By Dick Davidson, Head of Strategic Services at mtm
It is one of the most remarkable transformations to take place in the independent sector in the last 20 years. How did a dwindling group of seven mainly girls’ independent schools, some of them near the brink of closure, turn itself into a flourishing powerhouse, with ten independent schools (and more than double the number of pupils) and, with 20 Academies, the largest single sponsor in the Government’s Academy programme?
The story of the then Church Schools Company’s metamorphosis into the United Church Schools’ Trust and its sister United Learning Trust has not been told fully in public before. But the man who is more than anyone responsible for the transformation, Sir Ewan Harper, outlined the vision and the strategy which underpinned it in the keynote address at the annual strategy conference hosted in London by mtmconsulting and Veale Wasbrough Vizards.
What emerged was a compelling blend of hard-headed business planning and a mission informed by firm Christian principle, which should inspire any school leader trying to square the circle of public benefit and a viable business model.
The Church Schools Company was turned round by an unsentimental approach to viable mergers, creating strong new schools in areas where the market was robust, but the existing schools either wrongly configured or unable to expand. The involvement in the Academy programme came later and sprang from an initial chance encounter and the need to answer the question, which Sir Ewan urged all the delegates to address: “If our founders were alive today, what would they do?”
Sir Ewan’s was just one of a series of informative sessions which kept nearly 150 delegates from schools of all kinds in rapt attention throughout the “Practical Strategies for the Changing Education Market” conference at the Institute of Directors. A panel comprising Christopher Ray, High Master of Manchester Grammar School, Frances King, Headmistress of Roedean, Adrian Richardson, Principal of the Cothill Educational Trust, and Richard Fenwick, Headmaster of Hazlegrove, debated differing approaches to the increasingly important issue of changing a school’s age range.
And Gavin Humphries, mtmconsulting’s head of research, unveiled the third edition of The mtmconsulting Independent Sector Report, with its combination of comprehensive analysis of sector trends and future forecasts. Add to that a range of practical seminar sessions of legal, marketing and strategic issues – including a vibrant and challenging workshop on digital and social media marketing for schools – and you will know that it’s well worth looking out for the conference report, which will soon be sent to schools.
