MEET OUR FAMILY ENGAGEMENT MANAGERS (FEMs)
Bianca Praino
Family Engagement Manager
Laude San Pedro International College
Bianca and Rijanne both started with ISP this February in the new pilot role of Family Engagement Manager (FEM). Bianca is based in Laude San Pedro (SPA), Marbella, and Rijanne is based in Lady Elizabeth School, (LES), Benitachell. Although they have never actually met face to face, they have hit the ground running as our FEMs and have both made a conscious effort to support each other, share best practices and overcome the challenges of this evolving new role. Their position requires them to liaise with staff across the school, implement and drive forward effective retention strategies, support the customer journey, and nurture existing families. As a parent of children in LES, since starting as FEM, Rijanne feels she has gotten to know the school from a different perspective and has prioritised making sure families get to know her role and improve their customer journey, through coordinating the re-enrolment process, formulating improvement plans, organising retention family meetings, conducting tours, and streamlining exit interviews. At this moment she also started with the preparations for welcoming back current and new families. From September she will be holding regular informal FEM-parent meetings and together with school management set up a Parent Association group. The overall focus will be to get and keep parents involved and connected to the LES community.
The position poses many unique challenges, and there is never a dull moment in such a diverse and dynamic setting. Rijanne also feels after four months of hard work, it is already clear how significant this role is for supporting the customer journey and overall school experience. She has already been able to retain several families who would have left the school without her intervention. She says, ´most importantly, in all these cases, it is the early intervention of the FEM who helps to prevent unnecessary issues for families, or easily resolve issues so they can move forward and enjoy being part of the school community´.
As FEM, Rijanne feels it is vital to make time for families to listen to their questions and concerns and act on them. In some cases, this involves setting up a meeting with teachers/staff involved with the student/family. After the meeting, it´s pertinent to stay in touch with the family and follow up on what is decided as this makes them feel valued and understood. Feedback from one family summarises the positive impact Rijanne has had in her role so far. The family said, ´We would like to thank Rijanne as she gave us lots of information and answered several questions even before we arrived in Spain. Before the first day of school at LES, we already had everything we needed thanks to her support. She was always ready to help and advise us. Without her support, the start would have been a lot more difficult for us. Rijanne is an obliging, helpful and incredibly approachable woman and certainly an asset to LES. We would like to thank her from the bottom of our hearts´.
Bianca has focused on establishing a high profile in the school with families, so they know who a first point of contact is for school-related issues. She has been overseeing re-enrolment and has been effective with communicating and clarifying the process to families. Since joining Laude, she has quickly identified opportunities to create more family engagement by initiating events, information sessions, and focus groups and is currently developing a parent ECA programme, to create opportunities for parents to meet each other and build a supportive community. Something which she feels has had a particularly positive impact is the monthly nurturing emails she has been working on together with the head of marketing. These are sent out to new families starting in September. ´At Laude, there are many families who are relocating to Spain and will be completely new to Marbella, so Bianca has taken it upon herself to provide advice and guidance on relocation to ensure families feel reassured and prepared for their move. There are certainly some key pieces of information families need to ensure a smooth transition to Marbella, and this helps the parents feel supported as well as their child. Something that has worked very well recently is when she put in contact two Hungarian families who will be starting in the new year. The families have already built a great rapport and are supporting each other by sharing information before making their move to Spain. This already creates a positive customer experience before the families have even started at the school and sets the tone (a good one) for what is to come. This is the start of a Parent Ambassador Scheme Bianca will be introducing next year.
For both FEMs, a similar trend in feedback is that parents feel very reassured and appreciative that there is a key point of contact for someone to listen to them. Often, this is all they need. One parent emailed Bianca after an exit interview saying, ´Thank you very much for inviting us in for a meeting. I appreciate your professionalism, especially referring to my daughter´s feelings in different situations she was describing. She felt your respect and sincere interest and being listened to and heard’.
In such large schools, parents can easily feel lost with who to speak to so the FEM provides that contact person and can also help signpost the families to more suitable people to speak with (where appropriate). The opportunity to have a key person designated to families is rare and sets SPA and LES apart from other international schools where this is not the case. It also supports teaching staff, as it gives them space to focus on teaching and academics.
So essentially, the FEM role is a challenging, evolving, and dynamic role and one that seems to be very much needed. It helps to make families more heard, valued, and engaged and it has a positive impact on teams within the school.
Rijanne and Bianca look forward to seeing how the role continues to grow and mold.
If you have any questions, you can contact, b.praino@laudesanpedro.com or r.jurczik@les.edu.es
