How parent word of mouth shapes enrolment (and what trusts can do about it)

What makes a family choose one school over another? And do trusts have any real influence over it?

Falling rolls are one of the biggest pressures facing trust leaders right now. As pupil numbers drop, schools must compete harder for every family and parents can afford to be pickier. What's going on behind that competition won't show up in a school's spreadsheets or admissions CRM. But the admissions figures will, and for many trusts they're already a concern.

Hundreds of schools could be forced to close

 Falling rolls pose an immediate financial risk according to 80 per cent of CEOs of trusts with over 20 schools, compared with 26 per cent of single-academy trust CEOs. The National Education Union has warned that hundreds of schools could be forced to close. 

As Schools Week reports, the pressure extends beyond London and affects even high-performing schools. But parental choice means the impact is uneven: popular local schools continue to attract families while others face sharper falls.

But if some schools are succesfully navigating the decline, what makes those schools popular? What is motivating parents to choose one local school over another?

Parental word of mouth matters more than ever

The answers lie in the two biggest parent surveys carried out in the UK: the National Parent Survey and the Parent Voice Project. 

Parentkind’s 2026 National Parent Survey, which polled over 6,000 parents, found that the parents increasingly feel unheard, particularly by multi-academy trusts.

“Just 19 per cent of parents whose child attends a school that is part of a multi-academy trust agree that the trust listens to them.”

Parentkind

Parents value clear, consistent communication from their child’s school… and when they have it, their opinion of the school and willingness to recommend it rises.  But there’s an important distinction between being kept informed and feeling heard. The strongest parent relationships happen when communication is a two-way experience: parents know what’s happening, feel able to have their say, and can see that their views are taken seriously.

In other words, communication isn't just about getting information from school to home. It plays a role in how parents experience and feel about the school — and ultimately in what they tell other parents.

Across the pond, a recent study confirmed that good communication and good word of mouth are linked.

“90 per cent of parents who say they’d recommend their children’s school to others report being “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with the quality of the communication they receive [from their child’s school].”

GreatSchools.org

In fact, studies suggest that word of mouth from other parents is one of the most powerful forms of advertising a school can have. The Parent Voice Project talked to 6,000 parents — and found that a school’s reputation was the second most important factor for parents considering a school for their child, second only to location.

The answer is word of mouth from parents with children currently enrolled at the school. Parents now are far more likely to value real life experience from other families to guide their choice.

“[Parents] want to know what it is actually like to go to the schools on their shortlist.”

Good Schools Guide

Families are more likely to choose schools recommended to them by other parents… and those parents are more likely to recommend schools that communicate well. But how does a trust leader know if their schools are communicating well?  

The power of benchmarking school communication metrics

When a school gets communication badly wrong, senior leadership will typically hear about it. But when a school is making many small mistakes that add up over time, trust leadership is less likely to be aware. 

And when a school is communicating well with parents, trust leaders may not realise at all. 

But knowing which schools in your trust are communicating well and building parent confidence is valuable information. When it comes to declining enrolment, this is a hidden weapon only available to multi-academy trusts — while individual schools have nothing to compare their own communication to, trusts have the ability to compare and contrast every school under their ranks.

How to benchmark your trust's schools

Knowing which schools are communicating well is the first step towards understanding how they communicate well… and how to replicate that success across your trust.

Which schools in your trust would parents happily recommend to other families? A quick audit of parental satisfaction across the trust can start with questions like:

• Which schools in the trust have parents who feel informed and listened to?
• How willing are those parents to recommend their school, and why?
• What concerns show up repeatedly, and what actions follow those concerns?
• Do prospective families mention parent recommendations when enquiring?
• Which practices could other schools in the trust adapt?

To get the most out of these comparisons, use the same core questions across every school, covering whether parents feel informed, feel listened to and would recommend their school. Check response rates and whose views may be missing, then consider the findings alongside communication engagement and enrolment trends.

What's behind the differences? In schools where parents are more positive, identify practices other schools could adapt. In those where parents express less satisfaction, agree an action and repeat the survey later to see whether parents’ experiences have improved.

For a school facing declining enrolment, the answer to protecting pupil numbers may already be in your trust, at a sister school whose parents can't stop recommending it.

Not sure how to start measuring how the schools in your trust communicate? Take a look at the five engagement metrics every multi-academy trust should be monitoring.