A school’s regular newsletter can be a centerpiece of a communication strategy that helps to create a vibrant and engaged school community. Families can find out about upcoming events. Administration highlights process and volunteer opportunities. Staff members see their hard work recognized.
The goal of the newsletter is to collect a variety of great and relevant content and then use it to create a readership experience that connects stakeholders to your school community. Sadly, many schools and districts do not capitalize on the opportunity newsletters offer. Even the resurgence of newsletters in email marketing from the private sector hasn’t seemed to help educators recognize the value of the format. Rather than being used as a focal point of longer-form connection, school newsletters are often an afterthought, consisting of random pictures and clip art laid out poorly and distributed inconsistently.
Would you like to improve your school’s newsletter? Are you intrigued by the idea of making it a pillar of your overall communication plan? I can help. I spent seven years in school communications after working my way through eight years in community journalism. Really, a newspaper is just a big newsletter for a community, so I can give you some great value as you think through this option. Here are my six tips for making an awesome newsletter for your school community.
- Go Digital. Push Print.
- Make it the Centerpiece of Your Communications Plan
- Pictures are King
- Totally Skewed
- Calendar is Key
- Never Ever Miss Deadline

Go Digital. Push Print.
Many school administrators wrestle with the question of whether to distribute their newsletters through email/online or to print a hard copy version that goes home in backpacks. Honestly, the most correct solution is tailored to you and your stakeholders. What will be best received by your audience? What works in a plan that you will consistently implement?
Those issues being equal, my suggestion would be to go digital. You simply can’t beat putting a nice-looking piece directly into your families’ inboxes. Links are right there to be clicked on, images look great, it gets them back to your school website efficiently—it’s just a good approach. Sending home a print newsletter might help families who aren’t as tech-invested. But it also means everyone will have no choice but to get the backpack-abused version of your newsletter, all crushed and crumpled. This is not the look you want, and this approach doesn’t necessarily get that information to those particular families either. Plus, you just burned through a ton of ink and paper!
The compromise? Design and distribute in digital. Then print a few copies for your front office counter and give them a nice display. They should not be just another flyer up there. Consider going above and beyond and letting families know they can request the newsletter be sent home. Maintain that list, and then make sure those kids get a printed version each time. It’s easier, cheaper, and way more effective than sending one home with every kid in the school!
Make It the Centerpiece of Your Communications Plan
We want to create a great and consistent experience for your families. But, your newsletter is very much like your school website; it’s the place your stakeholders can go to find information. Try to think of your newsletter like a snapshot version of the most timely elements of your website—and your social media storytelling. There should be a great deal of overlap between all of these.
For example, let’s say you have a Family Math Night event coming up next week, and your school sends out a newsletter every Friday. This Friday’s newsletter should include all the need-to-know info about the event—who, when, what to bring, etc. Of course, you should already have a page on your website about the event, so you would want to pull out some highlights to put in the newsletter and then link to the webpage. That link will no doubt be on social media as well.
Immediately after the event, you should be telling the story on social media. Ideally, a gallery of images on your website would also be great. For next week’s newsletter, the event should be featured prominently—along with pictures and a link to the gallery. You can also pull comments from your social media page to highlight the fun people had in their own voices.
But this strategy isn’t just for events. There should always be a great deal of content overlap—use and reuse between the newsletter and your other channels of communication. The newsletter can bring together different channels into one packaged space to create the readership experience. That regular and defined communication piece (with some nice production value) is an infinitely better way to build authentic engagement than one-off tweets when you have the time and inclination.