Shropshire multi-academy trust harnesses teacher testimonials to attract ambitious, career-focused staff

You don’t need me to tell you that recruiting and retaining teachers is incredibly challenging right now.

With a wide range of opportunities available to them, the best teachers can afford to be selective—so it’s crucial that you clearly communicate why your school is the right choice.

Authentic interviews with current staff are a powerful way to do this. Prospective teachers are far more likely to trust the words of fellow educators sharing their genuine experiences than a headteacher making the same claims (no offence—but what head wouldn’t say their school is a great place to work?).

The Marches Academy Trust looks after eleven schools across Shropshire. They’re constantly recruiting ambitious and career-driven teachers into their Trust.

Therefore, they knew they needed to appeal to those sorts of professionals – and that’s where video testimonials came in.

Attract the talent you want with the teacher testimonial messaging

As I’ve said, the Marches Academy Trust really wants to recruit teachers who will progress up the career ladder with them, gaining skills as they develop and take on new roles.

So they want to attract the most ambitious staff who will want to do that themselves.

Therefore, in the teacher testimonial interviews we focussed on showing the investment that the Trust puts into the career progression of its staff, and the training and development they offer.

Making the teacher testimonial filming process efficient

I know that time is of the essence when working with schools – teachers don’t want to take too much time out of their busy days to do a video interview!

Across three half-day filming sessions at three schools in the Trust, we recorded ten different teacher testimonial interviews.

We only called in the teachers when we were absolutely ready to start filming, and each interview lasted between ten and thirty minutes (most on the lower end!)

Because of the thorough pre-production meetings I held with the school, I knew exactly the messaging I wanted each teacher to focus on before they even started speaking – so there’s no time wasted with fact-finding missions.

Each video interview is highly efficient, and focussed on getting the quotes which will engage your audience.

Looking to boost your staff recruitment with teacher testimonial videos?

Get in touch for a free video marketing review, where we can explore whether this would be an effective way for you to recruit the staff you need to give your students the best learning experience.