Advisory & consultancy
Education groups and investors
A sound financial model is necessary but not sufficient. The education groups that build lasting value are those where the educational offer is coherent, distinctive and deliverable.
At group level, I help establish and articulate educational ethos, develop policies and systems, and balance group coherence with school-level autonomy. For new schools or sub-brands, I support the development of educational identity and positioning, the selection of academic partners, the recruitment of the founding team, and the design of academic systems and learning environments.
Once schools are in operation, I offer quality assurance, operational refinement, and pressure-testing what is already in place. Where a school within the group needs more direct attention, I can also be brought in to work alongside its leadership in the role I describe for international school leaders.
What sets [Rob] apart is his ability to bridge the academic and operational sides of education while also engaging confidently in the commercial aspects of the conversation.
Areas of expertise
Group identity and coherence
- educational philosophy, values and positioning
- academic partner selection
- balancing group-level standards and school- or brand-level autonomy
Academic operations, efficiency and impact
- modelling and articulation of academic provision
- timetabling, staffing and resource planning
- leadership structures and management systems
- quality assurance and action planning
Campus and brand establishment
- positioning and market entry
- guiding statements and educational identity
- building and learning environment design
- founding team recruitment and selection
Selected essays
On decisions taken at group level, and how they land in the schools. You can find more of my thinking on the writing page.
Quality assurance should be done with school teams, not to them
Group quality assurance programmes produce valuable insight and concrete data for boards. But for teachers and school leaders, it often feels like head office prioritises reporting and alignment over genuine support and guided improvement. The case for building the process around what the school needs rather than what the audit cycle wants, and why that serves the group better too in the long run.
Read →When heritage schools go international, style travels easily. Substance doesn't.
Every partnership settles somewhere in a space bound by faithful heritage, local context and commercial return. All parties are better served when the landing point is determined by design rather than arrived at by drift. My view on what's negotiable, what isn't, and who should hold the pen.
Read →The right leader. The right school. The right time?
A group hiring across a portfolio is not filling equivalent posts, even if the job titles are the same. A school in its founding year asks something different of its leaders than one that has been operating for a decade, and a strong candidate for one is likely to struggle in the other. A map of the four phases, the kind of leader each calls for, and why schools so often misread which one they are in.
Read →
Start the conversation
Every engagement begins with a conversation to help me understand your context and what you wish to achieve. From there, we can discuss what I can contribute and whether there's potential for a partnership.