ISPRA Communications Awards 2017

Last year, Woodward Academy competed in the Iowa School Public Relations Association (ISPRA) Communications Awards competition for the first time and scored really well, winning 3 out of 4 categories where we submitted entries. After last year's experience, we wanted to continue that expectation of excellence for our communications, but also knew that the competition would be equally as fierce from all school districts.

Of the 20 events, we identified 6 categories where we felt we could perform well, which included Brochure, Photography, Print Newsletter, Social Media, Video, and Website. As a local chapter of the National School Public Relations Association (NSPRA), it is policy that another state score the submissions based on rubrics, and this year the Arizona chapter judged the Iowa submissions.

The rubric for each submission looks at design, clarity and focus, writing quality, evaluation, and overall effect. When averaged together, if a submission scores between 7-8, they earn an Award of Merit. Scores between 8-10 earned an Award of Excellence. Out of that pool, submissions that scored 9 and above are eligible to earn the top honor: the Blue & Gold Award as the best in the state.

This year, there were 98 entries from 20 different school districts, the most ever for ISPRA. On Thursday, April 20, the results were announced and Woodward Academy once again scored well. Of the six categories, 1 submission received an Award of Merit (Social Media), and the other 5 all received high scores in the Award of Excellence range. Of those, 2 received the top prize of the Blue & Gold Award (print newsletter and website), and were recognized as the best in the state. This was the second year in a row that our Knightly Knews was recognized with the top award, and the website category recognized our newly launched site. You can see all of the results on the ISPRA website, and below is a recap of how Woodward Academy performed.

Iowa School Public Relations Association
Print Newsletter - Knightly Knews Vol. 38 and 39 - Blue & Gold Award
Website - www.wwacademy.com - Blue & Gold Award
Photography - Cross Country 2016 - Award of Excellence
Video - Become a Knight video series - Award of Excellence
Brochure - Become a Knight - Award of Excellence
Social Media - Facebook Page - Award of Merit

New Website Features

On February 21, Woodward Academy launched its new website under the same URL home: www.wwacademy.com. This redesigned site boasts a modern, colorful design, full of images and videos from campus, and offers quick and easy access to essential information about the school and programming.

Discussions of a new website began in April 2016 and formally got underway a few months later in August. The previous site had been live for nearly 10 years and had gone mostly unchanged during the time. Although much of the available content was still accurate, the site was dated and very much not in line with the rest of the school’s communications pieces.

Woodward Academy's communications plan consists of a quarterly newsletter (the Knightly Knews), Knight Pics website, a blog, YouTube channel, Facebook page, and various other print publications. They all hold a consistent style, which the current website lacked. Rather than update the current site, a complete redesign was decided upon to bring it in line with the other pieces of the communications plan.

In order to maintain the aesthetic of Woodward Academy's other communication pieces, the design of the website was developed in-house rather than outsourced to a web development company. Communications Director, Eric Smidt, compiled the content of each page, mapped the new site, and designed within Adobe Photoshop. Once mocked up, the Photoshop files were passed on to Willetts Technology, who was responsible for converting those files into web compatible versions for the new site. Willetts Technology maintains all web hosting and maintenance for the schools under the umbrella of Sequel Youth and Family Services. After seven months of design and development, the new site was complete.