PR at St Hilda's

Hi everyone, my name is Kyra and I’m three days into my placement with my old school, St Hilda’s in Mosman Park. I was interested in working at a school because I wasn’t sure which area of Public Relations I was interested in and schools tend to take on a number of different aspects of the profession. So far this presumption has held true!

At St Hilda’s and generally across the private school board, the area of public relations is grouped into ‘Community Relations’, which deals with PR, Marketing, School development, Enrolments and- most importantly (they think!!)- the Old Scholars Association (OSA).

I’ve come into my placement at a really busy time for the School, in third and fourth term we host more events and open days as the new year approaches and current year twelves leave.

As I said before, the OSA is a major focus of the community relations department, especially for my mentor Natalie. The OSA is a really big contributor to the school and especially to the students. They fund scholarships, organise mentoring days and reunions, just to name a few things. A significant part of my work experience will be based around collaborating with the OSA to organise events and reunions etc for old scholars and current students.

The last two days have been really interesting especially from an ex student point of view. The School has been conducting tours, which happen four times a year at their junior and senior school campuses. Basically these tours are very marketing orientated, all about portraying the school in the right light to get as many applications as possible- even though the majority of these parents aren’t guaranteed a position at the school! I have to admit, I totally bought it, they did a very good job of presenting the school.

This weekend is the annual Head of the River which St Hilda’s is hosting. The lead up to the event has been very hectic as the school wants to put on a good show! I got to sit in on a sponsorship deal between the School and Coles and that was really interesting. I wasn’t completely sure what to think about it.

So far I’m enjoying my placement a lot and I’m relieved to find out that I’m pretty certain I’m doing the right degree for me! I hope everyone is enjoying their placements as well!