Staff handover

Welcome to Pressburst!

If you’ve recently joined your school or taken over responsibility for recruitment, marketing, communications or admissions, you may have been asked to look after your school’s Pressburst account.

If you’ve never heard of Pressburst before, don’t worry. This guide explains what it is, how your school uses it and how to get started.

What is Pressburst?

Pressburst is an online platform that helps independent schools share their news, job vacancies, press releases and open events with a wider audience.

We work in partnership with the UK’s leading independent school membership associations, helping schools distribute their content through association websites and other specialist education platforms.

Depending on your role, you might use Pressburst to:

• Advertise job vacancies through your school’s membership associations and recruitment partners.
• Share school news with association websites and other education news platforms.
• Send press releases to journalists and media contacts.
• Promote open events to prospective families through eligible association and partner platforms.
• Manage your school’s profile and information used across connected services.

Rather than entering the same information on multiple websites, Pressburst helps your school create content once and share it with the relevant destinations.

Does my school already use Pressburst?

If your school belongs to one of our partner membership associations, it may already have access to Pressburst through its association membership.

Some schools also subscribe to Pressburst Pro, which provides additional features and unlimited publishing.

You don’t need to know which plan your school has before getting started. Once you have access, you’ll be able to see the features available to your school.

1. Get access to Pressburst

Before you can start using Pressburst, you’ll need to create your own user account.

Even if your school already uses Pressburst, you’ll need your own login rather than using the details of a previous member of staff.

Register for an account

The easiest way to get started is to register directly with Pressburst.

1. Visit pressburst.app/register.
2. Complete the registration form using your school email address.
3. Follow the instructions to set up your account.
4. Once your registration is complete, sign in at pressburst.app.

If your school already uses Pressburst

Your school may already have a Pressburst account with existing news stories, job vacancies, press contacts and other information.

You won’t need to create a new school account or start from scratch.

Once you’ve registered, your user account can be associated with your school’s existing Pressburst account.

This allows you to continue managing the information and content already held for your school.

If you’re replacing a colleague

If you’re taking over from someone who has left your school, it’s worth checking whether their Pressburst account is still active.

An existing account administrator can review users under Settings → Users and remove access for colleagues who no longer need it.

If you don’t know who previously managed Pressburst, our support team can help.

Need help getting access?

If you have difficulty registering or accessing your school’s existing account, contact the Pressburst support team using the Live Chat on our website.

We can help you get started and establish the appropriate access for your role.

2. Find your way around Pressburst

Once you’ve signed in, you’ll see your Pressburst dashboard.

This is your starting point for accessing the different areas of the platform.

The features available to you will depend on your responsibilities, your school’s subscription and the permissions associated with your account.

Don’t worry if some sections aren’t relevant to your role. For example, someone responsible for recruitment may only need to use the HR area, while a marketing colleague might spend most of their time managing news and press releases.

3. Check your school’s existing content

Before creating anything new, it’s worth checking what your school has already published through Pressburst.

Depending on your responsibilities, you may want to review:

• HR → Vacancies – current and previous job advertisements.
• News → Stories – published news stories.
• News → Drafts – unfinished news stories.
• News → Draft Releases – press releases awaiting distribution.
• News → Sent Releases – previously distributed press releases.
• News → Press Contacts – existing journalists and media contacts.
• Open Events – upcoming and previous admissions events.
• School Profiles – information used to represent your school across connected services.
• Media → Photos – photographs available for use in your content.

This will help you understand how your school has been using Pressburst and identify anything that needs updating.

4. Learn the features relevant to your role

You may only need to use one or two areas of Pressburst regularly.

Choose the guides most relevant to your responsibilities.

HR and recruitment

If you’re responsible for advertising job vacancies, start with the HR guides.

Pressburst allows schools to create vacancies and distribute them through eligible association and partner recruitment channels.

Marketing and communications

If you’re responsible for school news and communications, start with the News guides.

Pressburst allows you to publish stories and share them with eligible association and news partner websites.

Press releases

Pressburst also allows you to prepare press releases from published news stories and distribute them to journalists and media contacts.

Admissions and open events

If you’re responsible for admissions events, Pressburst can help promote your school’s open days and other opportunities for prospective families to visit.

5. Review your school’s information

It’s worth checking that your school’s details are accurate, particularly if there have been recent changes to staff or responsibilities.

School profile

Open School Profiles to review the information Pressburst holds about your school.

This includes information used to represent your school across connected services, as well as details that help our AI writing tools understand your school’s character, values and strengths.

Pay particular attention to your school’s Ethos Snapshot, Custom Pillars and Proof Points, as these help AI Story Builder create news content that reflects your school’s identity and style.

See Managing your school profile.

Organisation logo

Open Settings → Organisation to check your school’s logo.

You can upload a replacement if the existing logo is outdated.

Press contacts

If you’re taking over responsibility for press releases, review the contacts already held in News → Press Contacts.

See Managing press contacts.

6. Explore the AI writing tools

Pressburst includes AI-assisted tools to help create and improve job vacancies and news stories.

These can be particularly useful when you’re getting started or working with existing content.

Pressburst Pro includes a monthly allowance of AI credits, with an optional add-on for unlimited use.

7. Get help when you need it

If you need assistance while using Pressburst, help is available directly within the application.

Help

Select Help at the top of the page to open guidance relevant to the section you’re using.

You can also access these documentation pages for more detailed instructions.

Live Chat

Select Live chat to contact the Pressburst support team.

We can help with questions about your account, publishing content, recruitment integrations or using the platform.

You’re ready to get started

Taking over a new system can feel daunting, particularly when you’re unfamiliar with how your school has used it previously.

You don’t need to learn every feature of Pressburst straight away.

Start by registering for an account, reviewing your school’s existing content and exploring the features relevant to your responsibilities.

You can return to these guides whenever you need help, and our support team is available if you have any questions.