Small Independent Schools - How to escape from being between a rock and a hard place?

Parents love small schools. Parents sending their child to an independent school for the first time want their child’s school to be a “home-from-home”. They want the school to be local so they are not spending hours each day on the school run, and where the school provides a focus for wider community activities and life. They don’t want their son or daughter to be lost in a large school, instead they often choose a school where they know that their child is valued and known to all the staff. These are some of the reasons why small schools continue to compete successfully against larger ones, which perhaps have superior facilities.


However, times are tough for the small free-standing school. The challenges are well known:

1. Compliance and Regulation. The regulatory burden on the Independent Sector means that it is increasingly difficult for the senior management team of a small school to ensure that their school is fully compliant. ISI require ever more policies, procedures and checks to be in place; and the nature of compliance and health and safety matters means that schools increasingly need specialists in this area. Changes in employment, disability and equality legislation have placed additional burdens on senior managers to keep up to date.
2. The Micawber Principle. It is often the case with small schools that the surplus is represented by a relatively small number of pupils. A small swing of as few as five to ten pupils could wipe out the whole surplus and put a school into a deficit situation.
3. Lack of Economies of Scale. Small schools do not have the purchasing power to enjoy the benefits of economies of scale.
4. “Poverty Trap”. It is unlikely that a small school that is generating a surplus of, say, £100k-£150k p.a. is ever going to manage to complete a significant capital project. Banks are reticent to lend significant sums of money to small schools because the gearing required would be too great. Small schools are therefore caught in a “poverty trap” from which they cannot escape. They cannot invest in the significant capital spend that will enable them to increase the numbers to move to the next level and to service the loans. Inevitably, therefore, they fall further and further behind their rivals, until they eventually become uncompetitive and fail.

It is very important that small schools survive as they give parents choice. Parental choice is one of the key drivers for ever higher standards in our sector. One of the reasons that Independent Schools are amongst the best in the world because they operate in a competitive environment – there are no Government bail outs or subsidies for us – we either provide what parents want, or we go to the wall.

Small schools need to find strength in numbers, either by working together to share costs and to achieve economies of scale; or by merging or by becoming part of a wider group of schools. At present most of the groups of schools are in the "For-Profit" sector, but I am sure that we are going to see a rise in the number of Charity/ "Not-for-Profit" groups.

ISI Inspections are set to change again

The Government has announced that Tick Box Inspections" will be scrapped for Independent Schools.

See Daily Telegraph 4/7/2001

CRB checks - Safeguarding whom?

No one wants those in our society who are danger to young people to have access to school pupils and this necessitates some sort of criminal check, but I am concerned that there is an assumption that children are made safe simply because a CRB check has been carried out.

I have no problem with the idea of criminal checks on staff who work in schools, but how far do we take this?

The world of "safeguarding" becomes more ridiculous by the week - the latest contribution coming from Manor Community College in Cambridge:

"We do not allow anybody who is not fully CRB checked to enter the college premises or to work unsupervised. This includes volunteers, visitors and contractors. If you do not have a CRB (full disclosure) or you do not know what this is, please ensure that you contact a member of staff for further information.”

School demands visitors are checked by Criminal Records Bureau

Daily Telegraph 07/12/09

The Kafkaesque framework laid down by OFSTED ensures that pupils will only ever encounter adults at school who have been CRB checked. But this is a totally artificial state of affairs. Pupils who walk to school or travel on public transport will inevitably meet people who haven't had a CRB clearance - the vast majority of whom pose no risk to them whatsoever. But the OFSTED approach of insisting on regular CRB clearances on all who come into contact with pupils in schools is taking the "don't talk to stangers" routine to new limits. Drawing the line at the school gate ensures that, in the extremely unlikely event of a young person being endangered in some way it will fall outside the responsibility of the school/ Government. Sadly, this reflects a "not on my watch" approach to child protection.

Ultimately the Government's approach appears to have much more to do with safeguarding its own position than concern about young people.

Independent Schools and Red Tape

I know that it is driven by a party-political points-scoring agenda, but the debate about the amount of red tape that Independent Schools face is welcome.

Independent Schools do not need the same level of regulation as Maintained sector schools for a number of very simple reasons.

First, Independent Schools are not failing schools. On the contrary, the fact is that they offer the best "high school" education in the world [Pisa 2006 Survey].

Secondly, Independent Schools are fundamentally accountable to their parents who pay the fees - if they do not offer a good service then parents understandably will go elsewhere. Conversely successful schools attract greater numbers. Ultimately competitive market forces ensure that schools maintain high standards.

Thirdly, Independent Schools are not accountable to the tax-payer in the way that Maintained Sector schools are. Very few Independent Schools receive any Government funding - indeed, parents who choose to send their children to Independent Schools save the tax-payer billions of pounds each year. [The Independent Schools Council estimate that it is between £3-4 billion per annum - See Why Schools are Charities on ISC Website].


In the News:
Our private schools face a new class war Daily Telegraph 06/12/09
Strangling schools with red tape - Telegraph View: A bureaucratic assault on private education Daily Telegraph 06/12/09