North Norfolk village school looks to attract new head with promotional video – with help from parents, family, friends, governors and a passing Norfolk rock band!
A North Norfolk primary school is going the extra mile to attract the right candidate to take over as head teacher.
Aldborough Primary School is a very successful village school with 140 pupils, a great reputation and strong support from parents and the local community. So getting a new head should be easy, right? Wrong. Sadly recruiting head teachers for smaller rural primaries is increasingly difficult.
So the school governors decided to push the boat out and create a promotional film to try to build a picture of the real school, and attract the right candidates. By uploading the film to YouTube and other social media sites, including Facebook, they’ve managed to reach thousands of people and have had considerable interest – including one potential candidate who is returning to the UK from Africa.
Dr David Doak, chair of governors, is the creative genius behind the film. In a previous life he was a director of a highly successful computer game company and his CV includes the renowned ‘GoldenEye 007’ game. “We wanted the film to encapsulate what’s great about Norfolk, as well as what makes our school so special,” he says. “We filmed it over a few days. It was easy to get great footage because Aldborough School is a fantastically positive and happy place – the hard part was editing it down to three minutes!
“We know how hard it will be to get a new head teacher. So alongside conventional recruitment methods, we took the decision to use social media to push the message to as many potential candidates as possible. Parents, friends and family have all shared the video through a variety of social media and that’s given us a huge ‘reach.’”
Filming included some aerial shots of the school. “We had a bit of luck there – a Norfolk rock band, Morganway, was filming their own music video in the area and we managed to persuade them to fly the camera drone they were using over the school,” says Dr Doak. “In return they used a cellar owned by one of the parents for part of their shoot!” The band also provided a backing track for the school video.
The Aldborough School film can be found at https://youtu.be/yRkMpUrkiYA
Anyone interested in the vacancy can find more information at the Aldborough School website, www.aldborough.norfolk.sch.uk/office/recruitment/. The closing date for applications is September 26 2016. The successful candidate will take up the post in September 2017.
If you’d like more information, please call the school office on 01263 761264 or email office@aldborough.norfolk.sch.uk.
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Press Contacts:
Dr David Doak, Aldborough Primary School, 01263 761264, or
chairofgov@aldborough.norfolk.sch.uk
The Publicity Works, 01263 761000 / teaboy@publicityworks.biz