Recruitment marketing for schools is the process of promoting your vacancies to attract the right staff, from classroom teachers and subject specialists to senior leaders and support staff. It includes everything from creating a great job advert, to placing it on job boards, in education media and on social platforms. School recruitment marketing also includes candidate packs, optimising the application experience and building your employer brand. In a competitive market, effective recruitment marketing helps your school stand out, reach more relevant candidates and build confidence in your school as a place to work.

Start with a clear employer brand that reflects your values, culture and what you offer as a workplace. Think about what matters to candidates, then build messages around their needs, such as support, development or community. Make sure these come across consistently in your job adverts, website, social media and throughout the candidate experience. A strong, joined-up approach helps you attract the right people and support teacher recruitment long-term.

Start by tracking key metrics such as number of applications, quality of candidates and cost per hire, and compare across media and job types. If you’re not seeing the results you expect, it may be time to review your approach. A recruitment marketing audit can help assess what’s working, what’s not, and where your budget could be better spent. Media buying support can also help make sure your adverts appear in the right places at the right time to reach the people you need. Here’s an example of how a leading boys school assessed the performance of their advertising channels and optimised the balance of spend across print and digital advertising.

If you're not getting the right applicants, it's not just about more reach, but better reach. Many teachers aren’t actively job-hunting, so it's important to use channels that help you connect with passive candidates too. Social media is playing a bigger role in teacher recruitment, especially when supported by engaging content about your school or MAT, because it shows your culture and values in action, motivating the right people to apply. Optimising your job adverts for AI search and discovery tools can also improve visibility (SEO and AI-friendly formatting, structure, search terms). Reviewing your media mix and refining your messaging can help you reach the right people more effectively.

Start by making sure your job adverts are clear, engaging and tailored to the role. Show what sets your school apart and give candidates the practical information they need. Then review where you’re advertising and how you’re reaching people. A mix of job boards, education media and social channels can help you connect with both active and passive candidates. Finally, make the application process as simple and user-friendly as possible (for example, too many steps or unnecessary questions can put people off). Even small changes here can lead to more responses.

We help schools and trusts attract the right candidates through a mix of recruitment marketing services. That includes job advert creation and placement on platforms like Tes and job boards. We design candidate packs and run social media campaigns, and optimise adverts for AI. Our media buying team knows teacher recruitment advertising inside out, from education press to a range of other channels and digital media that reach teachers. Our strategic support spans recruitment audits and employer branding. Whether you're recruiting for a single post or looking to improve the quality and quantity of applications overall, we can support you at every stage.

Yes. We’ve been supporting schools and trusts with recruitment marketing for over 40 years. During that time, we’ve helped place thousands of adverts across platforms like Tes, job boards, education press and digital media. Our team works with schools of all types, including state schools and large multi-academy trusts, as well as independent, boarding and international schools. We help with everything from advertising single roles to long-term education recruitment support. See our client success stories and testimonials to hear how we’ve helped others attract the staff they need.