 2018 Posted November 8, 2018 do you have any play centres locally that would allow you to put up a poster, or your local swimming pool have a notice board. I had some success at our local post office their local notices board was right by the counter so had a captive audience, got to have something to read while you are waiting! Also left leaflets at local toddler groups, did a leaflet drop in the vicinity couple of doctor surgeries, adverts in local school fete brochure things. Finleysmaid do you have a shopping mall nearby? Would the management there allow you to have a table on a concourse to set out all that you do and talk to passersby? I've always thought of yours as a charitable group, but maybe wrong, perhaps if you are talking to local council might produce some ideas or your roundtable Lions group. Our local Marks and Spencer have pictures up on the wall during Mothers Day some are exclusively done by a local pre-school - but a good way to get your name noticed. Take it you are on Mumsnet etc, perhaps get some of your parents to make comments on their pages. 1
finleysmaid Posted November 8, 2018 Author Posted November 8, 2018 some great ideas Panders thank you. Unfortunately our big marks and spencers has been on the news all week as one of the ones closed down!!!!! Yes we are a charity and are really lucky to be well supported by a lots of local trusts. The money side of things is not too bad at the moment but the trustees are going to start getting twitchy if I don't fill some more spaces! Am on twitter facebook and Instagram...have a website all doing ok but not a big draw. We are very lucky with our site EXCEPT it is behind a row of shops/offices and we have no ability to put an advert on the high street (complicated!) ive done coffee shops/library /parish noticeboards today (the school and post office always have our info) got a couple of parents to do toddler groups tomorrow and activity centre (good call!) I have a couple of areas that we don't seem to get many from so i'm thinking that needs investigating!!! No shopping malls unfortunately....well not with any shops left in them might try doctors surgery although their notice board is in a stupid place. There's just SO few children of the right age out there ...weird! have lost lots of Eastern European families...defo the Brexit effect!
Mouseketeer Posted November 9, 2018 Posted November 9, 2018 5 hours ago, finleysmaid said: There's just SO few children of the right age out there ...weird! have lost lots of Eastern European families...defo the Brexit effect! We are finding the same thing fm, we have the lowest school cohort for years, though the number on register is roughly the same as this time last yr it’s more younger chn who aren’t doing anything like the hours that extra 7/8 we are missing from the next school cohort would have been doing which is obviously having quite a negative affect on our budget....it isn’t that we don’t have them they just aren’t there to have, We almost have as many for the 2020 cohort already so I know things will improve but this year will see us eating into reserves I’m sure :-( 1
finleysmaid Posted November 9, 2018 Author Posted November 9, 2018 3 hours ago, Mouseketeer said: We are finding the same thing fm, we have the lowest school cohort for years, though the number on register is roughly the same as this time last yr it’s more younger chn who aren’t doing anything like the hours that extra 7/8 we are missing from the next school cohort would have been doing which is obviously having quite a negative affect on our budget....it isn’t that we don’t have them they just aren’t there to have, We almost have as many for the 2020 cohort already so I know things will improve but this year will see us eating into reserves I’m sure :-( you're absolutely right. We also have a relatively healthy waiting list (and in fact ive been looking at another site!!) but even our borough has warned our local schools that they may want to reconsider having 2 forms running for next year! what I want to try and avoid is the stupid bust and boom years it makes it really difficult to run a business like that! 1
FSFRebecca Posted November 9, 2018 Posted November 9, 2018 Our experience is the same regarding preschool numbers and predicted numbers for next year. With regard to advertising, a few years ago we had some success when taking children out for walks past places where we knew young parents would be (the park for example). The children have nursery hats to identify them and staff took business cards and dropped (not literally) them on the back of pushchairs as they went by. 2 1
louby loo Posted November 9, 2018 Posted November 9, 2018 2 hours ago, Rebecca said: Our experience is the same regarding preschool numbers and predicted numbers for next year. With regard to advertising, a few years ago we had some success when taking children out for walks past places where we knew young parents would be (the park for example). The children have nursery hats to identify them and staff took business cards and dropped (not literally) them on the back of pushchairs as they went by. Yes, I have to agree this method is by far our biggest pull regarding sign-ups. I think it works well as prospective parents/carers can see see staff interactions with children/ratios etc first hand. We are lucky to have another community hall near us that runs lots of classes during the day. That said our numbers are very low this year- although I believe numbers generally are set to go back up in the next couple of years. Talking to someone working in our neighbouring LA they said they now have lots of children forecast as coming up to 2 years. 2
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