Chapter 6: Building and Sustaining School Image and School Brand: Considerations for Mid-Career Leaders in the Quest to Promote School Success at the Primary Level

As school leaders approach the middle years of their careers, they must constantly embark on strategies to help them navigate that period. Concomitantly, they must continue to explore opportunities to aid them in improving school performance and sustaining school success. This chapter, therefore, examines some of the literature that reveals the peculiarities that leaders experience during the middle years. The chapter also highlights how mid-career primary school principals, especially those in the Caribbean, may utilize school marketing to navigate that stage in their career and promote school success. The chapter posits that in the same manner, the chief executive officer (CEO) of a corporate organization institutes measures that allow for the promotion of the brand and the image of their organization, the mid-career school leader should not only consider but should employ these two marketing strategies in the school environment. Acknowledging that, unlike the brand, the school image is a mental construct, the chapter suggests that midcareer school leaders ought to be aware that developing and sustaining both are inextricably linked to the support and input of staff, students, parents, and the wider community.