PLAN
MODELLING OUTCOMES
‘’All models are approximations. Essentially all models are wrong, but some are useful’’.
George E.P. Box, statistician.
It is our job to make projections of a school’s growth as useful as possible. Careful input and thought at the planning stage will produce a model that can be updated in an annual exercise to make it increasingly useful over time.
‘’All models are approximations. Essentially all models are wrong, but some are useful’’.
George E.P. Box, statistician.
It is our job to make projections of a school’s growth as useful as possible. Careful input and thought at the planning stage will produce a model that can be updated in an annual exercise to make it increasingly useful over time.
FEASIBILITY
Taking time to conduct a robust feasibility study in the long run saves both time and money. If the project is a good fit, it will stand up to the ten year test in which curriculum, staff, facilities and resources are all projected forward and adjusted to establish a sustainable bottom line.
STUDENTS AND STAFF PROJECTIONS
Our projections begin with modelling the likely growth of student numbers, then curriculum growth, from which we can estimate the number of staff to teach the programme each year. With staffing costs accounting for the majority of an operating budget, this exercise should be as accurate as possible, while also open to adjustment.
FEASIBILITY
Taking time to conduct a robust feasibility study saves time and money. If the project is a good fit, it will stand up to the ten year test in which curriculum, staff, facilities and resources are all projected forward and adjusted to establish a sustainable bottom line.
STUDENTS AND STAFF PROJECTIONS
Our projections begin with modelling the likely growth of students numbers, then curriculum growth, from which we can estimate the number of staff to teach the programme each year. With staffing costs accounting for the majority of an operating budget this exercise should be as accurate as possible, while also open to adjustment.
BUSINESS PROJECTIONS
It is vital to think through every cost centre in depth from the outset, finance these centres with income from a realistic fee schedule and then project outcomes ten years into the future. Work on this at the planning stage will pay handsome dividends as the school grows.
BUSINESS PROJECTIONS
It is vital to think through every cost centre in depth from the outset, finance these centres with income from a realistic fee schedule and then project outcomes ten years into the future. Work on this at the planning stage will pay handsome dividends as the school grows.
CASE STUDY
repurposing a heritage site
Feasibility studies are about evaluating project variables in order to establish whether they can be configured to establish a sustainable school. Location, price point, curriculum, student age range, teacher appeal, construction costs and parent aspiration are just some of the factors that need to combine to fit the context in which the school will established.
For this study, we were asked to assess the viability of repurposing a major European heritage building as an international day and boarding school.
The work required an imaginative approach to suggest a variety of community uses that would broaden the school’s income streams, while highlighting the constraints imposed by a nineteenth century building, which would require major interior reconfiguration without disturbing external facades and courtyards.
We highlighted the ‘green potential’ of the site and exciting potential uses for the community, but it remains to be seen whether these will be sufficient to offset the potentially enormous costs of conversion and adaptation to 21st Century standards without a major injection of cash in the form of grants for the restoration of a beautiful, but neglected facility.
