ISM - Spring 2023

INDEPENDENT SCHOOL MANAGEMENT

The gathering storm

Labour targets independent schooling

The end of charitable status

Financial survival for your school

Increase your teachers' pensions

The value of interim headships

Managing the school estate

The battle lines are drawn...

Welcome to the launch edition of Independent School Management. We will be bringing you insight, illuminating commentaries and useful advice from sector experts and leaders on how you and your colleagues can make your school the best it can possibly be. It will be published on a termly basis.

In this edition, we focus on the threat of VAT on school fees and provide a 360-degree view of the threats it presents but arm you with advice and solutions to help put your school on its best defensive footing.

Despite leading the Labour Party with the same timid care as needed when “carrying a Ming vase”, as he told The Times in an interview last November, Sir Keir Starmer has nevertheless recklessly announced that his new government would impose VAT on fees for the independent school sector. And, in so doing, may also remove their charitable status. He estimates that this will raise £1.7 billion. However, since many schools will close and those that do survive would be able to reclaim VAT, this figure is not just unattainable, it’s a fantasy figure.

Definition of charity

What are the potential implications, for instance, for other charities? In particular, nurseries, healthcare bodies, pressure groups and religious bodies? Redrafting the Charities Act to remove educational charities from its remit will not be easy. The sector’s representative body, the Independent Schools Council (ISC), is likely to threaten legal action, once again, by invoking the Human Rights Act to protect parents’ right to choose a feepaying education. It would likely clog up the courts for years.

An ISC member association, The Heads’ Conference, has predicted that up to 100,000 pupils from 150 to 200 schools may be forced to leave the sector since those schools would be forced to close, adding a huge bill to the state budget, not to mention the overcrowded classrooms or, possibly, new buildings to fund that would be needed to absorb a huge influx of pupils.

Consultant Simon Shneerson, in a letter to The Daily Telegraph last December, asked how would a “school” be defined for legal purposes. Does it include sports coaching? After-school activities? Scout groups? Will they be affected too? And what “for tax purposes, is the difference between charity-owned schools, when this category includes fee-charging schools, academy trusts that charge for some services and free schools that do the same?”

Not the first

Starmer wouldn’t be the first Labour leader, though, to attempt to take on the sector. Prior to the 1966 general election, Harold Wilson’s education secretary, Anthony Crosland, announced a commission to plan for the integration of the independents into the state sector. There was even a suggestion that Eton was considering a relocation to Ireland. But the commission tarried too long to deliver any proposals. The party had also lost its enthusiasm for the reform, not least because Wilson and Jim Callaghan were just two members of the Labour leadership team who sent their own children to independent schools.

More recently, Labour’s gambit at the last general election under Jeremy Corbyn (himself a product of a prep school) was to declare a class war on the sector. Delegates at the party’s annual conference had voted to abolish independent feepaying schools and redistribute their assets “democratically and fairly” for the benefit of all children.

OK for me, but not for you

On 11 January, a Labour motion calling for the creation of a Commons select committee to consider ending tax breaks for private schools was rejected by MPs by 303 votes to 197. The motion was backed by a group of Labour MPs who have benefited from an independent education, including Annelise Dodds, the Labour Party chairman, whose alma mater is Robert Gordon’s College in Aberdeen, Louise Haigh, shadow transport secretary, who attended Sheffield High School, John Healey, shadow defence secretary, who

Further impact

‘The Impact of Independent Schools on the UK Economy’, a report commissioned by ISC from research company Oxford Economics last year, shows that the sector saves the taxpayer £4.4 billion every year by educating pupils outside the public purse. In addition, independent schools generate £16.5 billion for the economy annually and another £5.1 billion in tax revenue, while creating 328,000 jobs.

Within ISC schools, there are more than 11,700 partnership projects and they provide £480 million in meanstested bursaries and scholarships for 10,000 children. Peter Green, executive head of Rugby School, says that 336 students at his school have some sort of fee assistance, while 57 get 100% support with fees. These benefits have taken years to build up but could be cut down in a single stroke.

Starmer should abandon this policy. VAT on fees is an unworkable policy and the country would be better served by a government that focused on other priorities.

Andrew Maiden Editor, Independent School Management

went to St Peter’s School in York, and Harriet Harman, former Leader of the Opposition, who went to St Paul’s Girls’ in West London.

Andrew Maiden

We trust you will find this first issue of Independent School Management informative and useful.

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independentschoolmanagement.co.uk

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News in brief

ETON TO GO CO-ED?

Richard Eden writing in the Daily Mail has claimed Eton College in Berkshire is considering admitting girls.

Eton’s provost Lord Waldegrave, the former Conservative Cabinet minister is quoted saying: “I’ll let you into a secret. Every year, the governors of Eton consider whether Eton should go co-ed. And we don’t quite decide. But, of course, we will go co-ed in due course.”

Lord Waldegrave has been provost, or chairman of Eton’s governing body, since 2009.

CAMBRIDGE COLLEGE CUTS PRIVATE SCHOOL ADMISSIONS

Cambridge college Gonville & Caius has cut its private school pupil admissions from almost a half to a quarter after changing its admissions policy in 2020 to emphasise “academic potential” over “achievement”, The Telegraph has reported.

In 2019 and 2020, Gonville & Caius had the highest proportion of private sector entrants in the university, at 45% and 43% respectively. The proportion dropped to 25% in 2021 and the college said it has offered 28% of places to private school pupils this year.

In 2019 the college published a target of increasing state applicants to 75% by 2025. The proportion of state school pupils winning places has since increased sharply, despite the proportion of state applicants remaining static at about 62%.

TRAGEDY AT EPSOM COLLEGE

The head of co-educational independent school Epsom College in Surrey was found dead along with her husband and seven-year-old daughter in a property on school grounds. Emma Pattison, 45 and Lettie aged seven are believed to have been shot by Emma’s husband and Lettie’s father George, 39. Pattison was appointed as Epsom College’s first female head last September, after six years as headteacher of Croydon High School in south London. Her husband was a chartered accountant and director of management consultancy firm Tanglewood. Sir

ELITE SPORTING ACADEMY

Independent West Sussex prep school Windlesham House launched an elite sporting academy combining expert coaching with high-class facilities, to help talented pupils become county and national level athletes. Spanning four sports, the academy will promote a range of sporting disciplines across swimming, golf, tennis and equestrian. The academy features a gym, a five-lane swimming pool and a nine-hole golf course.

PREPARATORY SCHOOLS TO MERGE

South London day schools St Dunstan’s College and Rosemead Preparatory School have merged. St Dunstan’s head, Nick Hewlett, said: “The merger will be a wonderful opportunity for our two schools, one set in the heart of Catford, and the second in the heart of Dulwich, to work closer together, learning from one another and enhancing our students’ educational journeys. The merger will also offer greater protection to both schools from ongoing political and economic challenges.

SCHOOLS PARTNERSHIPS

The School Partnerships Alliance published its first report outlining how

the state and independent sector can work together for mutual benefit. The report ‘School partnerships for impact’ starts to build a common framework for how schools can become involved in a partnership or make an existing one even more powerful. It pieces together established best practice to develop a clear model to demystify how partnerships work for schools interested in these types of collaborations.

BUYER APPETITE FOR INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS

There was a suppressed number of operational independent school transactions last year compared with previous years, which was primarily due to financial performances being largely distorted for the academic years ending 2021 and 2022, Christie & Co reported.

An increasing number of independent education business casualties came to the market in 2022, as the gap between schools sustainably succeeding and those in untenable financial predicaments widened. The independent schools market continues to be highly fragmented and, therefore, opportunities for corporate groups and investors to acquire via portfolio buy and build strategies are not as prevalent compared with the volume of opportunities awarded by other operational real estate sectors.

Anthony Seldon has been appointed as the new headmaster of the school.

Sir Anthony Seldon

“SEXUAL ABUSE” TEACHER NAMED IN COMMONS

A former maths teacher accused of child sexual abuse at Scottish private schools in Edinburgh during the 60s and 70s has been named by SNP MP Ian Blackford in the House of Commons. Previously referred to as “Edgar” under an anonymity order at the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry, the teacher is living in South Africa and contesting attempts to extradite him to Scotland.

GIVE US A BREAK

Andrew Lewer, MP for Northampton South, made a contribution to a debate about education in the House of Commons stating that parents paying school fees were doing so out of earned income that has already been subject to income tax as high as 45%. The repeated use of the term “tax breaks” to describe the zero VAT status of these fees is misleading, asserted Lewer, and also against a fundamental principle of tax in the UK that the supply of education is not taxed.

TEACHER STRIKE BALLOT FALLS SHORT

A vote by teachers belonging to the NASUWT teachers’ trade union failed to meet the turnout threshold for strike action. Since 2016, unions must reach

a turnout threshold of 50%, and secure yes votes from 40% of eligible members to win ballots for action in the public sector. NASUWT carried out ballots in independent schools on a “disaggregated” basis and said it secured mandates for industrial action at 125 sites in England.

CONTROVERSY OVER LOANS TO PRIVATE SCHOOLS

Private schools received more than £157 million from the government in subsidised loans during the Covid-19 pandemic, under a scheme unavailable to state schools. The independent schools include the alma matres of

several government ministers including that of the chancellor Jeremy Hunt – Charterhouse, which charges up to £44,000 a year per pupil, and received a £5 million Covid support loan to help with “any short-term cash flow issues” –despite declaring total income of almost £45 million for 2020-21, the financial year in which it claimed the loan. The Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan scheme was introduced to help those “adversely affected by the pandemic”. Recipients were forgiven the first year’s interest and the government guaranteed 80% of the loan to encourage the banks to lend.

KENT INDEPENDENT PREP SCHOOL TO CLOSE

The trustees of the Fosse Bank School in Hildenborough, Kent have announced that the school will close on 24 March, Kent Online has reported. Fosse Bank School is an independent preparatory school for children aged two to 11 years old.

The announcement stated: “We have been making every effort to find a way to continue operating the school and we had found a purchaser. However, unfortunately they have recently withdrawn. We are really sorry. Our intention was to do everything possible to ensure the continuation of Fosse Bank School with the new owners. We are devastated that we have failed to do this.”

Established in 1866, the school has capacity for 135 but only teaches 92 pupils.

Ian Blackford MP

Windlesham House School members.parliament.uk (CC BY 3.0)

All change?

Change can be empowering for some but challenging for others. An interim headship, designed to provide a platform for an incoming head, must inspire people to cope with change. Coach and mentor Mike Buchanan reports

In August 2021, while enjoying the warmth of the summer sun in the tranquil peace of our Kent farm, I received a call asking if I might be interested in an interim headship, starting in a few weeks’ time. While I have decades of experience as a school leader and am active professionally as a strategic consultant, I was not really looking for such a role. Nonetheless intrigued, I asked about the role and the school, and why I was the person whom they had called. It turned out I already knew the school and the role was a 12-month change project to realign the school ready for a new head. Now this excited me as I could see how I might be able to add some value. The fundamentals at the school were sound but not secure. The pupils were, on the whole, happy and wished to be at the school. Academic outcomes were good overall and the pupils had some opportunities for personal development. The market for future recruitment was clearly defined. The school had the potential to make reasonable surpluses to enable its future development. The employees were committed and loyal. So what were the issues which meant change was needed?

First things first

Before agreeing to taking on the role of interim head, I asked to have a conversation with the governors as I wanted to better understand their perspective or, as it turned out, perspectives. I met with two pairs of governors over Zoom and simply asked them to tell me about the school. During one conversation, the pair talked over each other and were at odds with each other for an hour. During the second paired conversation, one of the governors talked about the future of the school and painted an enticing picture of possibilities, while the other talked about debilitating operational financial matters. Now I knew I could add value and there was at least one person with a vision for the future.

“Like many organisations, this school had lost its way and issues that should have been addressed had been ignored, sidestepped or put in the ‘too hard’ box by successive combinations of governors and executives.”

The school is young and still has many of the characteristics of a startup. Like many start-ups, the original founders, as represented by the governors, are extremely committed to the original purpose, but a mature, formal governance structure was slow to emerge. Some policies and processes had not kept up with the growth of the school, the demands of the market and organisational effectiveness. There were many committed and loyal employees who wished to contribute to the future success of the school. Often, they were working hard with varying degrees of efficiency and/or efficacy as a result of a lack of clarity of purpose and coordination. Evaluation of impact was not systematic. Where a vacuum existed, it was often filled by those who happened to be interested, even if this was not their remit or strength. The result was that

there was much activity, uncoordinated systems, gaps and people inefficiently deployed.

Fresh approach

Like many organisations, this school had lost its way and issues that should have been addressed had been ignored, sidestepped or put in the ‘too hard’ box by successive combinations of governors and executives. Dysfunctional governance and leadership had become the norm with governors often acting unilaterally and operationally, thereby disempowering the leadership of the school.

My starting point was to clarify what it is we were trying to achieve in each area and gain agreement about this, to simplify our approach so that we have consistency and coherence, to enable the people best placed to lead, manage and implement while removing barriers and providing resources for them to be successful. Clarity of roles, responsibility and authority, alongside expectations of outcomes and behaviours was the starting point for sustained success as a lack of clarity was often the source of frustration and inaction.

Change is a challenge

I recognise that change, if not the uncertainty which comes with it, is welcomed by some and feared by others. My disposition is to be as open and frank with people as possible so that they are well-informed and understand

the reasoning for change. This helps to minimise uninformed speculation and unproductive gossip. I wished to avoid ‘either/or’ thinking where possible in preference of ‘both/and’ approaches. My approach is based around questioning which, for some, may suggest doubt about the nature of what has gone before, but is properly designed to prompt thinking and the imaging of possibilities. I understand that this is not something with which many are familiar and hence there’s a period of learning to be undergone.

My aim was to engage with employees, parents and pupils as much as possible in areas where such consultation is real

and meaningful. Equally, the role of the head of an independent school is that of both an education and business leader and, therefore, the head must reserve the right to make organisational and business decisions within the framework agreed with governors, and to be held to account for them.

Priorities

My priorities were challenging and supporting people, and the establishment of effective financial control and systems. With around 100 school days of my tenure remaining after an initial period of familiarisation, my aim was to ensure the new head was well-placed to start in

“My aim was to engage with employees, parents and pupils as much as possible in areas where such consultation is real and meaningful. Equally, the role of the head of an independent school is that of both an education and business leader.”

Mike Buchanan

How will we be described in each area by 2026?

Structure & estate

A vibrant school where places are in demand at all levels

Culture

Students who cherish their particular background & use it as a springboard for life

Guidance & care

Students who have a clear framework for growth & feel well-supported

Governance

Governance which provides direction, oversight, support & productive challenge

Entry & exit

A reputation for getting the best from our children irrespective of their starting point

Technology

People who are comfortable, capable & innovative users of technology

Responsibility & leadership

Students who relish leading or social action, and do so with skill & compassion

Teaching & learning

A contemporary school that enables students to have choices over their futures

Co-curriculum

Excellent, varied sport, music, drama and other activities in which all participate

Business & finance

A meticulous, effective, sustainable business

Our people

A good place to thrive professionally, dynamism at all levels

Our community

An active, supportive network which promotes & supports the school

• Taking a step towards a meticulous, effective, sustainable business by creating a budget which seeks a 10% operating surplus in 2022-23

• Making some immediate, symbolic, strategic investments in facilities

• Undertaking a curriculum realignment to increase teaching time and unlock further opportunities for improving the pupil experience in areas such as sport, PSHE, activities and the academic curriculum.

Of course, we were successful in much but not all of these areas, and there was much pain involved in addressing longstanding issues. Nonetheless, the school is now in a much more secure position and, importantly, it has a permanent head with the skills, vision and energy to help the school and its people thrive.

• Good governance matters, good governance matters, good governance matters

September 2022. This meant using my 100 days with pinpoint accuracy so my specific focus was on:

• Supporting effective governance which provides direction, oversight, support and productive challenge by developing a framework for a five-year plan

Quick-fire lessons from the past 12

months:

• Clarity of purpose makes things so much simpler – see our simple framework for our five-year plan

• Honesty and integrity shine through even the most difficult of tasks

• Punishment and control never motivate

• Ignoring issues in the hope they solve themselves rarely (never) works

• People behave according to how they feel and it’s best always to have this in your mind.

Mike Buchanan is the founder of PositivelyLeading.co.uk and is the former executive director of HMC.

“Nonetheless, the school is now in a much more secure position and, importantly, it has a permanent head with the skills, vision and energy to help the school and its people thrive.”

This year’s model

The independent school sector’s resilience is being tested like never before, but what business model for financial survival would suit your school? Partners at law firm Veale Wasbrough Vizards, Robert Collier and Kenji Batchelor report

By any measure, the past few years have been extraordinary. The pandemic was very difficult for many businesses. However, the sector adapted well and, in many areas, even thrived.

The challenges really are relentless, though. Despite memories of Covid starting to fade, a new set of such challenges and risks have appeared. In no particular order, these would seem to include:

• A rise in the cost of living, making affordability more acute for many existing (and potential future) parents

• The consequences of high inflation rates on the cost of running a school, in particular the costs associated with heating, utilities and transport

• The likely further increase in the cost of participating in the Teachers' Pension Scheme (with an announcement expected soon to take effect in September 2024)

• The spectre of a change in the tax regime insofar as it relates to independent schools, and particularly those operated by charities.

These are the challenges we know about – it would be naïve to think that there won't be other bumps and shocks going forward. So it will be wise for schools to keep these risks under review and strategy planning high on their agendas. This really should not be seen as a sign of weakness, but just a very sensible and pragmatic approach.

Approach

Schools have always needed to keep their general strategy under review and the most successful schools have been those that:

1. Recognise that they are running a business and need to generate a surplus

2. Collate and measure key performance indicators and react quickly to changes in those KPIs

3. Undertake regular strategy reviews

4. When undertaking those strategy reviews, do so with an open mind so that nothing is off the table and recognise that just because a strategy has worked in the past, that will not always be the case going forward. and

5. Are proactive rather than reactive.

Effectively nothing has changed – all schools should note this and take similar steps. However, insofar as there are new considerations, those probably are that:

• There really is no question now that size and scale will be key to weathering any storms which may lie ahead, and that it will be increasingly difficult to operate successfully as a smaller stand-alone school

• While the possibility of a change in the UK tax regime affecting UK independent schools (and in particular schools run by charities) is not certain at this stage and the details of what it may entail are unclear, it is a significant risk that any such changes may have an

adverse effect on school transactions (most notably merger transactions between charities). Therefore, if you are already contemplating a transaction of that nature, you should probably ensure that it is pushed forward promptly and completed during the next two years.

Options

Strategic change for a school can take different forms. This can include:

1. A change of business model, maybe changing the age range or becoming co-educational

2. A charity merger with another local school

3. A transfer or sale to a group, and

4. A joint venture arrangement.

The remainder of this note will focus on options (3) and (4).

Sale to a group

A sale to a group is not something new and has been occurring for many years. Most of the groups which operate on a commercial basis will have at least one school which used to be operated by a charity. However, the frequency of those sales has increased over the past decade.

There are several advantages to this option. In particular a group of schools:

1. Will likely have the necessary personnel and management tools to enable a school to thrive

“These are the challenges we know about – it would be naïve to think that there won't be other bumps and shocks going forward.”

Rob Collier

Kenji Batchelor

2. Will have the financial weight to provide a safe haven

3. Will likely benefit from its portfolio nature, so that short-term support can be provided to parts of the group when required

4. May be well-placed to invest in the fabric of a school

5. May be better-placed to provide training and specific career progression opportunities to staff.

Any transaction involving a sale of a school by a charity to a commercial group will be structured as a sale of business and assets. This will involve an asset purchase agreement being drafted and agreed; the purchaser's due diligence of the school and its property; the transfer of any (freehold or leasehold) property interests; and employees transferring through the operation of TUPE (Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations).

The asset purchase agreement is likely to contain a suite of warranties –contractual promises about the school and its affairs – which, together with the remainder of its terms, will often be subject to detailed negotiation. The inclusion of warranties may also mean that a disclosure letter needs to be prepared to protect the position of the selling charity.

In addition – as a change of proprietor will have occurred as a consequence of the transfer – it is likely that a material change will have occurred and therefore prior consent of the Department for Education will be required. If a school has a child student and/or student licence from UK Visas and Immigration in place, a fresh application for a new licence will need to be made following completion of the transaction.

The governors of a school will always be under a fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of the charity and its beneficiaries, and therefore must be reasonably satisfied that the commercial terms agreed are appropriate. However, on the assumption that the sale of most schools will involve a disposal of a property interest, it should be noted that the provisions set out in sections 117 to 121 of the Charities Act 2011 will need to be complied with and therefore either a supporting report from a suitably qualified surveyor or prior written consent of the Charity Commission will be required.

In any event, the commercial terms will

need to involve sufficient cash being paid at completion to repay any outstanding borrowing so that the assets of the school can be sold on an unencumbered basis.

Joint ventures

A new development recently seen in the sector is the consideration of innovative structures used as part of the approach to school strategy.

One of these has been joint ventures between charities and commercial investors in relation to the ownership and operation of schools. These are still rare – we are only aware of a handful of successful transactions of this nature in the UK – but we have seen partnerships of this nature for many years now in the context of franchise schools operated overseas and, of course, sales of schools by charities to commercial groups were considered unique at the turn of the millennium and are now very common.

There is flexibility as to how a joint venture arrangement of this nature could be structured (and could potentially involve the school business and/or just the school property). We would anticipate, however, that the most likely structure would involve:

1. An investor capitalising a new company (which is to operate as the joint venture company)

2. The joint venture company acquiring the school business and assets from the charity in a manner similar to that described above in relation to the sale to a group

“The governors of a school will always be under a fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of the charity and its beneficiaries, and therefore must be reasonably satisfied that the commercial terms agreed are appropriate.”

3. The charity reinvesting a proportion of the price into the joint venture company, in return for which shares are issued to it

4. An end result where, for example, shares in the joint venture are held between the charity and the investor on a 50/50 or 49/51 basis.

The advantage to the charity is that it would continue to have some involvement in relation to the operation

of the school and, on the assumption the school makes a surplus, it can receive a proportion of any profit as a dividend.

In addition to drafting and amending the documents which would be used in relation to a sale to a group, there will also be the need for a shareholders’ agreement to govern the relationship between the charity and investor as shareholders. This will include a number of practical matters, but will also contain minority protection rights for any minority shareholder, which may include veto rights in relation to certain issues.

As with any joint venture arrangement, it’s important to consider several issues such as: what each party brings to the arrangement at the outset; what roles and responsibilities each party will have during the lifetime of the arrangement; and how the joint venture arrangement comes to an end – and the consequences of this.

This type of arrangement will not be suitable for all schools and probably requires investors with a particular outlook and mindset, but is nevertheless

a development that broadens the range of strategic solutions available to schools.

Conclusion

It’s clear that governors are now comfortable that discussions with commercial groups and investors are a viable strategic option available to them. This no doubt relates to the fact that those groups do need to operate schools as businesses in order to create a firm financial platform, and create a surplus in order to invest in the fabric of the school and safeguard the school’s position into the future.

It has always been the case that strategic decisions should be taken as early as possible, from a position of strength given that the range of options reduces significantly when financial pressures are too great. However, the new challenges and headwinds only reinforce this – good commercial solutions that strengthens a school and puts it in the best possible position to face future challenges head-on should be on top of the agenda of every board of governors.

“It has always been the case that strategic decisions should be taken as early as possible, from a position of strength given that the range of options reduces significantly when financial pressures are too great.”

Money matters

As potential mitigation to the unrest from the consequences of TPS changes, there’s a way of adding to teachers’ pensions without cutting take-home pay. Caroline Gaines of consultant Punter Southall Aspire explains

Advising people on pensions is always a tension between the urgent – the here and now, and the distant – the important, but far away. And for advisors that means thinking about, consulting on, writing about and resolving the challenges it poses to employers, trustees and members.

One such discussion in the independent school sector is the burden imposed on bursars and governors by The Teachers’ Pension Scheme or Scottish Teachers’ Pension Scheme (both referred to hereafter as TPS).

The increases in contributions employers (independent schools) have had to make, and which will almost certainly continue to rise, mean this is one conversation set to run and run in budget meetings, staffrooms and beyond.

It’s important that schools should have an outline of the options open to them, regardless of whether or not they decide to move out of the TPS into an alternative. In the end, everyone needs to see (with apologies to maths teachers) the pluses and minuses before reaching a conclusion.

Which brings us to salary sacrifice, a mechanism for improving take-home pay while making the same level of pension contributions. Not only is this a good thing for the staff involved but it also gives bursars more flexibility by reducing National Insurance contributions which can then be redirected into, perhaps, higher employer contributions or other benefits.

On the upside

While salary sacrifice cannot be used by the TPS, it is an illustration of what the alternative can look like both for schools and their staff.

The table below shows three different ways to slice the same employee pension contribution and the associated tax relief and National Insurance contributions, each with a very different outcome.

“If this were your own pension contribution, which option would you

“The increases in contributions employers (independent schools) have had to make, and which will almost certainly continue to rise, mean this is one conversation set to run and run in budget meetings, staffrooms and beyond.”

Take-home pay illustration

Taxable salary: £40,000

Employee contribution rate: 6% of pensionable salary

Employer contribution rate: 6% of pensionable salary

Tax code: 1257L

Using this information the following table shows what effect not being in a pension, joining a pension without salary sacrifice, or joining it with salary sacrifice may have on take-home pay and pension contributions.

The table is based on the tax year beginning 6 April 2022 and NI rates in force from 6 November 2022.

Gaines

choose?’, might be a better way in which it can be framed.

So why doesn’t everyone use salary sacrifice for pension contributions?

As made clear, TPS and other related funds, including the Scottish Teachers’ Superannuation Scheme, cannot do so.

It’s another important reason to shop around if you are considering your school’s future in the teachers’ schemes, making sure any new pension offers your school and your employees access to options like this that can make a material difference to contribution costs and members’ retirement savings.

On the level?

There are less concrete issues as well, like the fact some employers think it’s a grey area legally.

This perception wasn’t helped by some of the headlines that followed the government’s announcement in 2016

that it was cutting back on the range of benefits that can be provided via salary sacrifice.

For example, since April 2017, no new salary sacrifice can be set up in respect of mobile phones, accommodation or school fees. However, the government also specifically confirmed salary sacrifice for childcare vouchers, pensions and cycle-towork schemes are to be retained.

There’s also the belief this kind of thing can be costly to establish, but our experience shows it can be quickly recouped through savings in National Insurance contributions.

It’s one of the key areas we recommend employers check as part of a wider feasibility exercise before deciding whether salary sacrifice is right for them

Notes to table

Based on an assumed tax code of 1257L. All figures are annual and are intended only as a guide to the level of additional benefits received. They are not a guarantee of the savings that would be available. Any other earnings or deductions to pay that have not been provided have not been included and may affect the figures. Additionally, employers can use slightly different methods of calculating NI that could lead

to a small difference between the figures shown here and on a payslip.

Anyone aged over state pension age, and not paying National Insurance contributions, using salary exchange will not generate any increase in take-home pay.

Before entering into a salary sacrifice arrangement, employees should be satisfied about the impact upon their entitlement to state benefits or statutory benefits. Further information can be

found in their scheme employee guide. If they use salary sacrifice, their payment will be deducted from their salary before the calculation of tax and will therefore receive automatic tax relief at the highest marginal rate.

If they contribute without salary sacrifice, their contribution will be deducted after the calculation of tax and will be net of basic rate tax. It will then receive automatic tax relief of £480 once it is paid into the plan.

“This perception wasn’t helped by some of the headlines that followed the government’s announcement in 2016 that it was cutting back on the range of benefits that can be provided via salary sacrifice.”

and their people as, by itself, it’s not a reason to transfer.

Tricky to follow?

Another concern can be that it seems hard to grasp, difficult for payroll, and a benefit that not many understand. Do those doubts surface when it comes to talking through salary sacrifice for childcare vouchers and cycle-to-work schemes?

Maybe they do, but we tend to think that when the word ‘pension’ is written or spoken alongside ‘salary sacrifice’, people immediately seem to feel matters are more complicated – even though they aren’t.

In summary, while salary sacrifice can still be used alongside a range of employee benefits, the largest gain for most organisations and workforces comes from applying it to pension contributions.

It allows employers to control costs and, ultimately, help employees save while, at the same time, taking home more in their pay packet.

This is a conversation which will always be worth having, no matter how far away the distant yet important seems.

Caroline Gaines is a principal, employee benefits, at Punter Southall Aspire.

“In summary, while salary sacrifice can still be used alongside a range of employee benefits, the largest gain for most organisations and workforces comes from applying it to pension contributions.”

Special report

The Labour Party proposes to end charitable status for independent schools should it win power at the next election. In this section school leaders examine some of the anticipated effects on school fees and taxation

18-20 Ending charitable status

Labour faces fallout

22-23 VAT and tax planning

Business impact on schools

24-25 More than bricks and mortar

Managing the school estate

26-28 VAT and proprietor schools

The effect on business

30-31 The gathering storm

A coalition against VAT

32-33 When the bough breaks

Scotland's independent sector

The consequences of ending charitable status

Kristine Scott and Stephen Cole from law firm HCR outline the obstacles that Labour would face in the fallout from its focus on tax exemptions

The possibility of a future Labour government and specifically its plan to end tax exemptions for independent schools that have charitable status, has generated a fair amount of debate and press interest recently. It has also generated queries and concerns from schools that are concerned as to what any change could mean for them. Although the detail of the proposal is as yet unclear, the proposed change may well include the removal of charitable status enjoyed by many independent schools and includes the VAT exemption on private school fees, allegedly generating an estimated £1.7 billion to the Exchequer.

As of today, the proposal is just that, and it is likely there will be hurdles to enact such a change. There is heartfelt concern within the sector as to the impact of any such change, including rising school fees, loss of pupils due to affordability, and potential closure of some independent schools which will no longer be sustainable. There is also the suggestion that any removal will fuel faster growth and consolidation in the independent school market and drive school groups to expand and form at a faster rate. Here we examine what any change would mean for the independent sector.

What would removal of charitable status mean for schools?

If there were to be a full removal of independent schools’ charitable status and no new regulatory arrangements put in place, schools would need to consider and address the following issues.

Regulation

• As charities, schools are required exclusively to pursue their charitable objects. With the removal of charitable status, schools would become like any other commercial business (subject to the regulation applicable to the education sector). They would no longer be required to act in the public benefit and, subject to relevant constitutional changes, could engage in a wider range of activities.

• Schools would no longer be registered with, or regulated by, the Charity Commission. For those schools which are companies limited by guarantee (which is often the norm in the sector), its directors would still be subject to company law requirements, but would be released from their obligations as charity trustees.

• Schools would no longer be required to follow guidance issued by the Charity Commission in such areas as investment, financial reporting, serious

incident reporting and would no longer be required to make an annual return to the Commission.

• Any school which is a charitable incorporated organisation (CIO) would no longer be able to continue in that form because CIOs are by definition charities. Any such school would need to convert to another legal status, such as a company, in order to continue to operate.

• Any change would include the ability to pay their governors or trustees for acting in that capacity, which is presently subject to strict rules and guidance enforceable by the Charity Commission.

Financial

• In addition to the requirement for VAT to be paid on school fees, the tax benefits that come with charitable status would disappear. Schools would no longer be in a position to claim Gift Aid in relation to the profits made by their trading subsidiaries.

• Schools would no longer be subject to the restrictions that charities face on trading. There would no longer be a need for trading which is not in pursuance of the objects to be conducted through a trading subsidy.

• Schools would have the ability to withdraw bursaries which is likely to

“Although the detail of the proposal is as yet unclear, the proposed change may well include the removal of charitable status enjoyed by many independents schools and includes the VAT exemption on private school fees.”

Stephen Cole

Kristine Scott

affect access for some families to an independent school education.

• The suggestion of VAT on school fees may, in the words of some current heads, make the option for families of independent schooling unaffordable to many who currently choose an independent school.

Governing document and structure

• A school’s governing document will contain provisions and references which are likely to be inappropriate or irrelevant if it is no longer a charity.

• Faced with VAT on school fees and the potential loss of pupils, some schools may consider becoming an academy.

Land

• Schools would be free of the restrictions placed on charities with regard to the disposal of land.

• It would remain to be seen what the position would be with regard to any land held on behalf of schools by the Official Custodian of Charities. Where a charity is unincorporated, property can be vested in the Official Custodian on behalf of the charity rather than in the names of individual trustees.

Permanent endowment

• A gift received on the terms that the assets or funds may not be disposed of constitutes permanent endowment

of a charity. Generally, permanent endowment cannot be spent or disposed of without the consent of

“The suggestion of VAT on school fees may, in the words of some current heads, make the option for families of independent schooling unaffordable to many who currently choose an independent school.”

the Charity Commission. While it would remain to be seen if any legislative measures were put in place on the point, in principle, schools no longer subject to restrictions placed on charities would not require the Commission’s consent with regard to the use of their permanent endowment.

Summary

The implications of any legislative change to remove the charitable status of independent schools would, of course, depend on the way and the terms in which this is achieved. As mentioned at the outset, it is a matter which has attracted much media and public debate and, no doubt, will continue to do so. We are unable to speculate as to whether other parts of the education sector such as nurseries or indeed a different sector such as healthcare might be impacted;

to the best of our knowledge neither has been mentioned to date so we would expect any change to be limited to independent schools.

However, it seems far more likely that any incoming government might instead stop short of a full removal of charity status and instead restrict its advantages specifically in respect of independent schools. This could mean that, while they remain subject to all of the restrictions which accompany being a charity, they lose the tax advantages. Independent schools may therefore wish to take advice at an early stage about how best to manage their assets and consider hiving off certain activities such as grant-making into a stand-alone charity which is more likely to be authentically able to obtain – and retain – charity status and its full tax advantages. Labour’s proposal is, even at this stage, forcing governors of schools

that currently have charitable status to contemplate and consider the prospect of a change as part of their risk management and strategy.

Kristine Scott is partner and head of the education and charities team, and Stephen Cole is a senior associate, education and charities team, at HCR.

“However, it seems far more likely that any incoming government might instead stop short of a full removal of charity status and instead restrict its advantages specifically in respect of independent schools.”

Sir Keir Starmer

29 September 2023 | Business Design Centre, London

The Education Summit will once again include a dedicated independent schools content stream.

Last year, David Woodgate from ISBA spoke to a packed room about threats and challenges to independent schools.

Topics from other speakers included diverse leadership, political and economic issues and market trends.

Tickets are available now –and are free for education providers.

VAT and tax planning for independent schools

The chancellor confirmed in his Autumn Statement that he doesn’t intend to impose VAT on independent school fees, but Labour’s policy takes a directly opposite approach. Where does that leave independent schools with their VAT and tax planning?

Dating back to 2017, the addition of VAT to school fees has been a clear part of Labour’s manifesto and policy – a measure which Labour has claimed could raise £1.7 billion in VAT. Further still, it is also Labour’s policy that schools would lose their charitable status. Such changes could have a significant impact for independent schools. But it’s difficult for schools to plan ahead when the changes may never come and if the full impact of the potential changes can’t be known yet.

Changing the VAT liability of school fees sounds simple enough – one day they could be VAT exempt, the next they would have VAT applied. However, in VAT there’s often a domino effect resulting in other VAT considerations which schools, and HM Treasury, need to be aware of. For example, having school fees be subject to VAT means that VAT incurred on expenditure becomes recoverable and there’s a potential VAT

windfall for a school where there has been large capital expenditure in the past 10 years.

This complexity in the VAT legislation alone means there is a question of how quickly would any changes to the VAT status of independent schools be made. There are concerns that the VAT changes could be brought in almost immediately following a change of government and not provide schools the time required to prepare.

An immediate change in VAT status is unlikely because of the legislative changes required to implement a new VAT status if there is a change of government. A timeline can’t be given with any certainty, but a more reasonable estimate for a change in VAT status appears to be six to 12 months after a change of government, if not longer.

In addition to the legislative changes, there will be some policy review required as well. Not least, research suggests that with VAT reclaims and the movement of pupils into the state sector, the introduction of VAT to schools’ fees would cost the government more than £400 million by its fifth year. It seems that the proposed application of VAT on school fees by Labour is more about facilitating social change rather than generating tax revenue.

Is there something schools can implement now despite the uncertainty? A change in VAT liability also brings into consideration the tax point rules and when a service takes place for VAT purposes. A VAT charge on school fees can be mitigated or removed by parents paying for their child’s entire school education in full before VAT becomes applicable. Receipt of payment in advance ‘locks in’ the VAT rate in place at the time the payment is made. We have previously seen anti-forestalling measures put in place when there’s been a change of VAT rate. This could affect the ability to ‘lock in’ the VAT exempt rate after a change

of VAT rate is confirmed but before it is implemented.

Labour’s policy does not impact VAT alone. A similar domino effect, as discussed above for VAT, would also happen because of a loss of charitable status. The most obvious impact is that a removal of charitable status would result in a loss of corporation tax exemption. Corporation tax is charged on accounting profit, adjusted to add-back depreciation, and then capital allowance can be claimed against assets. Schools would be best placed to undertake a capital allowance review of historical spend on assets currently being used by the school in order to mitigate any future tax impact.

The loss of charitable status would also result in the loss of mandatory relief on business rates (currently up to 80% in England but some local authorities top up the relief to 100%, so called ‘discretionary relief’), which would likely have a more significant impact on the sector.

While still creating complexity and having the potential to cause significant impact, we believe there is more scope for the charitable exemption to be removed rather than the introduction of VAT on school fees. This is largely due to the introduction of a VAT charge requiring a great deal more thought and the

Ian Brown from accounting company RSM UK reveals the impact of VAT on schools as ‘businesses’ – and it’s not just the fees that are affected

Ian Brown

“Changing the VAT liability of school fees sounds simple enough – one day they could be VAT exempt, the next they would have VAT applied. However, in VAT there’s often a domino effect resulting in other VAT considerations which schools, and HM Treasury, need to be aware of.”

legislative changes required being more straightforward (relatively speaking).

Overall though, there are too many unknowns for independent schools to plan definitively with any sort of time scales for VAT and tax changes. The question of ‘when is the right time to act?’ on different options will inevitably be a bit of a gamble.

Commercial considerations for schools can begin to be managed as the potential changes are already much discussed, including if any VAT liability would be passed on to parents and the impact on

them. Communication and engagement on these points are best managed as early as possible, even if there are not any absolute answers.

What would support schools, and parents, now is if a timeline could be put in place for the implementation of changes to VAT and loss of charitable status if there is a change of government. That if will likely need to come first though.

Ian Brown is an associate director in VAT at RSM UK.

“While still creating complexity and having the potential to cause significant impact, we believe there is more scope for the charitable exemption to be removed rather than the introduction of VAT on school fees.”

More than bricks and mortar

Morgan Allen and Rhiannon Klein of property specialists Gerald Eve outline the potential issues ahead for managing the school estate

The affordability of fees for parents, set at odds with budgetary pressures faced by schools in a competitive environment, remains a primary concern for all independent schools.

The 2022 Independents Schools Council annual census showed that fees rose in the year by a national average of 3%, up from 1.1% in the previous year (which was historically low due to the pandemic). This was the second lowest fee increase since 2000.

Anecdotally, we estimate that average fee increases in September 2022 were in the order of 5%.

With inflation nearing 10% and the continuing need to invest in school facilities in order to enhance parentappeal and attract and retain pupils, bursars and finance directors are currently facing the challenge of setting fees for September this year that strike an appropriate balance.

Labour’s plans to impose VAT on independent school fees and remove charitable status could come at a critical time for independent schools (many of which are charitable schools), and we anticipate this will further increase the divergence between the strong and the struggling independent schools.

It’s unlikely many schools will be able

to pass on the VAT liability on fees in full to parents and therefore schools, in the short term, would need to absorb some of the cost. For schools making a limited surplus, or where pupil numbers are declining, this could pose a real challenge. With a Labour government looking increasingly likely, it is prudent for schools to prepare scenarios in their business plan which forecast the impact these changes could have on trading performance.

Business rates

The loss of charitable status would mean the loss of charitable relief on business rates of up to 80%, resulting in a significant increase in fixed annual

costs for most schools. Potentially, the withdrawal of charitable relief, combined with the introduction of VAT on fees, could dampen the rental market for schools which could in turn reduce rateable values at the next rating revaluation in 2026. It’s worth also noting that the draft rateable value figures have now been published for April 2023. All schools should be aware of their new rateable value and how this will translate into payments from 2023-24 so that they can budget accordingly. We are

“The 2022 Independent Schools Council annual census showed that fees rose in the year by a national average of 3%, up from 1.1% in the previous year.”

awaiting further details of individual draft valuations for school clients, so that we can analyse these and, where appropriate, embark on a new appeals process. However, we are still very much in the thick of working through appeals against the current rateable values, with some large savings for schools being achieved backdated to 2017, with the deadline for submitting 2017 list appeals rapidly approaching on 31 March this year.

Rhiannon Klein

Morgan Allen

It's not all bad

Most independent schools currently pay VAT on their expenditure and don’t have the ability to reclaim VAT, as businesses do, which would change if their VAT status were revised. Schools undertaking major capital projects and upgrading school facilities would be able to recover VAT incurred on expenditure and the school may be able to claim back some or all of VAT paid on large capital expenditure projects in the previous 10 years from the date of registration. However, this benefits the stronger, well-funded schools which have had, and continue to have, the capital and resources to invest in their sites.

Furthermore, in the unfortunate event that Labour’s proposed measures results in school closures, it’s more likely that the majority of pupils (at least in affluent locations) will remain within the private sector, relocating to the closest, ‘best’ alternative independent school. This is somewhat ‘last man standing’, with the more successful schools hopefully benefitting from increased occupancy as weaker schools close.

The independent schools market has been characterised by continued consolidation for many years now and we have seen an increased number of mergers and acquisitions since the pandemic. Weaker schools which may struggle with Labour’s proposed measures may consider the benefits of a merger. Groups have been able to benefit from economies of scale, particularly in forming geographical

clusters, pooling expertise, and have enhanced their market share in an increasingly competitive market.

Releasing capital

Rising interest rates, higher cost of debt and lack of availability of debt/finance has put further pressure on some schools’ ability to undertake new building projects or invest in teaching facilities. However, there may be many opportunities for independent schools to realise capital from their estate. We have been involved in a number of sale and leasebacks and ground rent disposals, which can be an innovative way of raising valuable capital for schools without impacting upon trading operations. Many schools may also have surplus assets that can either generate income or be disposed of to release capital.

Market activity

Despite the challenges many schools are facing, market activity indicates that operators foresee a reasonably stable demand for independent schooling. The high quality of teaching delivered throughout the pandemic has attracted new parents from the state

sector, coupled with some localised improvements in supply and demand characteristics following several school closures in 2020-21.

Investors and funds continue to be attracted to education as a needs-based sector, when compared against more volatile traditional property markets. The characteristics of the sector are such that investors see opportunities in being able to purchase long-term cash flows, generated by a school’s business, secured on good and often freehold properties. There has been continued interest from for-profit groups for schools either trading well or with good growth potential. Values and appetite from buyers for well-performing schools have generally remained strong, however in the current uncertain market, we are seeing less appetite for turnaround situations unless the school facilities, socioeconomic characteristics of the area, and growth potential can be seen to outweigh potential risks. The underlying vacant property values in turnaround situations will be key for buyers and their funders.

Morgan Allen is a partner and Rhiannon Klein is an associate at Gerald Eve.

“Furthermore, in the unfortunate event that Labour’s proposed measures results in school closures, it’s more likely that the majority of pupils (at least in affluent locations) will remain within the private sector”

The VAT threat to proprietor schools

All the talk of Labour’s VAT plans are of how they would affect charitable independent schools. Claires Court Schools’ James Wilding reveals how they will affect his proprietor school business

The threat to impose VAT on independent schools has long been with us, though never has it been quite as real as just now. Writing at a time when the prime minister has just sacked the chairman of his party for a “serious breach of the ministerial code”, the country has witnessed 40-plus months of Conservatives acting 'ultra vires', from the time of Boris Johnson’s proroguing of Parliament in September 2019.

It seems as though all of the pundits agree that the next administration at Westminster will be led by Labour, and, as indicated by Sir Keir Starmer in countless speeches, his party’s approach is to be focused on the removal of charitable status from independent schools, thus being able to remove some of the tax breaks, such as business rate relief, some elements of VAT relief and their profits from trading.

So far so good for this school proprietor, you might think. Being a regular business owner looking after our school, we’ve long been used to paying our taxes, managing our minibus usage under business rules, and paying business rates too. The ‘biggie’ threatened by the Labour Party’s proposals is to levy VAT on school fees too, essentially exposing our parents to tuition fees that are 20% higher than current rates, and affecting all independent schools, whether they are charities or not.

The number of independent schools that are not charities has been understated in press articles for years, permitting journalists to suggest:

1. That independent schools are almost all charities, and

2. That they all have huge revenue streams giving rise to large surpluses which don’t deserve to be untaxed, given the parlous nature of state education in UK plc.

My brother Hugh and I lead one of the largest proprietorial schools in the country and have done so since 1988. It’s certainly tough to run any business in the 21st century, just a quick look at our

“The ‘biggie’ threatened by the Labour Party’s proposals is to levy VAT on school fees too, essentially exposing our parents to tuition fees that are 20% higher than current rates, and affecting all independent schools, whether they are charities or not.”

fee rises over the past 20 years asks the big question: why have our fees risen by 140% since 2002? – a rise found across the board and far above the inflation rate which over the same period has caused prices to rise by 108%. From Claires Court Schools Ltd the picture is very clear: we are used to manage buying, selling, hiring, firing, project management and marketing using a small team of five, and school secretaries managed on three sites our first aid needs. Simply by way of example, we have the same number of school secretaries, but we now have six nurses, a finance team of five dedicated to that function, three in HR, a transport manager and admin, two in marketing etc. We believe we are as agile a business as we have always been, but the onward rush of government regulations

inevitably means we are now covering all sorts of bases we could not have dreamed of at the turn of the century, requiring almost an army of independent verifiers that we are safe as an institution to trade, whether that is in air, fire or water!

The good news for private businesses is that we don’t have to trade with a requirement to generate high surpluses, indeed in many ways we are encouraged to run lean, mean and make as little profit as is good for the tax bill. Equally, if the VAT rules change, then we can choose to diversify more quickly into other areas of business activity associated with being a trading company in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead (RBWM). We’ve a huge network locally of allied trades and businesses, we’ve 67 acres of prime land in one of the most desirable business and residential areas of the Home Counties, now freshly serviced of course by the Elizabeth line, so I imagine we could adjust quickly into the new, unfamiliar territory of being a business.

The trouble is, if the VAT rise is imposed by an incoming administration, and we’ve not had time to adjust and diversify, then the effect on our current parent population would be devastating. Our recent census numbers show 95% of our parents are both working, not just to pay school fees of course, but to cover some of the highest house prices and transport costs too. As a community, we may be large enough to sustain the significant impact such a price change

James Wilding (on the right) and his brother Hugh

would have on enrollment, but many of the smaller independent schools would quickly cease to be viable, reducing quickly the percentage educated in our sector in RBWM to well below 20%.

When the Ukrainian war meant we had families choosing to host mothers and their children, we reached out to look after as many as seemed necessary. We still have 15 such children in our school, many of whom had found it difficult, if not impossible, to find a local school nearby that would welcome them in. It’s not just this latest crisis driving ‘unwanted’ children through our admission portal. Having closed their pupil referral units and special needs settings, or as appropriate, not expanded the latter to meet the rising population tide, let alone the growing number of children being identified with SEN or medical needs, we now find ourselves increasingly central to the needs management for

our area. Indeed a brilliant new school, Beech Lodge, has opened to cater for children with social and emotional difficulties such as anxiety and school refusal due to developmental trauma and adverse childhood experiences, as well as communication and learning differences. The school is now full, almost all places fully funded by their sponsoring local authorities. Both my school and those others such as Beech Lodge find that our local authorities simply don’t have the available SEN budget to meet the growing need, and the same story is true of other services too, such as child and adolescent mental health and wider NHS children’s services.

So here is the caution to any incoming

“Our recent census numbers show 95% of our parents are both working, not just to pay school fees of course, but to cover some of the highest house prices and transport costs too.”

administration seeking to ‘milk’ our sector of the additional millions it needs to upgrade state education – the plan won’t work. If my town is a microcosm of UK plc more generally, we provide an incredible, valuable service to the families we serve and the community in which we are to be found. From the incoming ‘talented’ executives, military command and service leaders, we offer them a one-stop-shop for their children, whether native speakers or not. For those domiciled locally, many chose us for only one, not all of their children, because that child’s needs were not looked after elsewhere sufficiently. We currently have some of the country’s finest tennis players in school, funded by their parents but supporting the LTA’s wider mission to provide high-quality coaching environments which enable the best players from the regions to

train regularly with each other. And our scholarship programmes look after many more sporting categories, and include the arts, drama, music and the most gifted academics too.

My final cautionary note is for all “to be careful what you wish for”. Introducing VAT into education is going to strike everyone, state and independent, and cause another expansion of nonproductive administrators into school life. It’s incredible just how many ‘favours’ education per se is given being by its nature deemed ‘charitable’. Taking education into the VATable activities of the country will inevitably take money away from adults leading teaching and learning in schools, reduce still further the available workforce to meet our children’s needs now and reduce the skills base for the future success of our society. It might seem that ‘we’ are an easy target,

but with 93% of the country educated by the state, it’s really not time to take further cash away from the classroom or increase the bureaucracy of schools still further.

James Wilding is co-proprietor, academic principal and head of senior boys of Claires Court Schools Ltd.

“Introducing VAT into education is going to strike everyone, state and independent, and cause another expansion of nonproductive administrators into school life.”

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Photographs of Justine Greening, crowd and David Woodgate from our Education Summit 2022

The gathering storm

The sector may be under siege once again, but a coalition of voices is helping to undermine the weak argument for the imposition of VAT on fees. Andrew Maiden reports

The threat of VAT on fees has a wide-ranging series of deleterious effects on the sector, as noted in other commentaries in this magazine. Apart from those views based on accounting, legal and estate issues, there are wider opinions voiced from interested bodies outside the independent sector too.

Sir Peter Lampl of the Sutton Trust, a champion of social mobility, has been an advocate of the reintroduction of direct grants (which were dropped by Labour in 1976, and the assisted places scheme in 1997). He has previously lobbied the Department for Education to reopen the scheme that offered places at an independent school to pupils from lowerincome backgrounds in its catchment area for the same per-pupil payment from government as the state school equivalent (£5,600). While the response from the Department has been muted thus far, he has nonetheless managed to get 80 independent schools to sign up for any potential scheme. Ultimately, he hopes to see 70% of the sector taking part. Since those independent schools would only receive the state school equivalent funding, there would be no impact on the public purse. However, it would demonstrate the sector’s support for social mobility, particularly in those schools that aren’t in a position to build bursary funds to offer a similar option.

The union

Another informed commentator, Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), revealed some interesting findings from his independent school members that he reported in a blog in June last year.

ASCL sent a survey to 505 independent school heads in England, and received 195 responses, virtually all from schools with charitable status. When asked about the impact on their school if charitable status was removed, the three most common responses were:

• “An increase in school fees leading to some pupils being withdrawn and again being displaced into the state sector.”

• “Cuts to bursary-assisted places for pupils.”

• “Cuts to partnership working with local state schools.”

Other significant observations included:

• “The increase in costs and decrease in pupil [numbers] would probably mean the school is no longer viable. Hence, over 100 people would be unemployed and hundreds of children would need to find other schools.”

• “The school could close and the bursaries we offer a substantial number of pupils would have to be withdrawn with immediate effect which would be devastating for them.”

• “We break even. Our fees, which we retain as low as possible, would simply have to increase to cover the additional costs. 95% of our parents both work to send their children here, foregoing cars and holidays in order to do so. A significant number of these would move their children and place them into the maintained sector.”

“He has previously lobbied the Department for Education to reopen the scheme that offered places at an independent school to pupils from lower-income backgrounds in its catchment area for the same per-pupil payment from government as the state school equivalent.”

Any pupil having to change schools, particularly at short notice, would find the switch stressful, likewise for the staff who would lose their jobs.

Barton concludes his blog by writing “the state would have to pick up the cost for each pupil displaced into a maintained school. The total bill could become very large very quickly. Whether it would entirely wipe out the ‘dividend’ from ending tax exemptions is difficult to say, but it would clearly make a sizeable dent. It seems extremely unlikely that there would be enough money left to pay for an army of teachers and careers advisors.”

The dissenter

The Labour Party has closed ranks around the policy. However, the Daily Mail has reported on a dissenting voice in Darren Jones MP, the business committee chairman, who allegedly told

“Some independent schools will close; many others would need to “scale-back their educational offer, whether by merging classes, stopping certain subjects, limiting curriculum choices, dropping co-curricular activities or reducing the pastoral care they provide.”

pupils at Redmaids’ High School in his constituency that he opposed the party’s plans to scrap charitable status. In response to the question “Why do Labour hate private schools?”, he told pupils that he is not “convinced by the numbers” and that the policy would not bring in the £1.7 billion claimed by his party.

The newspaper’s source added: “He said he was concerned about students who couldn’t afford private schools anymore and where they’d go and what it would cost state schools.”

Crunching the numbers

In a report produced for the Independent Schools Council, consultants Baines Cutler and accountants KPMG estimate that a VAT on fees policy could cost approximately £415 million by its fifth year and, therefore, will not provide the spending for other pledges made for

education by Labour, leading to more than 90,000 pupils having left the sector, with another 53,700 leaving as bursary places become unsustainable for schools to continue to offer.

Some independent schools will close; many others would need to “scale-back their educational offer, whether by merging classes, stopping certain subjects, limiting curriculum choices, dropping co-curricular activities or reducing the pastoral care they provide.”

The potential strain on the state sector may lead to pressure to build new schools and/or classrooms in order to absorb influx pupils. Problematically, it would also be extremely difficult to predict the towns or regions where these pressures would emerge.

Andrew Maiden, is editor of Independent School Management

When the bough breaks

John Edward, director of Scottish Council of Independent Schools, reports on money, politics and the independent sector in Scotland

The UK Labour Party’s stated policies on some removal of relief or of exemption from independent education has not changed since the last Labour leader was in post, but the odds of an administration able to implement it shorten by the day.

The problem for all concerned is that while the policy is the same, the world is not. The implementation of a reserved tax affecting a devolved area could have serious issues for Scotland and Wales. The brackish backwash of Brexit and Covid-19 and inflationary and energy squeezes on the cost of living, coupled with the end of cheap mortgages, will sour what is financially viable for many families.

Although many of these pressures are UK-wide, it requires repeating on a daily basis that nothing about British education is truly British. Regional economies differ, historic provision is variable and, crucially, devolution has only given formal recognition to the fact that education systems were already in no way unified over the four home nations. In a chart of the key bodies in UK independent education – government, minister, registration, inspectorate, care regulator, teacher registration, qualifications regulator, pensions, charity, and disclosure – only pension and charity regulation are the same… in England and Wales alone.

In Scotland, the independent sector is small, less than 5%, but with pupil numbers equivalent to those across the 10,000 square miles of Highland Council or the Scottish-domiciled

students in Scottish universities. Fees remain comparatively modest, which puts strategic limitations on the ‘facilities arms race’ so recently prevalent in England Yet the sector appears to live rent-free in the minds of certain politicians and commentators.

The Charities and Trustee Investment Act passed through the Scottish Parliament in 2005. The Act provided that fee-charging schools should reduce the barrier to access that fees constitute, as well as ensuring that public benefit outweighed any private benefit that users of the institution benefitted from. The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator then spent the next decade testing each school individually, unique to the organisations on their register, to ensure that schools met those tests.

As a result, means-tested fee assistance in independent schools rose from around £13 million in 2009-10 to over £33 million in 2020-21, just prior to Covid-19. Derived almost entirely from parental fee income, that support is now equivalent – per capita – to the direct bursarial support that Scottish students receive at Scottish universities (all taxpayer funded). Hundreds of day and boarding pupils now receive 100% (or more) financial support to widen access to the schools. A quarter of the sector overall now receives some form of means-tested assistance. In addition, every school has audited and revisited the use of teaching and examination support; facilities; careers, music and sports events; and other resources by other schools and the wider community.

The Non-Domestic Rates (Scotland) Act was then passed in 2020. For reasons best known to the Scottish government, and discouraged by the charity regulator, the Act removed independent schools from the automatic rates relief afforded to all other 25,000 bodies on the charity register. Following delays caused by the pandemic, independent schools began to pay rates at commercial levels of 100% in April 2022, despite being not-for-profit by law.

“As a result, means-tested fee assistance in independent schools rose from around £13 million in 2009-10 to over £33 million in 2020-21, just prior to Covid-19.”

Rates relief removal combines with the ongoing widening access obligation of the charity test, which the schools were actively and enthusiastically engaged in, while removing the one main support for the advancement of education that charity law provided for. The effects of Covid-19 were and are as real for staff and families in the sector as anywhere else, not least given the substantial efforts to repurpose funds into hardship support for families and staff throughout the crisis.

Schools rightly feel that they have met obligations made specifically for them twice-over, but with a sense that further financial demands of the sector will be made, threatening to undo the progress that has been made in funding widening access. Placing VAT on school fees would create an additional challenge for Scottish families and schools as affordability hits most families, whether those receiving 80% means-tested assistance or none. Every pupil that leaves the independent

“Although many of these pressures are UK-wide, it requires repeating on a daily basis that nothing about British education is truly British.”

John Edward

sector is either an additional cost and pressure to the state education budget (support for which VAT is proposed to assist), with implications for school

buildings – especially in the four largest cities – class sizes, school catchments, teacher recruitment, etc or a loss to the Scottish economy entirely if boarding pupils move elsewhere.

The assumptions made in the report by the Resolution Foundation that informed Labour’s policy – that there is no net loss to state finances from such a move – are not borne out by families themselves. The report was also compiled before the impact of Covid-19 and inflationary, utility and interest rate increases. In addition, the report states that “private schools are attended on a fee-paying basis only by children from households with significant means” – an unsupported

statement which runs directly contrary to the aim and reality of Scotland’s public benefit test for independent schools.

The Scottish independent sector has no desire to oppose any policy to support the state sector, quite the opposite. It has no appetite for undoing the work that has been undertaken in Scotland on public benefit and widening access. There is a real and immediate concern however that yet another specific and discrete demand for more income from a limited group of families threatens to do both.

John Edward is the former director of the Scottish Council of Independent Schools (2010-2023)

“Placing VAT on school fees would create an additional challenge for Scottish families and schools as affordability hits most families, whether those receiving 80% meanstested assistance or none.”

Grow the numbers

Daniel Cohen from marketing agency MTM Consulting outlines the techniques to boost the school roll by using targeted research to find out who and where parents are

The UK independent education sector is currently standing on the precipice of an uncertain future. There are many challenges which we currently face and that await in the near future, dependent upon how the political climate evolves over the next two years.

One issue that has passed under the radar is the contraction in the birth rate which means that fewer children will be available to enrol in reception and pre-prep years, and this has implications over the coming years in a rolling drop in income. Other issues facing the sector include the possibility of a change to charitable status and/or the addition of VAT on school fees, the current cost of living crisis, the energy crisis and more threats of industrial action that are showing no signs of abating – these all add up to a veritable minefield of problems that school leaders are having to consider as they plan for the future.

Since I work for a company that specialises in the provision and interpretation of data for all types of education settings globally, I feel that statistics always add meaningful context to topical discussion:

• As of January 2022, there were 9,000,031 children in all schools in England

• 581,427 of those children were in independent schools

• That figure represents a 6.5% market share

• In 2010, the market share for independent schools was 7.2%.

What does that mean in terms of pupil recruitment and the direction of travel?

Ensuring that your marketing and admissions teams have the budget to carry out their strategies and plans effectively to ensure a high return on investment and conversion rate from the most suitable parents for your school is imperative; this is no time to be cutting the budget of your sales team and those responsible for making sure the top of the recruitment funnel is full.

This may sound counterproductive when we are looking at ways to cut costs, make efficiency savings and futureproof the school against rising costs. However, a sensibly funded marketing and admissions team working to achieve well-constructed targets and KPIs is the best means to ensure that the school’s roll is consistently where it should be because they will prioritise the parents who are best-suited to your school and have the means to pay the fees.

For this to work, all strategies and plans must be based on robust research and data analysis. The ‘finger in the air’ approach, or basing future marketing on assumptions, will lead to higher inefficient spend which will inevitably lead to poor results, dissatisfaction, demotivated team members and fewer pupils.

Fortunately, there are many ways of carrying out in-house research to ensure that you are building up accurate profiles of current parents and collating relevant data sets to determine core messaging; this will not only keep current families happy but is also the most effective way to recruit suitable families at the school’s key entry points.

Understanding the profiles of the parents you are attracting, and in turn what brought them to your school in the first place, will put you in a better position to articulate the values of the

school – the unique selling propositions. However, do bear in mind that a fantastic education, great pastoral care and small class sizes are not USPs in the independent sector. You need to identify what makes your school truly different. This will give you the strong platform to ensure that your messaging is on point with what you actually do well. Likewise, by communicating effectively with your families, understanding the media they consume will also provide you with useful information to ensure that you are advertising on the platforms where like-minded parents spend their time browsing.

Accurate and timely recording of where every enquiry comes from will allow the marketing team to work out the cost per enquiry and also the cost per place taken, both of which are hugely important metrics that ultimately determine the success of all forms of marketing. This data allows the school to pivot, adjust and change where the marketing budget is spent in order to ensure that the returns are as efficient as possible. Agility and reflection are crucial.

Keeping an eye on competitors and how they are performing is equally important, for example, having someone attend their open days as a mystery shopper is a great way to see how they ‘sell’ to prospective parents, analyse their

Daniel Cohen

“Ensuring that your marketing and admissions teams have the budget to carry out their strategies and plans effectively to ensure a high return on investment and conversion rate from the most suitable parents for your school is imperative.”

Marketeers, not just teachers, can be magpies too.

with parents, ranging from conversations at the school gates, to well thought-out satisfaction surveys, provide another useful, cost-effective

customer service and understand the types of families that are showing an interest in their product. It will always provide tips on how you might adjust and improve your open days by comparison.

Regular and in-depth communications with parents, ranging from conversations at the school gates, to well thought-out satisfaction surveys, provide another useful, cost-effective way to glean important data using simple research techniques. Online fora such as Mumsnet can also reveal much about current thinking and concerns in the parent body. Something which is often overlooked is how to store this data and determine who has access to it. Admissions data should be stored on a customer relationship management system (Hubspot, for instance) or specialist admissions software (METIS); these will allow enquiries to be tracked against where the source of enquiry originated. The net result is easy tracking of the key data points discussed. It will enable marketing and admissions teams to adjust strategies and plan with versatility as they will have full

visibility across the system. The ability to compile accurate reports quickly for the head, bursar and trustees saves important time and offers a guarantee of transparency across the iteration of the information.

In summary, any successful business has to possess a clear understanding of where it stands against the competition at any specific time, as well as a vision of where it want to be in the future – allied with a realistic, strategic development plan to achieve the stated aims within a defined budget. The optimal way that organisations can give themselves the best chance of success and to futureproof themselves as much as possible is by investing in high-quality research at the right time so that all key decisions at board level are taken from a position of informed strength.

Daniel Cohen is head of business development at MTM Consulting.

“Regular and in-depth communications

way to glean important data using simple research techniques.”

Create safe spaces for SEN pupils

The proportion of students with special educational needs (SEN) support is increasing, and now stands at just under 1.5 million in England. As such, wellbeing, neurodiversity and educational differences are becoming a much more significant focus of pupils’ personalised plans. However, in many cases, schools are lacking the support spaces to reflect these plans. So as teachers, parents, school leaders and the government alike turn their attention to identifying and meeting children’s individual learning needs, we need to have in mind the role that architecture and design can play – working together wherever possible to help create optimum learning environments for all.

Designing effectively for pupils who are neurodivergent is rooted in an understanding of how different students experience their school routine. For children with a level of autistic spectrum disorder (ASD), causes of anxiety within the daily structure of school life include dealing with the unexpected, planning ahead, shifting between tasks, and controlling impulsive behaviour. Pupils with ASD generally need more physical space surrounding them to move around comfortably, while socialising and communicating can be particularly challenging aspects of the school day. In addition, ASD students may be hypersensitive (with intensified senses) or hyposensitive (with dampened senses) and may take longer than their peers to process information.

In response, having a variety of spaces that can be easily accessed by students is an important design principle. In addition, when designing a dedicated SEN school, we always seek to integrate the natural environment into the everyday learning, by blurring the boundaries of inside and outside and providing inspirational external learning spaces. In terms of adapting existing facilities, we would recommend utilising outdoor space to create external classrooms, breakout areas and sensory gardens for everyday learning and activities.

There are many well-documented benefits to bringing learning into nature and creating outdoor classrooms. Outdoor spaces are known to relieve stress and anxiety and help develop social skills and motivate learning – particularly for those with special educational needs. Green spaces also help to facilitate informal play and provide a social space, where children can safely test boundaries

with each other and develop emotional skills. In addition, they can also provide quiet social areas for individuals and small groups.

Internally, places of refuge are also important, as there will often be times in the school day that pupils with ASD will want to retreat and have time on their own. Where possible, it is

Claire Mantle, education director at ADP Architecture, says schools should be designed to be inclusive and accessible for those with special needs

Claire Mantle

“Designing effectively for pupils who are neurodivergent is rooted in an understanding of how different students experience their school routine.”

Picture posed by model

“Other dedicated support spaces may include a therapy room, and access to therapy suites, where facilities such as sport and hydrotherapy are available. Looking beyond the student community, it’s also important to consider support areas for parents and support staff, such as group areas and garden zones.”

beneficial to have ‘calm’ rooms adjacent to classrooms and incorporate quiet seating areas off the corridors for reading and respite. Unstructured times such as lunchtimes and breaktimes can be especially challenging for children and young people with ASD, and so having different dining areas for students seeking quieter surroundings is also a valuable consideration.

Other dedicated support spaces may include a therapy room, and access to therapy suites, where facilities such as sport and hydrotherapy are available. Looking beyond the student community, it’s also important to consider support areas for parents and support staff, such as group areas and garden zones.

In terms of building layout and design it’s important to design schools that students can independently navigate. To achieve this, spaces need to be clearly zoned, with visible, legible entrances and exits. Using simple landmarks can be powerful in helping pupils to orient themselves, and all signage should be simple, visual, clear and relevant. These simple changes can alleviate daily frustrations that pupils with ASD face, empowering them to feel confident and comfortable within their surroundings. Proxemics – the science of understanding personal space and how people move among groups – points to wide corridors and generous room proportions as key design considerations for students with ASD who can struggle in crowded spaces. Clear circulation routes and one-way systems can also assist, and

timetabling can also help by staggering students’ movements throughout the day – changes which can have demonstrable benefits for all students.

In terms of the technical considerations of an inclusive classroom, it’s important to specify high levels of sound absorption, and a combination of uplights and diffusers to make learning spaces feel calm. Visuals within a school environment should not be overstimulating, and materials should be natural. Another way to reduce avoidable anxiety is to design any closed-off spaces with multiple exit points.

Children are given the greatest chance of success when they feel safe and secure within their surroundings, and taken together these guidelines can make schools more inclusive and accessible, not only to neurodivergent pupils but to the wider student population as a whole. We hope that school leaders will increasingly see the holistic role that architecture and design can play in helping to meet children’s individual learning needs and personalised plans, while improving wellbeing for the whole school community.

Evaluating governance – and governors

Durell Barnes of education consultant RSAcademics outlines how chairs of governors might conduct reviews of governors’ contributions and assess board effectiveness

The range of skills and attributes required of chairs of governors is daunting. They need to be able to accept a high level of responsibility and accountability, to exercise strategic oversight, to have highly developed interpersonal skills, to understand finance, to appreciate the complexities of schools as businesses and centres of learning, to empathise with the head and the leadership team, to motivate fellow governors, to chair meetings effectively – the list is endless. And they need to be self-reflective and able to lead the board in evaluating its own performance.

discussions comes from a variety of factors, not least a lack of time at scheduled governors’ business meetings, a reluctance to subject volunteers to what might seem to be a form of appraisal of their performance, and chairs can be unwilling or not feel themselves appropriately qualified to lead such a process. But the Charity Governance Code is clear about expectations in this area: “The board reviews its own performance, including that of the chair. These reviews might consider the board’s balance of skills, experience and knowledge, its diversity, how the board works together and other factors that affect its effectiveness.” And, perhaps more starkly, an expected outcome is that: “Trustees can explain how they check their own performance.”

A key principle of the Charity Governance Code (charitygovernancecode.org) is that “The board works as an effective team, using the appropriate balance of skills, experience, backgrounds and knowledge to make informed decisions.” It suggests that “The board regularly discusses its effectiveness and its ability to work together as a team, including individuals’ motivations and expectations about behaviours. Trustees take time to understand each other’s motivations to build trust within the board and the chair asks for feedback on how to foster an environment where trustees can constructively challenge each other.” Many boards find this difficult, although some tackle it as part of awaydays or strategy days, and this can work especially well if such occasions are facilitated by a well briefed outsider.

The difficulty in undertaking such

However daunting this may seem, there are well-developed processes which can help boards undertake this. The Code itself can assist, as indicated in its preamble: “This Code is designed as a tool to support continuous improvement. Charity boards that are using this Code effectively will regularly revisit and reflect on the Code’s principles.” This can be a useful first step and there’s a simple but very extensive form on the website which can be used. However, it’s not something which could be completed at a full board meeting, although it has been effectively used by nominations and/or governance committees (or their equivalent), based on either general discussion at a board or social meeting, or on forms completed by governors. Both the Association of Governing Bodies of Independent Schools (AGBIS, agbis. org.uk) and the National Governance Association (NGA, nga.org.uk) indicate that an annual review process is normal, being the responsibility of the chair. AGBIS provides a simple questionnaire to be completed by individual governors and NGA has similar, more nuanced resources available on its website.

It remains the case that given the complexity of many of today’s governing bodies any such process will be time-

consuming and it is important that it is not, or does not appear, mechanistic, and that its purpose is clear to all involved. However it is approached, at its heart board evaluation will have conversations between the chair and colleagues and in setting those up, words like ‘appraisal’ and ‘performance review’ may not go down well with volunteers. I prefer to refer to ‘contribution review’ and to ‘board improvement’. The challenge remains finding the time to interview colleagues, and some chairs are inexperienced in this area. Sometimes the role can be undertaken by the vice-chair, or the chair of the governance and nominations committee (if there is one). It is worth considering sharing the role between those three or, if it is a small committee, between the members of the committee.

Durell Barnes

“The board works as an effective team, using the appropriate balance of skills, experience, backgrounds and knowledge to make informed decisions.”

“It remains the case that given the complexity of many of today’s governing bodies any such process will be time-consuming and it is important that it is not, or does not appear, mechanistic, and that its purpose is clear to all involved.”

And it is important to put thought into the actual questions to be asked, both in any self-evaluation questionnaire and in any conversation with the chair (or the deputy as indicated above) either as a follow up to such a survey or (more importantly) as a stand-alone conversation. Some may refer to practical matters like whether people are able to devote the time necessary to meetings and their other duties. Others may invite reflection on the expected outcomes in the Charity Governance Code.

When undertaking reviews of governance, I tend to begin with a

self-evaluation exercise which opens by asking governors to articulate the aims of the school and how they feel the board promotes those; this concentrates the mind. I ask what particular expertise, skills and (especially) attributes they feel they bring to the work of the board, which of their expertise, skills and attributes the board is not making use of, and if there are areas missing from the board as a whole. This can often be more useful than a top-down skills matrix. As well as discussing any training undertaken and any visits to the school by individual governors, it is important to ascertain how learning from these is shared by the board as a whole.

Any discussion of meetings, including sub-committee meetings, is enlivened by understanding what governors feel about the nature of the papers, the standard of reporting, the quality of the discourse and the effectiveness of the follow-up. Getting to the core of views about the quality of discourse is essential: Does everyone have a chance to speak? Is everyone’s opinion heard? Are all contributions valued? Where necessary, are some contributors restrained? Only if such questions are asked will the chair be able to judge how well they are fulfilling their role at

meetings (and how sub-committee chairs do so).

The key to maximising the effectiveness of the process lies in ensuring that any review takes account not just of processes and systems or even of expected outcomes, but of the human dimension in governance. Some of the most productive conversations I have during board evaluations arise in response to the simple questions: is being a governor living up to your expectations, and is the board getting the best out of you? And some of the most effective outcomes of board evaluation come from individuals and groups agreeing what, in the light of the process, they are going to stop doing, start doing and continue doing. Of course, such simple but effective outputs – and more extensive but not necessarily more effective reports – must be followed up. It gives the nominations and governance committee, where one exists, a really productive brief and neatly connects board self-evaluation with the identification, selection, appointment, induction and training of board members.

Durell Barnes is head of governance and compliance at RSAcademics.

“The key to maximising the effectiveness of the process lies in ensuring that any review takes account not just of processes and systems or even of expected outcomes, but of the human dimension in governance.”

Internal affairs

Accountant Sam Coutinho reports on why internal audit should be a priority since charities are becoming ever more complex. Yet internal audit budgets are being cut significantly or even eliminated

In the schools sector, only academies are required to ensure independent checking of financial controls, systems, transactions and risks. Although there is no requirement for independent schools to do the same, there is some good practice in the academy sector to draw upon that could help the sector to manage risk better.

The responsibility

Governors are responsible for ensuring there are systems and controls to safeguard the assets of the school. ‘The essential trustee’ (CC3) sets out that one of the key responsibilities of governors is to manage the resources of the charity responsibly. Specific reference is made to managing risks and ensuring the best use of resources which is imperative in this current climate.

The governors are ultimately responsible for the charity and are responsible for safeguarding the assets of

the school. To do this they need to ensure there are adequate systems and internal controls in place. For the majority of schools, this assurance is mainly gained at the time of the external audit where the auditors will provide their true and fair opinion on the financial statements and issue their management letter, setting out any weaknesses and recommendations to strengthen the processes. That said, the external can only provide limited assurance on the financial systems regarding the income, expenditure, assets and liabilities of the school. There is often a misunderstanding with governors regarding the scope of the external audit and the opinion being given.

Ready for autumn

It is also important to note that school audits are generally performed in the autumn, soon after the financial year-end and the accounts will be signed, if not before Christmas, within the first quarter

of the calendar year. Therefore, for the remaining year it’s unlikely the financial systems and controls will be reviewed again unless there’s a problem. This means that even if reliance is being placed on external audit for most of the year, there is no checking of controls.

Unlike external audit, internal audit not only ensures systems and controls are operating as intended, but that they are the best way of achieving the objectives. Here are three ways internal audit can add value:

• Working smarter: it has never been more critical for schools to ensure they are operating as efficiently and effectively as possible. Financial models are being challenged for many reasons, ranging from teachers’ pensions to political uncertainty and now Covid-19. At this time, we should

Sam Coutinho

“Unlike external audit, internal audit not only ensures systems and controls are operating as intended but that they are the best way of achieving the objectives.”

not be taking comfort that systems are operating as expected but challenging ourselves on whether they could be operating more efficiently with fewer resources.

• Identifying risk: schools will have systems and processes that have been in place for many years and if not connected to the statutory audit may never have been reviewed. Internal audit can be a good way to review working practices, not only to ensure they are working, but to identify potential risk areas for the school. Schools have started to use internal audit to review areas such as safeguarding compliance, effectiveness of risk management, and the strength of governance, including board effectiveness.

• Assurance on risk evaluation: all risk management processes will identify, assess and evaluate risk. When risks have been identified the impact and likelihood are assessed twice, before controls, that is the gross risk, and after controls are implemented. However, how often are the controls checked to ensure they are operating as intended? This is particularly important where high gross risks are deemed to be medium or low because there are

controls in place. It is only when a high risk materialises that it’s revealed that the controls had not been working.

Introducing an internal audit programme should be something that is considered seriously, as an effective audit plan will cover a wide range of areas that are often not considered as part of the external audit and are fundamental to the success and sometimes survival of the school.

How to review risk management

Most charities and schools will have a risk management process which follows the Charity Commission guidance and reporting requirements, which means risks are identified, assessed, managed, controlled and reported. While this could be considered to be an effective risk management process, it does not mean that the school has effective risk management. Effective risk management will identify the major risks that can break the school and ensure those charged with governance are focusing on the right risks and the strategy to manage them. It will also mean that risk management is truly embedded in the school and not reviewed once a year before the statement is made in the governors’ annual report.

Internal audit versus external audit

There are several definitions of internal and external audit and explanations for the difference between them. In the table below I have adapted for independent schools the guidance from the Chartered Institute of Internal Auditors.

External audit Internal audit

How effective is risk management?

I have set out below three areas that should be considered in reviewing the effectiveness of your risk management. • Identification of risk and the appropriate controls: identifying risks can help to investigate what can go wrong. Understanding the cause of the risk will help to explain why things go wrong, how they can go wrong and when they can go wrong.

Why does it matter? By understanding the risk to this extent, the charity is able to ensure there is a ‘risk action plan’ that addresses preventing the risk event happening in the first place and limiting its impact. "It is unlikely that a risk register will explain any impact on the school itself; rather it will assign an impact rating. Often, however, the controls are insufficient to manage the risks properly. For most charities the major risks on an organisation will require more than two or three bullet points in the risk register’s controls box.

While it’s impractical to look at every risk in this level of detail, it’s important for the five to ten major risks that could break your organisation.

Reports to Those charged with governance and The board of governors via the finance and audit committee. in most cases the governors

Objectives To add credibility and reliability to financial

To evaluate and improve the effectiveness of governance, reports from the organisation to its risk management and control processes. This provides stakeholders by giving opinion on the report. members of the boards and senior management with assurance that helps them fulfil their duties to the organisation and its stakeholders.

Coverage Financial reports, financial reporting risks. All categories of risk, their management, including reporting on them.

Responsibility None, although there is a duty to Improvement is fundamental to the purpose of internal for improvement report problems. auditing. It is done by advising, coaching and facilitating in order not to undermine the responsibility of management.

• Classification of risks: classifying risks so that they align with the organisation’s objectives and operations will ensure more relevant and embedded risk management.

The majority of schools follow the Charity Commission guidance ‘Charities and risk management’ (CC26) which was published in 2010 and updated in 2017. The guidance is simple and easy to follow, and suggests categorising risks into governance, operational, finance, environmental and external, and law and regulation compliance risks, but notes there are other risk classification models that could be used.

As schools have become more complex, with both the internal and external environments changing, it may be that this classification system may not be the most helpful. The purpose of the classification system is to help identify risks and then categorise them

alongside similar or related risks. This should lead to more effective risk management.

While it would not be beneficial to start reorganising comprehensive risk registers that have been established for many years, it would be a valuable exercise to review your strategy and business objectives to ensure key areas that could have a significant impact

on the success of the charity are represented separately. Areas that are often lost within the volume of the register are IT risks, the risk of fraud, risks associated with major capital development projects and strategic risks.

• Identification of risks that will truly break the school: engaging governors with risk can be a challenge and reviewing a 30-page spreadsheet is never inspiring. That said, governors need to know risk is being managed properly and that for the major risks there is a strategy to manage them which is being implemented and monitored. The way risks are reported to governors needs to be reviewed. They also need to be part of the risk identification process regarding strategic, governance and external risks.

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Sam Coutinho is the principal of Sam Coutinho Consulting.

“As schools have become more complex, with both the internal and external environments changing, it may be that this classification system may not be the most helpful.”

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people moves

New headteacher for Maida Vale School

Maida Vale School, an independent co-educational secondary school for pupils aged 11 to 18, has appointed Magnus Bashaarat as headteacher effective 24 April, replacing Steven Winter.

Bashaarat read English at Edinburgh University and worked as a journalist before completing his teacher training at King’s College, London. He began his career at Sherborne School in Dorset and then moved to Eton College where he spent 15 years, seven of them as a house master. He then moved to become deputy head at Stowe School, Buckinghamshire, and on to Milton Abbey School, Dorset as head in 2013, and from there to Bedales School, Hampshire, as head in 2018. He is also a governor at The University of Winchester.

The new head is married to Camilla and has three children and enjoys cycling and rowing.

New head for Old Buckenham Hall School

Old Buckenham Hall School in Ipswich, a co-educational prep school for children aged three to 13, has appointed James Large as its new head with effect from September.

Large read zoology at the University of Southampton and completed his teacher training at the University of East Anglia. He has represented Great Britain as a sailor from a young age and, more recently, represented England in touch rugby. Large is married to Harriet and they have an infant son Albie.

Sherborne House School appoints new head

Cordelia Cripps has been appointed as head of Sherborne House School from September succeeding Mark Beach, who has been headteacher since September 2019.

Sherborne House School is a co-educational independent day school for pupils aged six months to eleven years owned by Bellevue Education.

Cripps is an experienced education leader who has worked in senior leadership roles in UK and international settings. She is currently the deputy headteacher at the school, having. joined Sherborne House School after an educational career in England and overseas.

In her spare time, Cripps enjoys running and takes part in many distance races, from Parkrun to ultra marathons. Since joining Sherborne House school, she has encouraged others to run. The school now has a weekly parent running group, regular staff runs and an early morning club for pupils. She also enjoys reading, walking and spending time with the family.

MIST appoints Fenn as chief executive

The Methodist Independent Schools Trust (MIST) has appointed Judith Fenn as its new chief executive, succeeding David Humphreys.

MIST is a group of predominantly independent schools.

Fenn was previously executive director of the Independent Schools Teacher Induction Panel (IStip) since 2012. She was educated in the state sector in Manchester, before reading history at Cambridge University. She taught for 13 years in the independent sector, latterly at The Godolphin and Latymer School, where she was deputy head. Since 2005 she has overseen the statutory induction of newly qualified teachers in independent schools. Fenn is also chair of governors at St Margaret’s School, Bushey.

Spence appointed head at Wrekin

Toby Spence, currently headmaster at Sibford School in Oxfordshire, will become headmaster at Wrekin College, a co-educational independent school for pupils aged 11 to 18 in Wellington, Shropshire.

Spence has been head at Sibford for seven years and will take over this September from Tim Firth who announced he is stepping down at the end of this academic year in a letter to parents last term.

Firth said he felt it was the right time to make the move having arrived at Wrekin College in 2016 with a development plan which had not only extended the available facilities but has seen records broken both in numbers of pupils on roll and GCSE and A-level exam results.

Bede’s Prep appoints Morris as new head

Bede’s School Trust has appointed Leigh-Anne Morris as the head of Bede’s Prep School in Eastbourne, East Sussex. Morris joined the prep school as director of studies in 2016, and being appointed as deputy head academic in 2019.

Morris graduated with a bachelor of commerce (accounting) degree at the University of Natal, in South Africa, and then relocated to the UK and worked as an accountant for Barclays Financing. She joined the education sector in 2004 and trained as a specialist maths teacher at the University of Sussex under the graduate teacher programme. Her first teaching job was in an all-boys comprehensive school, where after four years of being a maths teacher, she was appointed as head of maths and then an assistant head two years later. In 2013, she took on the role of vice principal of the school.

people moves

She will be joined by her husband Graham and their two children, who are pupils at Bede’s.

Haberdashers’ Elstree Schools appoint Lock as executive principal Haberdashers’ Elstree Schools (Habs) in Hertfordshire has appointed Gus Lock as executive principal across both Habs Boys and Habs Girls schools. Having been headmaster at Habs Boys since 2018, Lock has led the school for the past five years. While there are no plans to merge the schools, nor move to full co-education, the 2020 to 2030 strategy has been clear in its intention to develop a closer collaboration between the two schools. Both schools will continue to be led by the current heads for the remainder of this school year.

The current headmistress at Habs Girls, Rose Hardy, is moving to the John Lyon School in Harrow as head in the next academic year, and the Haberdashers’ Elstree Schools has initiated a recruitment process to replace Hardy as well as to appoint a new headmaster for Habs Boys commencing in September. Both new heads will report to Lock.

Wallace appointed head of pre-prep school at Bishop’s Stortford College

Bishop’s Stortford College in Hertfordshire has appointed Jo Wallace as the new head of the pre-prep school from September, following the decision by long-standing pre-prep head Belinda Callow to retire at the end of the academic year after 20 years’ service.

Wallace is currently head of pre-prep at Abbott’s Hill School, Hemel Hempstead, where she has been responsible for the dayto-day running of its pre-prep for the past four years. Prior to her first headship, Wallace held teaching roles in the UK and Australia, where she lived for a number of years. She has also acted as a school governor since 2019.

Pritchard appointed as next head of Beechwood Beechwood Park School in Markyate, Hertfordshire, has appointed Christian Pritchard as its new head from September. Pritchard, head at Beachborough School in Westbury, Buckinghamshire since 2018, was educated in Northumberland and started his teaching career in Yorkshire. He then spent time overseas teaching and leading British international schools, around the world, from Taiwan to the Netherlands and the United Arab Emirates. In 2012, he returned to the UK as head of Ranby House Preparatory School in Nottinghamshire.

Pritchard is married to Zoe who is a primary and early years specialist teacher. They have two teenage daughters who attend boarding school in Oxfordshire.

Following the departure of former head Ed Balfour in December, Maureen Cussans will lead the school as interim head for the two remaining terms of the academic year and work with Pritchard on the transition.

Edenhurst Prep School appoints Mousley as headteacher

Edenhurst Preparatory School in Newcastle-under-Lyme Staffordshire has appointed Emma Mousley as its new headteacher. Founded in 1961, Edenhurst is an independent school catering to children aged three months to 11 years. The school supports older pupils during the transition to senior school, including preparing them for entrance examinations at independent and grammar schools across the region.

Mousley has curriculum development and senior leadership experience and was most recently deputy head of pastoral

Ed Balfour

Belinda Callow

Christian Pritchard

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and wellbeing at Repton Al Barsha, Dubai, where she has taught since 2013. Mousley also taught at St John’s Beaumont Preparatory School in Windsor and Yorston Lodge School in Knutsford, Cheshire.

Stamford American International School in Singapore, and Budapest British International School in Hungary.

Since returning to the UK in 2020, Fairs has worked with independent, international and online schools’ chief executives, teachers, boards and speech and language therapists, to develop and implement strategy around innovative inclusion, best SEND practice, and educational technology.

Fairs appointed as next Riverston head Chatsworth Schools has appointed Angela Fairs as the next head of Riverston School and College, starting in September. The school’s current head, David Ward is retiring at the end of the summer term.

Southeast London-based Riverston is a mainstream independent school for pupils aged from 11 to 21 years with particular provision for students with mild learning difficulties and autism spectrum disorder of average ability level. There is also nursery and early years provision catering to children aged from newborns to five years old.

Fairs has worked in the UK and internationally in teaching and senior leadership roles. In 2010 she was appointed head of Dover Court International Junior School in Singapore, and afterwards at Jerudong International School in Brunei,

Picton to be next head of Sir William Perkins’s School

Sir William Perkins’s School, an independent day school for girls aged 11 to 18 in Chertsey, Surrey, has appointed Debbie Picton to be its next head, taking up the post from 1 September, succeeding Chris Muller after his nine years of headship and five years of deputy headship at the school.

An Oxford classics graduate, Picton began her career at Highgate School where she, following a variety of roles, rose to deputy head of sixth form and head of higher education. She was assistant head, director of sixth form at North London Collegiate School, and is currently senior deputy head at Bancroft’s School in Woodford Green.

A mother of two children, Picton is part of the Women Leaders’ Network for The Association of School and College Leaders, and a mentor for the HMC ‘Women in Senior Leadership’ network.

Glenalmond College appoints Mortimer as warden Glenalmond College, a co-educational independent boarding school in Perth and Kinross, Scotland, has appointed Mark Mortimer as warden, taking over from Dr Michael Alderson.

Previously headmaster of two independent co-educational boarding schools in the south of England, Bryanston and Warminster, Mortimer has more than 20 years’ experience of the education sector. He started his teaching career at Giggleswick in the Yorkshire Dales, where he was head of history, an assistant housemaster and coach of the 1st XV rugby team, before moving onto Hampton School and then to St John’s, Leatherhead as deputy head. Before moving into teaching, he spent eight years as an army officer and then had a brief career as a management consultant.

Debbie Picton

Angela Fairs

Emma Mousley

A keen historian, sportsman and saxophonist, Mortimer has twice rowed across the Atlantic Ocean, taken part in the Marathon des Sables across the Sahara and more recently cycled across the Arctic Circle. He will be joined at Glenalmond by his French wife, Anna, and their three young children.

New head of RGS Dodderhill

Tom Banyard has been appointed as the new head of RGS Dodderhill in Droitwich Spa, Worcestershire. Banyard is currently head of King’s College International School Bangkok, part of the KCS Wimbledon group of schools.

Banyard has a first class honours degree in physics from The Queen’s College, Oxford, as well as a teaching qualification from Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. He began his teaching career at Tonbridge School in Kent, before joining King’s College School, Wimbledon in London. At KCS Wimbledon, he was promoted to the senior leadership team in charge of teaching and learning. From there, he took the unorthodox route of moving abroad, helping KCS to set up its first international schools. Initially he spent a year as director of co-curricular activities and head of international school in Hangzhou, China, before taking on the headship of King’s College International School Bangkok in 2019. During this period, he has worked with children aged two to 18, teaching physics and chemistry to the senior students and being fully

people moves

involved in the wider communities at each school, with a particular passion for coaching football, cricket and basketball. He has three daughters: Edith (six years old), Nina (five years old) and Ada (one year old) and his wife Rachel who grew up in Droitwich and is a primary teacher.

Tom Banyard

The last word

Charles Fillingham has been the executive headmaster of Solihull School in the West Midlands since January. With more than 1,500 pupils and 320 members of staff it is one of the largest UK independent day schools. It was founded in 1560 and has two campuses: the Saint Martin’s campus for the prep school and the Warwick Road campus for the senior school. It is an academic school that has sent more than 20 pupils to Oxbridge in the past couple of years and the co-curricular programme has particular strengths in hockey, rugby and musical theatre, while the chapel choir is notably strong.

Fillingham was born in Nailsea, Somerset in 1972 and was educated Nailsea School, a comprehensive, and was the first in his family to study at a university. His family has deep roots in Bristol and the West Country going back many generations. He is married with two children and a small white dog.

What have been your previous roles, including in other sectors?

I have been a teacher at five schools – all in London – on the path to Solihull School. I taught French and German at Langley Park School in Beckenham, a boys’ comprehensive for four years, which was an excellent school to learn one’s craft as a teacher. I then became head

of languages for two years at The Grey Coat Hospital in Westminster, Central London, a comprehensive for girls with a rich history located within sight of the Houses of Parliament. After that I was appointed director of studies at mixed comprehensive Archbishop Tenison’s in Croydon, Surrey for five years, a diverse school with a strong Church of England ethos.

I then became deputy head for eight years at City of London School, an extremely academic independent school for boys, overlooking the Thames and the Millennium Bridge. After that I was headmaster at Francis Holland next to Regent’s Park in London, an independent school for girls in one of the best locations in Zone 1 – the school is often called “The finest school in London” and is where I spent the past seven years. I’m a dyed-in-the-wool teacher and I still teach, which is relatively unusual for headteachers, especially in large schools. I enjoy beginners German and GCSE/Alevel French classes the most.

What has been the biggest challenge in your job so far?

The school is big, but I’ve shaken hands with every pupil at Solihull. I’m also meeting every member of staff to hear about what they love about the school. I have hosted events for every year group of

parents to meet them informally and to listen to them. There are a lot of faces and names to get to know, however Solihull School is Britain’s best kept secret and I want to tell the world about this academic powerhouse in the Midlands.

What’s the most useful advice you’ve been given in life?

Two things: don’t give up – the school motto here is ‘Perseverantia’ and this is perfect for me. And keep your eye on the little things – this is classic schoolmastering learnt at my first school, to ensure standards are high as regards courtesy, co-operation and common sense – then the big things will follow.

Who has been the biggest influence on you?

I have been inspired by teachers who have given their whole working life to one school. In each school there has been one figure, often a senior deputy head or a second master, who has known and loved a school for decades. This is inspirational service and that long service and historical memory of the school’s ethos and values is not to be underestimated.

Do you have a funny story about life in school?

In my first assembly at Solihull School, a pupil’s phone rang when I was in full flow

Charles Fillingham

“At a previous school, I banned the use of plastic document wallets and also threw away the laminating machine. This saved thousands of sheets of plastic each year.”

about five minutes into my talk – I joked that my time might be up already.

When my little cockerpoo Clementine comes into school she can be quite naughty and sometimes runs into Latin lessons which doesn’t always please the teachers.

What was the best money-making project that you introduced – and how much did it make?

At Francis Holland, hundreds of thousands of pounds were raised for two things. The first was a bursary foundation to transform lives by offering places at an elite independent school to young people who would never otherwise be able to afford such an opportunity.

Strong partnerships were set up with local schools and the pupils were an incredible asset to the school. The second fundraiser was an ‘acceleration project’ which encouraged parents to donate to refurbishment work which could all be programmed in for that summer, but which otherwise would still have happened, but over five consecutive summers instead.

Back in 2005, I led a team of teachers from Archbishop Tenison’s in Croydon on a sponsored cycle ride to Paris. We raised £8,000 for a second-hand school minibus. It took three days and the pedal fell off of my bicycle, but it was an amazing experience and it provided a different dimension to distances – a destination to which it would seem you’d need to fly or take a fast train is actually achievable under your own steam. An important life lesson in what determination can achieve.

What was the best cost-cutting project you introduced – and how much did it save?

At a previous school, I banned the use of plastic document wallets and also threw away the laminating machine. This saved thousands of sheets of plastic each year. My thinking is that most laminated signs

don’t need to last a hundred years and serve their purpose just as well by being printed on paper or card; even if they need replacing slightly more often, they are still less damaging to the environment. Ditto for ‘Meat-free Mondays’ – this was a pupil-led initiative to reduce the carbon footprint of the school.

What has been the biggest surprise you’ve had in school?

Once I arrived at work to find that my office door had been locked, which was totally unheard of. Fearing that I had been sacked and locked out for some dark, unknown reason, I went to see the caretaker who opened the door explaining that £5,000 in cash was inside the room. Each pupil was to be given a commemorative £5 coin for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and they had been put inside my office for safe-keeping.

What has been your lasting memory so far?

To work in a three-to-18 school is amazing. To be able to go from assembly with the upper sixth form straight into assembly with the reception class is a real privilege for me. To lead a community of nearly 1,900 adults and children who would all consider Solihull School to be their weekday home is a great honour.

What are your hobbies and outside interests?

I have run both the London and the New York marathons and I am an ASA qualified swimming teacher. In 2012, I was a volunteer Games Maker at the London Olympics. In 2019, I cycled to Paris again, this time with my 14-year-old son.

At university, I was president of the French Society; I presented a hospital radio show and I wrote for the college magazine. I hold a TEFL qualification. I used to be able to play the guitar badly and I loosely support Bristol City. I grow vegetables with moderate success and I am interested in the life and works of Isambard Kingdom Brunel. I am a Freeman of the City of London and a Liveryman with the Worshipful Company of Stationers.

What are your personal future plans? I used to want to become prime minister – but not anymore!

We hope you found this first edition of Independent School Management useful

In the next edition we will look at how you can increase your nonfee income, plus we will show you ways in which you can be more cost-effective in your operations. Topics will include:

Restructuring: reimagining your school’s business model: the situation the school was facing; the end goal; the obstacles faced, how they were overcome; lessons learned; benefits to the school from the new direction/model (plus any cons); benefits to head/other staff from the new direction/model (plus any cons).

A merging of minds: how two schools approached a merger. The initial approach/thinking; challenges; outcome.

Taking over: how a schools group helped out a failing school by adding it to the fold; challenges; outcome.

Fundraising case studies: target figure; plan of action; challenges; outcome for the school and benefits to the pupils (plus added value to parents for their fees).

Compilation and outline of available grants for independent school pupils when parent’s circumstances have changed to help maintain the school roll.

Leadership: Effective strategic management when confronting chaos and uncertainty.

Employment law: Uniforms and diversity.

Finance: Trading subsidiaries and gift aid: the difficulty of repatriating profits to the charity.

Marketing and admissions: Repositioning your school brand.

Governance: How to make your governing body more agile.

Effective procurement and contract management, plus cost savings on existing contracts.

News, people moves and more.

We welcome your views and any editorial suggestions. Please contact: andrew.maiden@nexusgroup.co.uk

Grow.

ARMLEY

GRANGE SCHOOL

ARMLEY

GRANGE SCHOOL

FORMER

HAWLEY PLACE SCHOOL

FORMER

HAWLEY

Following a confidential sale process, this unique campus, which had been renovated to a high standard for SEMH provisions, was sold to a leading provider of children’s services. Under new ownership, Armley Grange School, operated by Options Autism, will cater for autistic children and young people aged 5 – 19 who may have a range of additional needs.

Following a confidential sale process, this unique campus, which had been renovated to a high standard for SEMH provisions, was sold to a leading provider of children’s services. Under new ownership, Armley Grange School, operated by Options Autism, will cater for autistic children and young people aged 5 – 19 who may have a range of additional needs.

Hawley Place School was originally founded in 1953 and operated as a co-educational independent day school for circa 400 pupils aged 2 to 19 years. Following a confidential sales process, the 15.47-acre campus site was sold to an independent SEMH school operator.

Hawley Place School operated as a for circa 400 pupils confidential sales was sold to an

FORSALE

FORSALE

PGL

PESTALOZZI

Set in a 138-acre freehold Sussex estate, the former Pestalozzi International Village incorporates a range of former residential and educational buildings providing circa 3,387 sq m (36,467 sq m) of accommodation, surrounded by former sports pitches and agricultural land. Pestalozzi’s permitted planning use is as an educational and residential institution and there is an existing consent which would allow for the development of a further 2,922 sq m (31,453 sq ft) of accommodation on site.

ADVISORY

WISHFORD SCHOOLS

Set in a 138-acre freehold Sussex estate, the former Pestalozzi International Village incorporates a range of former residential and educational buildings providing circa 3,387 sq m (36,467 sq m) of accommodation, surrounded by former sports pitches and agricultural land. Pestalozzi’s permitted planning use is as an educational and residential institution and there is an existing consent which would allow for the development of a further 2,922 sq m (31,453 sq ft) of accommodation on site.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT: Courteney.Donaldson@christie.com

WISHFORD

We were appointed to undertake a comprehensive commercial due diligence advisory project on behalf of a major European infrastructure investment fund which was keen to facilitate a buy and build strategy. Our report provided analysis associated to the Wishford Schools portfolio, our insights into the macro market, policy landscape, operational performance, and wider commercial and financial due diligence considerations.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT: Courteney.Donaldson@christie.com

For advice about buying, growing or selling a childcare or education business, SPEAK TO THE EXPERTS:

SCHOOLS

We were appointed commercial due of a major European which was keen Our report provided Schools portfolio, policy landscape, commercial and

For advice about buying, growing or selling a childcare or education business, SPEAK TO THE EXPERTS:

PGL PESTALOZZI