Why ditching jargon builds trust and enrolments
Listen closely in any staffroom or curriculum meeting and you’ll hear it: a fluent stream of acronyms, initialisms and technical terms. It’s the dialect of education, and it serves a valuable internal purpose. However, when that same language spills into your school’s external communications, it can quietly erode trust and connection.
Picture a parent at your school information evening. They’re eager to understand, but the conversation quickly fills with unfamiliar edu-speak. Smiles fade, eyes glaze over and understanding slips quietly out the door.
When language is too technical, what seems clear to you and your staff can sound confusing or even alienating to parents. And, in a market where trust drives enrolment decisions, that isn’t a risk worth taking.
A 2020 study[1] by Dr Hillary Shulman from The Ohio State University found that jargon doesn’t just confuse people, it makes them disengage. Participants who read science passages packed with technical terms lost interest, even if definitions were available. The same dynamic applies in school communications.
In schools, this disengagement can look like unopened newsletters, skim-read website content, or missed opportunities for parent involvement. Not because they don’t care, but because the language acts as a filter.
When parents do not immediately understand the language, they often stop trying. This ‘switching off’ happens even if the message is important. Over time, this can undermine one of the most vital relationships your school has: the one with your parent community. When parents feel spoken to with clarity and care, they are more likely to trust that the school will show the same consideration to their children. This trust often translates into enrolments, retention and positive word-of-mouth.
Imagine a parent reading: “We are initiating a learning enhancement strategy via a BYOD enabled platform, aligned with ACARA outcomes and guided by inclusive teaching strategies.” Now picture the same update in plain English: “We are updating our teaching tools to give students more flexible learning options and to help teachers plan more effectively.” One feels like an invitation. The other feels like a barrier.
Language can spark unnecessary resistance
A 2021 American study[2] from the Thomas B Fordham Institute is a real-world education-specific example. The research explored how parents felt about social-emotional learning (SEL). Most supported the skills SEL teaches: empathy, goal setting and resilience, but disliked the label itself. When rebranded as ‘life skills’, support jumped.
In Australia, as elsewhere, complex labels and unfamiliar terms can carry unintended baggage. The lesson? Labels matter. When your wording provokes more heat than light, it’s time to reach for plain language.
Terms like ‘inquiry-based pedagogy’ or ‘formative benchmarking’ continue to raise eyebrows. While these terms have valid professional use, their inclusion in public facing content can make school communication sound more like a research paper than a conversation.
Jargon can make parents feel like outsiders
Jargon doesn’t just confuse: it excludes. A 2020 study[3] published in Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes found people use jargon to sound more competent, especially when they feel less confident. But the effect on others? Confusion and alienation.
Dr Shulman described attending a reading night at her child’s school. Despite being a communication expert, she felt unqualified. “I was falling into all the traps I study without realising it,” she said. “When parents do not understand, they tune out or, worse, feel they do not belong.”
This sense of exclusion has implications beyond engagement. It can reduce advocacy, hinder volunteerism and even affect enrolment decisions. Parents who feel outside the circle are less likely to speak positively about the school in their own networks.
It dulls your brand voice
At imageseven, we remind schools that your brand is who you are, what you promise and your ability and willingness to keep that promise. If your brand voice sounds like a policy manual, you have already lost the room.
Phrases like ‘21st century skills’ or ‘pedagogical alignment’ are easy to copy and hard to care about. A bold school brand, by contrast, speaks with clarity and heart. It uses real stories and simple language. It makes parents feel like they have found their people.
Clear language also reinforces professionalism. It shows that you understand your audience and can communicate with purpose. In a crowded market, this is an asset.
Try these five strategies:
- Run a jargon audit. Review your emails, newsletters and website. Highlight terms a new parent might not know.
- Use ‘you’ and ‘your child’. Replace internal jargon with direct, family friendly language.
- Ask for feedback. Get a parent or a non-teaching staff member to sense check key messages.
- Do a clarity test. Ask someone to summarise a message back to you in their own words. If it doesn’t match, rework it.
- Coach your team. Give staff both the tools and encouragement to communicate clearly and warmly. This could include professional development sessions that explore how to translate curriculum goals into plain language or creating a style guide with simple examples for reference.
Start with you
As Head, your voice sets the tone. When you simplify complex ideas in speeches, enrolment conversations or staff presentations, you model what good communication looks like.
Try replacing ‘school wide positive behaviour interventions and supports’ with ‘a clear system that rewards good behaviour’. Swap ‘student agency’ for ‘giving students more say in their learning’.
When you lead with clarity, your staff will follow. Over time, this builds a culture where clear and confident communication is not the exception but the expectation. You’re not dumbing things down. You’re opening things up. That might be the clearest message of all.
In a noisy world, clarity is a rare gift.
insight applied
- Jargon erodes trust and parent engagement.
- Clear language strengthens your brand voice.
- Confusing terms make parents feel excluded.
- Heads set the tone by modelling clarity.
[1] Shulman, H.C., Dixon, G.N., Bullock, O.M. & Colón Amill, D. (2020). The effects of jargon on processing fluency, self-perceptions, and scientific engagement. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 39 (5–6), pp. 579–597.
[2] Tyner, A. (2021). How to sell SEL: Parents and the Politics of Social-Emotional Learning. Washington, D.C. Thomas B Fordham Institute.
[3] Brown, Z.C., Anicich, E.M. & Galinsky, A.D. (2020). Compensatory conspicuous communication: Low status increases jargon use. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 161, pp. 31–45.