Open Day Successes

Our kindergartens put a lot of effort into Open Day this year, and for many, the hard work paid off with visitors on the day and interest in the weeks that followed.

“Just to let you know that we had an awesome turn out for the Open Day,” one kindergarten team told us. “ We had 4 confirmed enrolments and 3 more took the forms away and that is not the ones that rang. All said that they had seen the adverts re an Open Day online so it worked!!!”

“I just wanted to pass on a fabulous story from our open day yesterday,” emailed another. “We have a family who have had 4 of their children attend kindergarten, we have just put number 5 child on the Waiting List...we also had an enrolment starting Monday from the Open Day. Fabulous result as we are trying so very hard to boost numbers.”

“We gave out enrolment forms so hopefully people will come back. We have had a lot of families with younger children visit since then.”

“Ngā mihi for organising the Open Day we had five prospective whānau call in, and I have also received emails for another five through Better Because. Now to fit them all in!”

It was good to see so much promotional activity happening at kindergartens to support the online advertising that ran in the weeks before the day.

Here’s just some of the what went on around the network:

“We gave all families a poster to display before Christmas, then again in the New Year, we posted on Educa and took a poster to the local op shop. On Open Day, we displayed large painted signs on the outside of the building and balloons.”

“On Chinese and Korean New Year we hung these two flags on our front fence. As a result of this, a Chinese family who drove past rang us and arranged for a visit. They were impressed, and took an enrolment form and a poster with our 'Stay and Play' dates. Hanging things on the fence definitely helps and I think we would hang our 'Open Day' poster prior to the day next time.”

“We advised families on our waiting list and talked to current families, so if they had friends it was a great opportunity to pop in.”

“Poster on gate and balloons on day, advertised on Educa, a Playcentre mum emailed a poster to all Playcentre whānau.”

“We printed flyers, and placed them around prominent community spaces, the library, coffee shops, doctors. On the day we filled the fence with balloons and a banner to increase visibility, we also sent pictures in for the Facebook page that were the first ones viewed online. I also contacted all the tamariki on the waitlist and invited them, and left messages on waitlist parents’ phones. We encouraged our whānau to share about our Open Day with their friends and whānau.”

“Prior to the day, we left Open Day pamphlets at the local church, the Council building, Riccarton Library and Wharenui Pool. We put balloons out on the fence and a brightly designed ‘Welcome’ sign outside our gate. We had tea and coffee ready and put up a ‘What’s Been Happening at our Kindergarten’ display.”

Most teaching teams have now completed the online survey, but there’s still time to get your response in - your feedback is invaluable in helping to make the day even better next time around.

Nearly all the suggestions we had were related to timing.

“Open day might be better after older children have all returned to school? We have had more drop ins and enquiries since school returning than at the beginning of the year.”

We’ll definitely factor that into our planning for next year.

In the meantime, keep up the great work in following up any contacts - waitlists and enrolments are often a multi-step process, and it can take some families a bit more time, research and thinking to make a final decision. For some, Open Day may have been just the start of the process. So it’s worth staying in touch and making sure they have all the information they need to make that final call.