Education Awards 2022 Winners Supplement

Gold sponsor

Gold sponsor Silver corporate partner Award partners

Drinks’ reception sponsor

WINNER

Barclays Bank/capital provider

Barclays was the first bank to recognise the need for sector specialisms and we have had a team dedicated to the education sector for over 20 years. Our relationship directors understand the specific challenges faced by education businesses and are passionate about supporting their ambitions.

We are exceptionally proud to win ‘Bank/capital provider of the year’ at the EducationInvestor Awards. We’re one of the biggest lenders to the education market and are proud to be a trusted partner to a range of different clients across the sector.

Our education clients, benefit from:

• Our industry expertise – we produce a wealth of education-focused materials and events, all designed to help our clients make more informed business decisions

• Our ability to provide a full suite of transaction, financing and investment management support

• Our commitment to the digital future – Barclays is a leader of digital transformation of banking services, including the development of connected and cashless campuses.

We have significant banking or lending relationships with:

• Over half of UK higher education institutions, helping them deliver outstanding student experience and outcomes.

• 50% of further education colleges as well as a large number of other education institutions, such as independent schools,

charities, businesses and government bodies in the sector.

• A multi-billion financing commitment in the UK education sector.

Barclays support for the education sector extends beyond providing financing and transactional banking services. We actively engage with sector representatives, funders and regulators, to share our industry expertise.

Barclays also offer programmes such as Code Playground, which is delivering coding skills to thousands of children across the UK, and LifeSkills which helps people to build the confidence, knowledge and skills that employers are looking for, as well as improve their money management proficiency. Over 15 million people have participated since the programme launched in 2013 and we

have specifically supported over 190,000 people into work through the LifeSkills programme since 2019.

Richard Robinson, head of education at Barclays, says: “We are honoured to have won this award once again. We were pleased to hear that the judges have recognised the breadth and depth of our client relationships across the sector, the ways we are constantly looking to add value beyond traditional banking services and how we taper our support across the different segments of the market to help deliver better outcomes for learners as they build the skills required to contribute to the wider society.”

“Education is a key sector for Barclays and our people are passionate about delivering for all our clients, customers and communities."

Cairneagle Consultant – strategy

Cairneagle is delighted to have won in the category ‘Consultant – strategy’ at the 2022 EducationInvestor Awards. This is the fifth time Cairneagle has been recognised at the annual events ceremony.

Founded in 2001, Cairneagle supports strategic decisions that chief executives and boards of educational institutions and companies supplying services to the sector, as well as private equity firms, have to make by bringing structure, insight and judgement to situations of uncertainty and material financial impact. Earlier this year, Cairneagle joined forces with national law firm VWV to bolster their combined businesses in the education sector.

The judges commented: “Over the past 20 years, Cairneagle has carefully developed a market-leading education practice, becoming the trusted advisor to management teams in education institutions and businesses. Its position remains insurmountable, as evidenced by the broad spread of education consultancy projects it has worked on over the past year – from the nursery sector to higher education and corporate learning. On top of this, it plays a vital role in industry thought leadership, and is highly respected throughout the sector.”

Partner Arun Kanwar said: ”We are thrilled to have been recognised in this way and

want to thank our clients for trusting us with some of their most critical issues, and our team for their unwavering commitment to quality. We have exciting ambitions for continued growth and are investing in even better meeting our clients’ needs.”

Partner Jorge Amirola said: “We are very excited to have won this award for the fifth time in the last eight years. It is a great recognition to the amount and quality of the work that we have done over this period. We are immensely grateful to our clients for trusting us and to our team for their dedication. We look forward to the next stage in the journey of our firm alongside our new partners at VWV.”

Partners Sam Lecacheur, Jorge Amirola, Arun Kanwar and Rupert Barclay (pictured) accepted the award on behalf of Cairneagle

WINNER

Legal advisor – to deal-making

Clark Rickerbys

Harrison Clark Rickerbys (HCR) was delighted to win the ‘Legal advisor –to deal-making’ award at this year’s EducationInvestor Awards. The awards celebrate those who have made an outstanding contribution to education over the past year, and HCR’s expertise and ability to bring like-minded educational establishments, from nurseries to schools, to universities and investors together was recognised.

The judges spoke about the transactions the education team had advised on – 25 in the past year, a 65% increase yearon-year growth and also how they are “a force for good in the sector”. The judges continued, saying: “Harrison Clark Rickerbys' ability to diversify across the

education and legal landscape makes the firm a ‘stand out’ organisation. Its pride and joy in its work stands out, in addition to its skill in making the legal jungle navigable by those focused on the education side of business.”

The team’s deal-making means it has also become the go-to legal advisors for schools and universities looking to establish international franchise investments. This year has seen expansion, with the team helping schools leverage investment from new markets across Asia and the Middle East. One such example is Uppingham School, which HCR’s education team helped establish a franchise in Vietnam –becoming the first UK independent school to open there.

Substantial knowledge of the sector means HCR’s education team bring together like-minded specialist education groups for nurseries and schools with investors to broker deals and provide them with new futures and growth. This includes helping educational establishments evaluate their strategic options and, looking to the future, whether to sell, merge, acquire, collaborate or seek investment.

Operational and strategic issues are something which the team has had significant experience in – at the forefront of the sector’s response to the pandemic, it worked with sector associations feeding into government policy. With a singular focus on education, it can get to the heart of issues quickly and make a real difference. In the past year it has helped over 150 institutions respond to ever changing environments, from early years settings to universities.

HCR’s head of education, Krissy Scott, said: “We are delighted to win this award and be recognised in this way. HCR’s dedication to the education sector spans over 50 years and we are honoured to be considered trusted advisors across the sector. The recognition of our deal-making success reflects the strength, depth and breadth of the team. I’d like to thank our clients for their ongoing support and also thank the team for being passionate about education every day and always going that extra mile to provide first-rate legal advice, service and guidance to our clients.”

Harrison

Legal advisor – to

education institutions

Browne Jacobson’s education team has been named as winner of the ‘Legal advisor to education institutions’ category at the EducationInvestor Awards 2022 for a record sixth time.

The firm was shortlisted alongside an array of national and international firms including Bevan Brittan, Clyde & Co, Eversheds Sutherland (International),

The awards, now in their thirteenth year, celebrate commercial successes in the business of education, recognising those that have made an outstanding contribution to the industry in the preceding year. The Browne Jacobson education team was judged the winner

by a panel of high-profile independent industry experts. The judging panel praised the firm’s “depth and breadth of sector experience across the board” and paid tribute to the firm’s positive impact saying that “it was changing the dialogue in policy issues which are impacting the education sector in so many ways when we think about the end-user being the learner or child at the centre. It feels like its advice and critical role in policy setting is having a significant impact for its clients.”

Mark Blois, national head of education at Browne Jacobson, said: “It’s a huge honour for the firm and its education team to be awarded this accolade for the sixth time.

“This year’s award reaffirms our status as a genuine powerhouse in the sector and over the years these awards have provided ongoing recognition both of the exceptional service we always strive to deliver for our education sector clients and of the positive impact of the advice and support we provide to our clients and to the wider education sector.”

Browne Jacobson has one of the largest education teams in the country. This year the team secured five Tier 1 rankings relating to education in the latest edition of Legal 500 and maintained a Band 1 UKwide ranking for education in Chambers & Partners UK 2023. Its team of over 70 lawyers and 19 HR professionals deliver a comprehensive portfolio of legal and HR services to over 1,300 education institutions nationally every year.

Harrison Clark Rickerbys, Mills & Reeve, Pinsent Masons and VWV.

Browne Jacobson

Property advisor

Knight Frank is a global property consultancy with a long-established team dedicated to the educational sector, based in our head office in London.

Our structure and depth of knowledge of a wide range of markets and territories gives us the opportunity to provide 'best in class’ solutions for our education clients’ property needs.

Sectors covered include:

• Nurseries and early years,

• Schools and colleges (including independent and SEN)

• Further and higher education.

Educational providers face multiple opportunities yet also challenges. Our clients’ property and their related

strategies are a key component in remaining at the forefront of their offer and fit for the future.

This specialist sector requires expert knowledge and innovative solutions for businesses, individuals, and charitable and public sector institutions alike, that own, occupy, develop or acquire land and buildings for educational purposes.

Knight Frank is driven by a unique personal culture as the world’s largest privately owned real estate consultancy. This culture enables a tailored approach to advising our clients and drives us to continually strengthen relationships across our network.

Our depth of knowledge across sectors

and markets enables us to advise on valuation and investment opportunities, share clear insights and solutions to support your ESG strategies, and advise on planning and development, as well as debt and equity funding.

Knight Frank’s education team thus offer comprehensive market-leading property advice to the sector with a personalised service, but with a global outlook to ensure the best advice, whatever the property.

Do get in touch if you would like to explore any aspect of your educational property strategy further.

Emma Cleugh BSc (Hons) MRICS, partner, head of education emma.cleugh@knightfrank.com +44 7778 463 958

Knight Frank

Higher education institution

Honoris United Universities

Honoris United Universities, the first and largest pan-African network of private higher education institutions, is committed to transforming lives through relevant education for lifetime success.

Formed in 2017 and leveraging its incredibly diverse network across Africa, Honoris has transformed more than 770,000 lives to date and upholds a legacy of 250 years of experience in education. Championing new methods of delivery and technologies, the network has developed a tailor-made academic model designed to address Africa’s key educational challenges in a fastchanging and globalised world to improve the employability and life skills of graduates in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR).

Honoris comprises a community of more than 71,000 students on 70 campuses, learning centres, and via on-line, in 10 African countries and 32 cities. The

network is formed of 15 institutions: multidisciplinary universities, specialised schools, technical and vocational institutes, contact, distance, and online institutions. Students have an opportunity to experience exclusive partnerships and exchange programmes in more than 190 universities across Europe, the US and Asia. Over 420 degrees are offered in medicine, health sciences, engineering, IT, business, law, architecture, creative arts, fashion and design, media, political science, and education.

In 2022, Honoris released its inaugural impact report as it also celebrated its fifth anniversary, calculating a precise impact score to measure the positive social and environmental impacts and enabling comparison across sectors and geographies. This score demonstrated transformational progress specifically in the areas of quality education, employment access, gender equality, and STEM education. In addition, Honoris

is passionate about acting responsibly to global initiatives and demonstrates a contribution towards 11 of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

In this year’s awards, Honoris was further congratulated on its success in improving employability outcomes in TVET education, increasing access and building capacity in future high-growth sectors, and leveraging the power of the network for cross-border collaboration.

Honoris received recognition for its achievements from the foremost international organisation dedicated to improving the state of the world – the World Economic Forum and its New Champions Community. New Champions are dynamic high-growth companies that are championing new business models, emerging technologies, and sustainable growth strategies in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, while remaining mindful of their impact on society to build a better future.

As one of only eight African companies out of 118 New Champions globally, Honoris values its acceptance into the community and understands the responsibility to contribute, learn and engage with peers to harness the opportunities at hand. By building a pan-African social infrastructure that educates tomorrow’s workforce and the fastest-growing demographic in the world, Honoris will continue its mission of education for impact towards its target of transforming 1.5 million lives by 2027.

Nursery operator

Family First Nurseries

Family First is delighted to have been named ‘Nursery operator of the year’ –acknowledgment of our incredible growth and hard work since the company was first established in 2019.

Expanding a business presents significant challenges, even without the unprecedented challenges caused by Covid-19, but through our strategy of growth via acquisition we now have close to 100 nurseries in the group, up from just five prior to the onset of the pandemic. Building on a centre of regional excellence in the Southeast, we also have a growing presence in the West of England, South Coast, and the Midlands.

Despite this substantial expansion, our ethos is to invest in and preserve the unique identity of each nursery as they join us – not make them into one single corporate entity.

We want to enhance and grow each setting as they come onboard by building on the legacy and excellent reputation they have established in the community. Significant resources are dedicated to nursery settings and the teams, with the ambition of providing outstanding childcare across the full socioeconomic spectrum.

When new nurseries are brought into our network, the acquisition support team conducts a full review to ensure they reach the levels of quality childcare and compliance we expect for our families and a development plan is implemented

to address any immediate or longer-term actions which might be required.

Family First chief executive Ollie Humphries said: “When Family First was established in 2019, it was with the clear ambition of being the number one childcare provider in the UK.

“As our name suggests, we are always putting our families first and pledge the safety and wellbeing of all our children, colleagues and parents as our number one priority.

“Our commitment to high standards ensures that our fast growth does not impact our childcare, safety and quality standards.

“We want to ensure that our family first spirit and curriculum positively impacts as many families as possible across the UK.

“We will support and look after our families whatever they are going through in life – they will always come first.

“Our second priority is our commitment to growth via acquisition.

“We have an amazing opportunity to create a sizeable new quality childcare provider run by managers who are empowered to run their own nurseries.”

With such substantial growth in a short period time, we recognise the importance of strengthening our support team structure to ensure the smooth

transition of future acquisitions and have a dedicated team working hard to find the right nurseries, meet the potential vendors and understand what is important to them.

Ollie added: “We want to understand their concerns and questions and provide the answers, build on what has already been built, enhance their existing provision, and retain and develop their staff teams. Ultimately, they must choose us.”

Mentor Education has been helping children pass important exams for over 40 years, having seen over 90,000 children through some of the most important periods of their life.

During this time Mentor Education has developed into School entrance specialists and was recently recognised as ‘The UK’s most successful tuition agency’ by the Evening Standard. Although, Mentor Education focuses on helping children to get into their dream schools, we have been proud to provide education to some of the most vulnerable children at home and abroad.

In 2017 we all heard about the terrible fire that consumed the Grenfell Tower. This

disaster left families broken and children facing some of the biggest hardships a young person can face. Mentor Education has been working with Kensington and Chelsea council to ensure that the children affected by the fire do not fall behind in their education. We have provided oneto-one tuition to the child survivors and have helped them take a step towards piecing their lives back together. We are so proud of their strength, perseverance and determination to stay in school and many of the children we have helped have received degrees from well-regarded universities.

Mentor Education then turned its focus to helping disadvantaged children abroad. In 2021 we were shocked and horrified

to see the fall of Kabul in Afghanistan. As the Taliban swept to power, we were saddened too by the reinstatement of the ban on women’s education. Mentor Education decided there was a way that we could help, after experiencing the coronavirus pandemic and the closure of our own schools. We believed we had the relevant skills and knowledge to apply this online learning to the neglected secondary schoolgirls in Afghanistan.

With some advertising and the help of the British Council, Mentor Education has successfully set up the Afghan College for Girls. The College currently specialises in providing multi-level English lessons to girls aged 13-20. We teach 350 girls from beginner level to advanced. The Afghan College for Girls also has a community of over 1,500 girls and 15,000 women eagerly waiting for lessons. As the school develops, we are hoping to begin to provide more teaching and have more subjects available to the girls.

At the heart of Mentor Education is a team of dedicated educators. Our tutors are the beating heart of Mentor, delivering exceptional education to children of all ages. Our tutors inspire the children they teach to become confident, collected and thrive beyond the classroom. Mentor Education is always on the lookout for new tutors and people who want to be involved in our long-term projects. If you, or someone you know would like to be involved, please get in touch.

hello@mentoreducation.co.uk

– 020 8883 2519

Further education/vocational education provider

Arden University

An unashamedly digital-first university, Arden University continues to develop its growing reputation for digital excellence, offering a combination of bespoke distance and blended learning courses accredited by professional bodies to more than 21,000 students around the globe.

Through vocational training and learning experience delivery, it is producing certifiably work-ready graduates that fit identifiable skills gaps, occurring now and in the future – leading to it being awarded the ‘Further education/vocational education provider of the year’ accolade at this year’s EducationInvestor Awards.

Ensuring Arden’s programmes are designed with employability, industry experience and digital focus at their heart, the university works collaboratively with employers when designing them.

More so now than at any time in its history, its academic programme teams have reached out and engaged with industry leaders from multinational/global blue-chip organisations, in addition to local employers – collecting feedback on what employers are looking for in future employees, enabling the university to ensure its graduates are being tailored to their needs.

Among its successes over the past 12 months has been the completion of its first degree apprenticeship students, the programme was launched in partnership with the Chartered Management Institute in 2019.

With a focus on assessments which have a bespoke focus on the workplaces, sectors and challenges students are involved in, it provides an excellent learning environment which sets them up for success in their chosen profession.

Numerous strategic partnerships have been put in place to ensure students access a broad variety of expertise during their education, including a collaboration with the NHS Leadership Academy which has allowed them to expand their limited programme delivery reach and make use of their powerful expertise and influence to support the upskilling and further development of NHS leaders and managers in line with the NHS People Plan.

All of this supported by the transformative power of education technology as the university continued to invest in its platforms. Students use the immersive,

easy-to-navigate teaching platform –ilearn – a virtual classroom, library, diary and lecture theatre in one – that can be accessed 24/7 from anywhere in the world.

On receipt of the award, Arden University’s chief executive and vicechancellor Carl Lygo said: “It is vitally important to everyone at Arden that we set our students up for success throughout their future lives and careers. Our commitment to vocational degree programmes, foundation degrees and degree apprenticeships is a demonstration of our commitment to widening access and providing our students with the skills they need to excel in the workplace.

“We’re delighted to accept this award which recognises the efforts of our teams and celebrates the way in which we are enabling students at Arden to achieve whatever they feel they were born to do.”

Education software provider

Impero Solutions

Impero is honoured to have been named ‘Education software provider of the year’ at the EducationInvestor Awards 2022. The judges had this to say about Impero: “Impero is clearly a company which stands out from the crowd and strives to make a positive impact. Particularly impressive is Impero's revenue retention and its dedication to online safety and pupil wellbeing. Impero's commitment to teamwork and to an improvement in service offerings comes across loud and clear. Introducing acquisitions to a business is always a challenge and making two acquisitions in the last 12 months alongside organic growth is impressive and worthy of this award. An excellent submission which underlines the huge contribution that Impero is making to ensure that our schoolchildren are

protected with high-quality safeguarding and wellbeing processes and systems.”

Commenting on the award, chief executive Justin Reilly said: “This award recognises the talent and dedication of our worldwide teams, who work hard every day to create the best technology solutions, that empower anyone to reach their full potential. Winning EducationInvestor ‘Education software provider of the year’ caps off a year of dynamic growth for Impero and affirms that we are on the path to continued success in 2023.”

Since 2002, Impero has worked with schools and organisations across the globe to provide software solutions designed to promote a better, safer and more dynamic learning environment. The Impero product

portfolio is a suite of applications and services that operate in conjunction to provide a complete solution for schools. Classroom management, monitoring of online wellbeing, and recording of student safeguarding concerns are managed from a single interface, providing teachers, designated safeguarding leads and administrators with a comprehensive tool for monitoring and safeguarding students.

Impero maintains close partnerships with charities and specialist organisations across the world to support the development and improvement of our offerings. Of particular note is our partnership with Microsoft. Impero is a Microsoft Global ISV partner and the only classroom management and student wellbeing provider that has earned Global ISV status. We have earned this status based on the strength of our integration with Microsoft Teams. Teachers can seamlessly access Impero Classroom, our award-winning classroom management solution, from Microsoft Teams for swift visibility and management of their students.

In 2021, Impero acquired Netop, an international software solutions provider, and ContentKeeper, a leader in web filtering, reporting and mobile security for schools. With both acquisitions, Impero is expanding our product offering, reach and customer base worldwide. Headquartered in Nottingham, UK, Impero has offices in Portland, Oregon; Anaheim, California; Birkerod, Denmark; Bucharest, Romania; Manila, Philippines; and Canberra, Australia.

The Spencer Group Recruitment services

Spencer Group is a highly specialist, niche search boutique specialising in commercial education on a global scale. As third-time EducationInvestor award winners, we pride ourselves on developing long and trusted partnerships within ed tech, K12, higher education, pathway and consultancy. Working across Europe, the Americas, Asia-Pacific and the Gulf Cooperation Council, Spencer Group has sourced talent from non-executive and C-Suite leadership, through to innovation and school leadership positions. With global activity spanning over 20 years, we are proud to have supported an industry that is fundamental to the improvement of the planet through the democratisation of knowledge and educational outcomes.

Throughout 2022, we have continued to support clients from pre-revenue start-ups, through to multibillion global enterprises, ensuring they access and secure the best of market leading talent.

“The Spencer Group has demonstrated that it can serve a worldwide clientele. It has a thorough understanding of the strategic challenges and opportunities that organisations face and supports management teams accordingly. Among the contenders, The Spencer Group seems significantly superior.” Judges comment, 2022

Now more than ever, it is crucial that search partners take a holistic approach

to assignments. Not only will we source candidates from within education, but we also look for the best out-of-sector talent to offer our clients a wide and diverse range of candidates. Furthermore, we understand the significance of a truly inclusive search and that’s why at Spencer Group, we see equality, diversity and inclusion as a meaning of ensuring our client competitive advantage.

“The Spencer Group is a staff recruitment standout. It appears to have weathered Covid-related problems well and its longterm client relationships have stood it in good stead. For a boutique operation it is impressive how it operates in a number of subsectors and across broad geographies.” Judges comment, 2022

Julian Minett, chief executive of Spencer Group, said: “The team and I are truly thrilled to have won the EducationInvestor ‘Recruitment Services’ award for the third time in four years. This consistent recognition of the business as a specialist global boutique within the international education market by an independent group of distinguished judges, is hugely gratifying. Our business has built its reputation on its consistent delivery, its commitment and passion and its ability to engage and secure market-leading talent. We continue to innovate to support this critical sector. As a boutique of around 25 people, we continue to grow rapidly as we look to meet the ever-increasing demands within education, and we would like not only to thank the judges but congratulate all the other winners.”

Micah Coston, senior delivery consultant, Julian Minett, chief executive

School-improvement provider

Thuso

Thuso was selected as the winner of the EducationInvestor 2022 ‘Schoolimprovement provider’ award, in recognition of its work in supporting policy reform and systems development, training and capacity building, and the development of technology-enabled/ IT-based systems to support school improvement, and associated monitoring and evaluation.

The work of Thuso's team in this field is highly international, with support provided to ministries of education in Asia, Africa, the Caribbean and the Americas, the Middle East, Europe, and the Pacific. Much of Thuso's school improvement portfolio is focused on support directly to ministries of education, with a particular focus on small-island states, developing economies, and contexts affected by conflict or other emergencies, though the group continues to provide support in the context of developed economies also, with similar work ongoing in the European Union, and elsewhere.

Recent school improvement initiatives have focused on Central Asia, the Pacific Islands, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Levant, as well as the development of toolkits for improved educational programming at national and international levels, focused on the effective reopening of schools following Covid-19, as well as improved resilience in education systems. This included work on the ‘Effective management of education systems’ toolkit, developed on behalf of the Commonwealth Secretariat, and shared at

the recent Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers in Nairobi.

Thuso's work is increasingly technologydriven, particularly with regard to school improvement planning, and financial modelling for education systems. These innovations have received widespread recognition in the sector, with Thuso selected as a finalist in the ‘Innovator of the year’ category in the 2022 Bett Awards, as well as the ‘Innovation product awards – digital/coding/software’ category in the 2022 GESS Awards for its schools/school systems financial modeling approach.

EducationInvestor award judges commented: “Thuso has done admirably in supporting a number of very largescale international school improvement programmes.

“The extensive international impact of [Thuso's work on] education systems and markets is substantial [and has been supplied to] influential and important

organisations such as UNICEF and Save the Children – the impact on learners and children will be significant, as is advancing how broader advisory and technology [support] can make that impact.”

The award was collected by Thuso Group’s managing director, Matthew Goldie-Scot, accompanied by head of operations, Alexandra Tigan, a finalist for the EducationInvestor 2022 ‘Business woman of the year’ award, and Leticia Salmon, a finalist for the ‘Woman to watch’ award.

Matthew responded: “We are delighted that Thuso has, again, been selected as a winner in the EducationInvestor Awards, building on our ‘Exporting excellence’ award in 2020. It is particularly positive to see Thuso’s innovative work in applying technological solutions to drive learning outcomes in some of the world’s most challenging contexts, recognised. Wonderful to see the team’s hard work rewarded – my sincere thanks to all of my hard working colleagues.”

Sarah Toledo, UA92 Global Director/Principal, Navitas University Partnerships Europe

Woman of The Year

Brenda McLeish OBE DL, Chief Executive Officer, Learning Curve Group

Chatsworth Schools Education provider of the year

WINNER

CHATSWORTH SCHOOLS

Chatsworth Schools is an innovative, creative, dynamic and most importantly child-centred and learner-led group of schools that enables outstanding futures for the children of today and tomorrow. We are delighted this work has been recognised at the EducationInvestor Awards and to be named ‘Education provider of the year’ 2022 for the second year running.

Each school in the Chatsworth Schools family, while sharing the core values of integrity, resilience and passion, is quite unique and caters for the needs of its children, staff and parents. All of the 15 schools in the Chatsworth Schools family are non-selective and teachers build on children’s innate awe and curiosity to create an engaging curriculum that ties together skills, knowledge and context.

During the course of the last year, Chatsworth Schools have repeatedly demonstrated educational excellence for pupils, staff and parents:

• Outstanding exam results: In 2022, The Village Prep School in Belsize Park announced fantastic Year 6 results –including 10 scholarships (from a class of only 13 girls), at an impressive range of leading day schools. 2022 also saw Year 6 pupils at Benedict House School achieve the best ever 11-plus pass rate in the history of the school, with 100% passing the Kent test and 80% passing the Bexley test.

• Excellent inspection reports: In the most recent Independent School Inspectorate inspection report in March 2022 for Highfield Prep School, the school was

found to be 'Excellent' for every single element inspected by the ISI. The ISI found that “Throughout the school, pupils develop excellent knowledge in all areas of learning and acquire a high level of skill in literacy, numeracy and ICT which they confidently apply across the curriculum, successfully meeting the school’s aims.”

• Creation of the Chatsworth Schools

Tapestry: Chatsworth Schools has designed a unique learning framework that ensures every Chatsworth School can deliver a truly bespoke education tailored to every child’s needs. This bespoke framework is called the Chatsworth Tapestry and consists of six strands: mindset, wellbeing, entrepreneurship, sustainability, global and digital literacy.

• International expansion: Chatsworth Schools has continued to expand internationally through our dedicated international school arm Blenheim Schools. 2022 saw Blenheim Schools launch Beech Hall School Riyadh, the first premium, inclusive international school in Saudi Arabia.

Anita Gleave, Founder and Chief Executive of Chatsworth Schools said: “I am beyond proud of the Chatsworth Schools family for this award and for everything we have achieved since our launch in September 2018. To win once is one thing, but to win two years in a row is a testament to the strength and success of Chatsworth Schools and how we live our mission of enabling outstanding futures for all our children every day.”

Exporting excellence

Real Training

Founded in 2004 by two educational psychologists, Real Group, Real Training’s parent company, is built around a clear mission: to transform lives and societies by providing outstanding inclusive professional development to support schools, students, and the education sector as a whole.

We are delighted to achieve the ‘Exporting excellence’ award at this year’s EducationInvestor ceremony. This accolade recognises Real Group’s focus on making a difference and enhancing the lives and education of all children, including those with SEND, all over the world.

Real Group’s passion for education was recognised in the judges’ comments: “A very impressive story of creating, scaling and optimising an education business.

Founded by passion and grown through excellence”.

A recent initiative which has helped Real Group to grow in international markets is the introduction of our iSENCO course. This course, based on the prestigious UK National Award for SEN Coordination, is reconfigured to meet the specific needs of schools in international settings. This course enables delegates to work across their schools, implement strategic goals and develop effective support for learners.

Additionally, Real Group creates and utilises innovative learning technologies to maximise accessibility, even in the face of unprecedented challenges, such as those experienced in the past few years amid the pandemic. Our Campus Live platform, for example, was launched at the end of 2019. Through our virtual classroom, we

are able to deliver our ‘face-to-face’ courses to delegates outside the UK, as well as those that prefer to learn from home or school. A platform of unique functionality which delivers courses in an engaging and interactive way, Campus Live brings the classroom to life, no matter where the student is based. On a broader scale, technology supports our company's value of ‘sustainability’.

Beyond special educational needs, Real Group launched two new courses to deliver mental health training to schools in January 2022. These UK Department for Education quality assured courses, in addition to several other short courses in our portfolio, have allowed us to train a significant number of mental health leaders for schools in England, as well as those based internationally. These courses are delivered digitally, and therefore ideal for overseas teachers, facing the same mental health crisis among their students as those in the UK.

Responding to the award, founder and managing director Mark Turner said: “We are delighted that our unique approach of blending expertise in education, psychology and technology has been recognised to be enabling impactful CPD to be available all over the world. We’ve now developed through our partnership between Real Training, Dyslexia Action and Sporting and Educational Futures the suite of CPD courses that school groups are utilising to ensure that high-quality leadership and inclusion are managed through whole school strategies.”

Many thanks to our 2022 judging panel

Ashwin Assomull Partner, Global Education Practice, L.E.K Consulting

Aatif Hassan Founder & chairman, Dukes Education

Rajay Naik Chief executive officer, Skilled Education

Rupert Barclay Managing partner, Cairneagle

Patrick Hayes Chief development officer, Times Higher Education

Agnes Pusca Director Education strategy, Strategy& PwC

Vipul Bhargava Partner, Novistra Capital

Alan Kelsey

Member of board of trustees, Children And The Arts (former Nord Anglia chairman)

Caroline Wright Director general, BESA

Nadine Bernard Founder and chief executive, Aspiring Heads

Ian Koxvold Head of education, strategy and corporate development, Supporting Education Group

Kate Shand Founder and chief executive, Enjoy Education

Jason Zemmel Partner, CMS

Lil Bremermann-Richard Group chief executive officer, Oxford International, Education Group

Brenda McLeish OBE Chief executive, Learning Curve Group

Victoria Giles M&A Director Corporate Finance, Grant Thornton

Pam Mundy Consultant director, Neom Education