Why We Need to Speak with the Family First

“We have a VIP arriving in New York later today, and we need to know if the following private schools have spaces for his kids! Could you please call them to see if they have spots in grades 7 and 9?”

Such a request is usually urgent, and it’s a very familiar one. Pick the location and imagine the behind-the-scenes efforts by Global Mobility or our RMC colleagues to make sure that an employee or candidate has instant and reassuring news about those selective private schools their colleagues have recommended. 

As many of you know, Bennett’s answer is usually, “Well, we really need to speak with the family before we call schools.  When would they be available for a call?” This is not always the answer that our client was hoping for, and the response is sometimes: “We just need to know if the schools have openings! Can you find that out now, and then you can speak with the employee later?” 

It's honestly not that we’re being stubborn or inflexible; well, maybe we’re being a little inflexible, but it’s for a good reason—we’re trying to make sure that the family is presented to a private school in the best way possible, from the very beginning of the process. Our need to speak with the family first is actually a really good thing and part of the approach that makes Bennett so effective.

Here are just a couple of reasons why we need to speak to a family before we call a school:

1.        When we call a private school to inquire about openings, they will ask us questions about the student we’re calling about, and we need to know how to answer. Admissions may not be willing to say whether or not they have a space or might be able to make space in a grade until they get a sense of whether this student might be a good fit, and they expect us to know, for example: what kind of school the child is coming from; why we think their school could be a match; the student’s academic interests; their competency level in the language of instruction; whether or not they have any special learning issues that will need to be addressed. The list goes on.

2.        Private schools answer our off-hour texts and emails because they trust us to bring them students who will be a good fit for their school’s academic program and culture. We’ve visited them, we know them, and we’ve done our homework. Their assumption is that we wouldn’t be contacting them unless we knew we had a good-fit candidate in mind.  Maybe their admissions cycle has closed for the year, but we hope they will consider a student, regardless.  It’s our ability to say, “he’s an excellent violinist who would be a great fit for your music program” or “she’s very accomplished in robotics and your robotics program really appeals to the family” that may encourage an admissions representative to listen a little longer and be willing to meet a family.

3.        Some of the family's school criteria may eliminate some of the schools on their list. Often, families begin by expressing interest in schools their colleagues use, but without sufficient information or any sense of whether those schools would be a good fit for their children.  They may not realize, for example, that a particular private school is Jewish or Catholic or Episcopalian or single sex or has separate campuses for different age groups, and any one of these factors might take the school off their list. Our job is to streamline and de-stress the school selection process for them, and the first step is often to save them from barking up the wrong tree!

These are only a few of the reasons why we always request a conversation with the family before we start advocating for them with private schools; our job is to make sure that our first conversation with Admissions is informed and professional and that we have enough facts to do right by the student and family we’re representing.

“I know you’re not accepting applications right now” we might say, “but I have a student who would be perfect for your school; she’s really special.”

It’s that approach that just might lead to “OK, then, tell me about her.”

Warmly,

Elizabeth, CEO

Over the years, Bennett International Education Consultancy has worked with hundreds of corporations across the globe, many of them Fortune 500 companies, providing domestic and international school advisement & placement services - preschool through university - to the dependents of relocating employees. In addition to education placement, our team provides customized consulting for corporations with a range of education issues: education policy writing & benchmarking, tuition studies, group move advisement & planning, and remote education solutions.