5.  What are schools marketing?
The discussion, which follows, is not just about the various values and attainments, which a school puts across; it takes a different view, examining the significance of both overt and covert performance indicators. Many schools fail these are significant factors, especially at secondary level, but the reputation of a school is made up of a series of complex and inter-related factors. Wearing school uniform, which parents associate with good discipline, and the amount of homework, which they associate with academic standards, can be very significant. The reputation of many schools may be enhanced by the overt reality of good staff relationships and high academic standards. However, this reputation can be undone by the behavior of pupils in the local town at lunchtime or when traveling on school buses and the pupils smoking outside the school gates. These determinants of the perceptions which parents have of the school are often more important than the reality of what is actually going on in the delivery of effective education.