Independent Schools at the Crossroads: Strategy, Scale and Survival

We are very grateful to Mark Semmence, Head of Repton School and CEO of the Repton Group, for a challenging talk last week to a diverse audience of governors, heads, CEOs and CFOs that focused the mind on a future for the sector.

We are pleased to share a few takeaways from our event:

• Starting with a message of hope, charting how schools have survived history’s upheavals from the dissolution of the monasteries, through wars and recessions, Mark went on to challenge complacent governance that ignored current headwinds and oversupply in favour of nostalgia and the status quo.
• Using the Repton Group experience, he presented an alternative vision of the future in which schools consolidated or amalgamated, ensuring that assets and income remained within charitable trusts with charitable purpose at the forefront.
• Deliberately controversial, we were stimulated into a lively discussion around the value of multiple associations, responding to what the marketplace demands, lessons from the for-profit sector, the importance of single-sex education for parental choice, a more future-relevant curriculum, and how a Head or CEO of a group manages their time and priorities.
• Through all our debate on the business functions of schools, our responsibility to shape the pupils in our care ran as a connecting thread. This purpose will continue to attract parents.
• In the current climate agile, alert governance that is aligned with the executive is crucial both for surviving and thriving. Standing still will simply not cut it.