Posted on 03/26/2009Are you in charge of your elementary school newsletters? Are your elementary school newsletters a chore to write and a bore to read? Following are some steps that will help you in preparing your newsletter. You first need to determine the purpose of your newsletter. Newsletters are good tools for:
• Advertising your Elementary School Fundraiser
• Communicating with parents,
• Informing your students that there are open lines of communication between the teachers and parents,
• Encouraging parents to take specific actions,
• Providing advice, and
• Generating volunteers and donors.
One basic strategy that works for every newsletter is to create solutions. Make reading your newsletter an opportunity for your readers to learn and make them anticipate the publication of the newsletter. What better way to do this, than creating an exciting newsletter. What are the biggest problems for your readers? What information do they need? What do they need to learn how to do? What’s important to them? Give your readers the information and advice they seek with these kinds of articles:
• How-to articles
• Step-by-step articles
• Advice columns
• Upcoming events
• FAQs (frequently asked questions)
• Success stories
When you publish a newsletter on a regular schedule, it can be challenging to come up with engaging content. Be creative with ideas. You can have assigned individuals to write certain sections of the newsletter. This will help spread the work and also get more parents involved in the process.
There are many different aspects to consider prior to producing your elementary school newsletters. From the format of the newsletter, to the writing of articles, to printing and distribution, all of these are equally important in the production of a newsletter. In this day and age of computer software, there are numerous desktop publishing packages available that can aid in the development of a newsletter. No newsletter is going to be enjoyable without well-written content. In terms of elementary school newsletters, the three C's include: consistency, conservation, and contrast. By achieving these throughout every page of the newsletter, an average newsletter can be a great newsletter in little time.
Obviously there is no better way to let people know about fundraisers than through your newsletter. Promote it early. Promote it often. Keep people up to date.
