Headmaster's Blog: Spreading the Word

It's taken a while, says the headmaster, but Harrodian now has the communication tools and skills needed to tell the world why it's special

When Harrodian Review, our lovely new annual magazine landed on my desk a few weeks ago, it set me thinking about our communication and publishing strategy at Harrodian and the way it has progressed over the years. A quick dig through the bookshelves of my office turned up a few examples of the school’s early magazines, among them The Harrodian Gazette, a simple parents' newsletter, Harrodian Eye, a magazine of student writing and Harrodian Voices, published to celebrate the school’s tenth anniversary in 2003.

Flicking through articles in this last publication – many written by (then) current and former pupils – filled me with pleasure and pride. References abounded to ‘caring teachers’, ‘smiles on faces’ ‘close-knit community’ the ‘relaxed atmosphere’ and ‘the ‘opportunities for everyone to develop their special talents’. I also spotted several Harrodians who, 16 years on, have proved the point by fulfilling their promise of ‘special talents’. On one page was a snap of George Mackay, then an 11-year-old Prep pupil fresh from his cinematic debut as a 'Lost Boy' in Peter Pan, now an established film star. On another, by coincidence I found a young Heather Stirling (writing about ‘why I love Harrodian’) who tells us how the school equipped her for a successful medical career in the alumnae section of our first Harrodian Review

I must admit, of course, that these earlier publishing efforts seem distinctly old-fashioned in comparison to our new magazine. Harrodian Review is essentially an illustrated book of academic, pastoral, sporting and artistic highlights from the Harrodian year contained in a single volume. But this bald description doesn’t do justice to the magazine’s quality or its appeal. With superb photos and features from an hour-by-hour ‘Life in the Day’ photo portrait of the school, to a month-by-month picture diary of the year, Harrodian Review is, I think, the first publication in our history to capture how it really feels to study and grow up at Harrodian.

It might seem a little odd that it’s taken so long for us to encapsulate the Harrodian experience properly in print.  In mitigation, I would point out that ours is a school that has grown up very fast. In the early years,  thanks to the combined pulling power of our regular tours and West London’s ‘bush telegraph’, we never struggled to find pupils: by 2003 we already had 700 on our roll. But as the school grew – and grew up – so did my nagging suspicion that if a school with a growing profile within and beyond these shores were to keep pace with the growing expectations and demands of the media-conscious 21st-century world, a radical communications’ overhaul was urgently in order.

When three years ago we asked our Communications Team to initiate and manage this process, the top priority was a replacement for our ageing website. Their in-depth research and development programme led to the launch of an entirely new version of www.harrodian.com in early 2018 with a format and design tailor-made to reflect Harrodian’s structure and its distinctive character. 

Two years on, I find it hard to imagine just how we managed to do without the website for so long.  www.harrodian.com has become the first port of call for all essential school information and an indispensable tool for our busy Admissions department. Equally important, the site has allowed us to display to existing and potential Harrodian parents many aspects of school life and culture that previously went unseen. Our popular News Hub now enables us to highlight and celebrate key happenings and activities at every age group level; to connect with parents through blogs ranging in subject matter from the pastoral (Mr Woodward’s brilliant Parentally Speaking blog) to the mathematical (Mr Rodricks’s intriguing new Maths Mastery thread). Our regular eye-catching bulletin emails also ensure that parents and pupils can always keep abreast of our latest happenings and thinking.

Naturally I’m delighted with the progress we are making in transforming the way Harrodian ‘talks’ to parents and the wider world. Even so, what struck me when I placed Harrodian Voices and Harrodian Review side by side and dipped into them together was that, while the style may have changed, the substance of what we do here still remains reassuringly familiar. Now as then, communal trips, events and happenings – such as last week’s Community Tea Party – sit at the heart of our agenda. Now as then, creating a caring, close-knit learning school in which every pupil is able to fulfil his or her potential remains our key aim. Over the years, we certainly have got better at showcasing the things that make Harrodian stand out, but you can rest assured there’s no danger of our losing sight of what we stand for.

Comments on this blog are welcome to: website@harrodian.com