7
Robin Fletcher Chief Executive BSA and BSA Group
Have a plan and beware the punch On meeting the Japanese managing
marked dip in the middle of the
Different schools will draw different
in the Welsh valleys in the 1990s,
students, particularly from the Far
their own circumstances. But
director of a Panasonic TV factory
the first question he asked me was: “Where will your business be in five
years’ time?”
given the global impact of COVID-
19 on every part of the world over
the past two years, it is tempting to
regard any efforts to look ahead
long-term with a high degree of
caution and scepticism.
Mike Tyson, the former boxer, usefully
pandemic as many international East, could not return to the UK.
It is hoped of course that the sector will recover from this dip, if not
immediately then perhaps over the
next two years. And if this gets us all back to square one, the question
about what five years ahead looks like remains valid.
In trying to figure this out, it’s worth
boarding leaders considering these
points:
reminds us that ‘everyone has a plan
• 42% of all boarders at UK schools
But just because we might get an
• 30% of BSA UK schools have fewer
until they are punched in the mouth’. unexpected punch from time to time doesn’t mean we should not try to have a plan in the first place.
Until COVID-19 the number of
boarders at UK schools remained
fairly static at around 75,000 taking the independent and state sectors together. There was of course a
live overseas
than 50 boarders
• 30% of all boarders are at just 30 UK schools
• 35 UK boarding schools will have
closed or stopped boarding from September 1 2019 to August 31, 2022.
conclusions to these points based on whatever these conclusion are,
considering these sort of questions is
fundamental for any school as it plans beyond the immediate and attempts to chart of a five-year path.
If your school doesn’t have a five-year plan it’s fair to say now is the time to write one (and BSA is happy to help you!). But if your school has one
which says that despite the wider
market context you fully intend to
double all your numbers in the next
five years, then it’s also fair to say that your plan may need tweaking.
Optimism is a wonderful asset in any
organisation, but you cannot run one on optimism alone, especially a boarding school.
