Parents live on social media — schools should meet them there
For most parents, Facebook and Instagram are where school communication actually lands. Sports results, school plays, fundraising events, closure announcements, open evenings — social channels reach families faster and more reliably than newsletters buried in email.
The challenge for schools is doing it safely and consistently: safeguarding rules around images of children, staff workload, approval processes, and keeping tone professional while still being warm.
Managed social media, built around safeguarding
Governance first
We establish clear rules up front: photo permissions, what can and can't be posted, who approves content, and how comments are handled. Nothing goes live that hasn't been through your process.
Celebration content
Achievements, events, projects and everyday school life presented professionally — the content that builds reputation with current parents and markets the school to prospective ones.
Practical communication
Term dates, event reminders, open days and urgent updates published reliably, reducing the flood of "when is…?" calls to the office.
Admissions support
Open day promotion and prospectus awareness timed around admissions windows — an active, welcoming profile is part of how parents choose a school.
GDPR-aware by default
We work with schools on data protection every day — our GDPR consultancy background means consent, image rights and data handling are built into how we operate, not treated as an afterthought.
Pair it with a website that does its job
Social media drives interest; your website carries the statutory content and admissions detail. If yours needs attention, see our web design for schools page or the dedicated school websites service.
Setting up governance that actually protects you
Before any posting starts, we establish the framework with your leadership team: which events and activities can be covered, how photo consent is verified against your existing permissions, who approves content before it goes live, and how comments and DMs are handled. Safeguarding isn't a box-tick — it's the operating model.
A realistic approval workflow
We know approval bottlenecks kill school social media. The workflow is designed for how schools actually run: batched content planned a month ahead, a single approver with clear criteria, and a fast-track route for time-sensitive announcements like closures.
Admissions and reputation
School choice is increasingly researched on social channels. An active profile showing engaged pupils, strong results and a welcoming community is genuinely persuasive to prospective parents — it's your open evening, running all year. We time admissions content around application windows so it lands when decisions are being made.
Multi-academy trusts
For trusts, we can run a consistent brand framework across multiple school accounts — shared standards, coordinated campaigns, individual school voices. Central governance, local personality.
What's included each month
A content calendar planned a month ahead around your term dates, drafted posts sent for approval in batches, scheduled publishing across your channels, comment monitoring during school hours, and a termly summary of reach and engagement. Event photography guidance is included — we help staff capture the moments that make the best content.
Keeping content safe and compliant
Every post goes through your designated approver before publishing. Photo use is checked against your consent records, pupils are never tagged or named in ways that compromise safeguarding, and comments are moderated against agreed guidelines. If anything sensitive arises — a complaint thread, a safeguarding concern — it escalates to your named contact immediately, never handled publicly by us.
Questions schools ask us
Who owns the accounts? You do, always. We work within your accounts using delegated access — no lock-in, full handover if you ever move on.
Can you cover a school trip or event in real time? Yes — live coverage can be scheduled into the calendar for open days, residentials and performances.
Does this replace our newsletter? It complements it — social reaches parents who never open email, and we cross-link to the newsletter for detail.
What happens when you sign up
We begin with a meeting with whoever owns communications — usually the head, office manager or a governor — to agree the approval workflow, safeguarding boundaries and content themes. Your first term's calendar is drafted around the events already in your diary, approved in advance, and publishing begins within the first fortnight.
Reporting that means something
Termly summaries show reach across your community, engagement on key announcements, and which content performs — useful evidence for governors and SLT that the channel is working, not just busy. The calendar adjusts each term based on what parents actually engaged with.
What our clients say on Google
“Great website by Real Code giving our rugby parking days top 10 rankings — selling out in advance!”
“We've worked with Brad to help design our website and he's been brilliant to work with. He's captured our thoughts and translated them into a website that we're happy with. Highly recommend him and his brilliant service to everyone.”
Rated 5.0 out of 5 across every review on our Google Business profile.
Ready to talk? Tell us about your school or organisation and we'll respond the same working day.
