Use this guide to follow distribution timelines of the 🌳 Woodlands Newsletter, content to be included and design examples.
What is the Woodlands Newsletter?
The newsletter is a Canva Template document that has articles, recipes, campus updates, Campus acknowledged events and parents information included in one document that is to be shared with families. The newsletter will be written and distributed by the Campus Educational Leaders from each campus in collaboration with Educators and Teachers.
Newsletters are widely used across all of our Woodlands Campuses to keep families engaged, maintain consistent communication, and drive loyalty. Happy families will share their newsletters with others!
When creating the newsletter and filling in the template, focus on stories that will engage your families positively and share valuable information that is relevant to them.
1. The Canva Newsletter Template:
Firstly when accessing the Canva portal, ensure that you are logged in with your campus Canva account. For access to Canva check the Campus Airtable, under the section for passwords and accounts.
The newest versions of the template will be shared via the Canva Template Link, here in the guide and also shared in the Educational Leader Slack Channel, notifying when the template has been updated.
Please ensure when you are opening the new template to begin completing it for the month, you are checking the month and are aware of when the date of sending it out to families is due.
Click here to access the latest version of the Canva Newsletter Template (October)
✅ August
✅ September
✅ October
🔲 November
🔲 December
*When you are accessing the template via Canva - please ensure that you are logged in to your own campus Canva account. Please do not use the "Woodlands HQ Connect" Account.
2. Content and Articles:
When accessing the Canva Newsletter Template, there will be sections already pre-filled with content. Such as, a recipe from the campus kitchen, upcoming events, parent and family tips and tricks etc.
The remaining sections of the articles will be blank to fill in campus specific content. Use the blank article areas to include information that is relevant to your campus, families and community. This can include things such as, excursions, special event days, upcoming holidays, learning curriculum and projects happening in classrooms, kinder and school readiness updates and changes that may be happening for example, playground construction, menu changes, etc.
If you are looking to include project or curriculum updates that have been or are happening in the classrooms, collaborate with lead educators and playground posts to gather information.
Ensure that the content is warm, positive, professional, engaging and informative.
- Headline and Title of the Article: Write an attention grabbing subject line. The headline should be catchy, short and relevant. Ensure the heading fits on one line.
- Paragraph and Body of the Article: Start with something that will grab parent and family attention and will encourage them to read further. Start with a brief overview of the topic, include crucial information that families need - if possible share where families can access further information, or who the correct person to speak to/email ("reach out to our ECT", "speak with our Educational Leader", "visit our online portal" etc.)
- Personalisation: Use names of familiar educator names, classroom names and specific campus features (such as offers, events etc. if possible) to make the newsletter feel tailored and relevant.
3. Photos and Images:
When adding photos on the newsletter, it is crucial that all children featured in photographs and images have permissions to be used online and in social media - especially when sharing the newsletter on Facebook.
To check if a child has approval for photos and videos, log in to the office xplor portal and check the child's profile (enrolment form). It is also listed in the Basic Information Section if they have approvals for socials.
- If the box is unticked (empty box) they DO NOT have permission to be featured - do not add the child's photo to the newsletter.
- If the box is ticked (check mark in box) they have approval to be featured - the child photo can be added to the newsletter.
- As a tip: Once every 6 months or so, put out a Communication Post on xplor to remind families to update their photo approvals. Parents and Families at any time can withdraw their permission for photos to be used online and in social media. Ensure they are reminded about photos being used online and in newsletters.
(It is easier to check and update permissions before using photos than it is to take down and remove photos from posts online and used in materials.)
4. Design and Layout Guide:
When adding photos and writing in the available text boxes, ensure that they are looking engaging. There are features you can use in Canva that will support how the overall finished product of the Newsletter will look.
- Ensure that the text boxes are aligned, not overlapping elements or causing gaps on the pages between other elements.
- Ensure the title of the article is aligned neatly above the article.
- Ensure that all text is the same size or similar - especially the titles of the articles.
- Ensure photos are not cut off or misaligned in the frames.
- Ensure if there are multiple articles in line in a section, they are evenly spaced, neatly organised, matching in font size, alignment and not moved.
Elements in the newsletter are locked to avoid being moved and changed, however they can be unlocked if they need to be re-aligned or change the font size.
Below are some pieces that you can use to ensure the newsletter design is looking polished:
Ensure that the text inside of the text boxes are aligned to straight on the sides. This is the image of the lines that are in equal length. When slecting this option for text boxes it will make the text neat and also create invisible borders between the article and other elements in the newsletter. It is more polished, appealing and pleasing to the eye.
Line spacing can make the text inside of a text box fit into the space. If the text is overflowing into other areas of the newsletter, line spacing can be used to create smaller gaps in the lines of text and fit more.
In the reverse, this can also be used to fill a text box if there is space at the bottom of the text box to fill the gap and you have no further information to add.
Using the position options allows the text box to and elements to be positioned neatly on the newsletter. If you need to space two or more items together on a page, highlight and group all the elements together and there is a button to evenly space it.
Please reach out to the Woodlands Branding Team if you have any questions or would like some more tips on how to use the tools in Canva.
5. Proof Reading:
Once you have entered the photos, images and articles - proof read, proof read, proof read!
Make sure there are no spelling errors, the sentence structure make sense and there isn't missing information. Have the Campus Manger review information for errors and ensuring all the information is correct. Ensure you have checked the children permissions of the photos.
Ensure that the spaces that are left blank for you to change are updated - such as the bottom and tops of the pages where it has specific campus name, email, etc.
6. Timeline and when to send out:
- New newsletter templates will be sent out at the start of a new month.
- This is due to be worked on, filled out and added to up until the Monthly Educational Leader Meeting - ensure you are checking the Campus Google Calendar for the dates and invites to the Monthly Campus Educational Leader Meeting.
- At the Monthly Lead Educator Meeting, use this as an opportunity to discuss any questions regarding the Newsletter.
- Completed Newsletters are due to be sent out by the end of the month.
As the Newsletter is sent out at the end of a month - the calendar of "Upcoming Events" will show the dates of the upcoming month.
For example (Using November and December as an example):- Newsletter Template Link is shared in this Guide at the start of November
- Notification of the New Template is shared in the Educational Leader Slack Channel.
- Educational Leaders attend the November Monthly Educational Leader Meeting to discuss any questions about the newsletter.
- The completed November newsletter contains updates and information from the Month of November.
- The completed November newsletter is sent out and shared with families at the end of November.
- The upcoming events listed on the front page are for December (as it is sent out at the end of November, the events in November have already passed. The upcoming events will be for upcoming month which would be December.)
7. Distribution and Sharing:
Share them in the places that your families at the campus are most engaged. This can be through Xplor communication posts or playground posts.
The newsletter can also be shared on Facebook.
Click Here to access the Facebook Post Submission Form
At this stage these are the options we have access to sharing, this will be reviewed and updated when changes to distribution are made.
8. Feedback
Encourage feedback about the newsletter. Speak with families in conversations if they have seen the newest newsletter, had a chance to read it.
Did they find it informative?
Did they enjoy seeing a photo of their child featured?
Do they have time to read it?
View in Xplor if the post has been opened and read by families.
Would families like to see anything in particular in the Newsletter?
9. Tips and Tricks
- If there is space, feel free to include learning outcomes, quality areas. etc.
- Check the background of photos - for upset children, messy faces, etc.
- In the Educator Spotlight article, avoid using "selfie" photos (especially with heavy snapchat/intagram filters). Use one that is well lit and "professional".
- Please provide feedback or suggestions to upcoming months templates if there is anything specific that you would like included, such as: specific topics for the parents tips section.
Guide written by Carly Purdie - Head of Woodlands Branding
November 2024.
Any changes to the guide will be updated as needed and noted here.