During the Coronavirus pandemic many schools, colleges and universities have endured extended periods of closure and even when schools in the UK reopened, most (if not all) were unable to host events of any kind or welcome external visitors into the building due either to lockdown restrictions, general social distancing requirements or just because people feel understandably uncomfortable about leaving the house and potentially mixing with other groups of people for non-essential reasons.
Being unable to visit and be shown around a school can pose a real problem, both for parents seeking to research schools in their local area and for new students who face the daunting realisation that their first day at a new school will be the first time they’ve ever set foot inside. If a child is already prone to anxiety during what is a potentially nerve-racking experience at the best of times, this can make things even worse. Increased familiarity with a school or college can be comforting when new students start, and help reduce anxiety in the run-up to starting a new term.
A school virtual tour is one way we can support schools, and they can be invaluable when getting to know a new school. This is especially true when transitioning from one school to another (for example, Year 6 children starting a new school for Year 7). A virtual campus tour can also help parents looking round schools, by acting as a “virtual open day”. They can also be great from the school’s point of view, as the extra control that a video or photographic virtual tour gives you means the school can ensure that their best bits are shown off to the full, with no danger of them being missed or overlooked!
There are several different options for you to consider when it comes to virtual tours for schools, and we’ll explore the various options below.
Virtual School Tour Video
A Secondary school virtual tour video like this one uses a traditional linear video format, so is intended to be watched from start to finish like you would with any other promotional video. It’s ideal for your school’s website homepage, social media and YouTube channel and is geared towards a target audience of both parents and prospective pupils.
A guided video tour like this is presented by the school Principal or Headmaster/Headmistress and gives a general overview of the school and what parents and pupils can expect. Including interviews with both members of staff and current pupils helps to bring the experience to life and lets you “virtually” meet people that you will meet for real in the future. It’s also a great chance to show off what’s best about your school and include any relevant stats such as exam results and notable achievements of current and former pupils.
360º Panoramic Virtual School Tours
Another option, and a great way to help your virtual visitors to feel like they’re really there, is via a 360º virtual tour of your school and its various spaces. A photographic virtual tour made up of still images stitched together into an interactive “photosphere” like the one above allows your virtual visitors to zoom in and out and to pan up, down and side to side. Think of it as a bit like Google Street View for your school!
360º School Tours can be a really creative, immersive and engaging way of showing off your space to visitors who can’t (yet) come in real life. Plus you can really show them off at their best – on a sunny, bright day and with all the best features of the space popping with beauty.
You’re not limited to just one space within your school, either – each panorama can contain “hot spots”, which when clicked will either give the visitor extra information about a particular part of your scene, or even transport them into another one. For example, you may have an outdoor scene showing your school’s playground or playing fields, and then place a hotspot over the outside of your school hall so that users clicking through can then be instantly transported into another scene of inside the hall.
You can even insert videos (flat or 360º) into your photographic virtual tours, meaning the only limit is your imagination and how much you want to show off your school!
Full Length Promotional School Video
Finally, one of the best ways possible to showcase your school at its best is to work with a video production company to create a full-length promotional video. This would be filmed and produced over the course of an entire academic year at the school showing key highlights of the school calendar and giving a complete picture of what life is like at your school and as a member of the school community.
What better way to show off your school, attract more applications, funding and to reach out to the wider community that you’re a part of?
Get in touch for a free, no-obligation quote if you’d like to discuss either a video tour or a 360º photographic virtual tour of your primary school, secondary school, boarding school or college.
