A grammar school is looking to raise “significant funds” by opening affiliate schools overseas, a market dominated by the independent sector.
Queen Elizabeth’s School, a boys’ grammar in Hertfordshire, plans to open two fee-paying schools in India and a third in the United Arab Emirates.
Global Education (GEDU), a private partner company, will provide the investment and run the schools.
But the grammar will lease its name, branding and educational “values and methodology”, including designing a curriculum “appropriate to their location”. It will also take a share of any profit.
However, finance experts have urged caution as they say the plan skirts close to what is permissible in academy funding rules.
It is believed this could be the first state school to set up an affiliate school abroad. Similar plans in other schools ended in controversy.
‘Significant capital funds’
Founded in 1573, Queen Elizabeth’s was among the first converter academies in September 2010.
The school’s parents’ association, The Friends of Queen Elizabeth’s School – a registered charity – has set up a wholly owned subsidiary, FQE International Enterprises Ltd, to manage the commercial side of the partnership.
Documents for the company, incorporated this month, state it will offer “educational consultancy services and leasing of intellectual property”.
GEDU, a UK company that runs schools in 12 countries, will oversee the new schools. But FQE will gift its slice of profit made back to the school “solely to further educational opportunities”.
Queen Elizabeth’s would not say how much profit it expected. But the revenue “over time will be invested into significant capital expenditure projects, including new and improved facilities”.
£100m market
It is a lucrative market. Forty British private schools with charitable status made an overall profit of £98.2 million from overseas satellite campuses between 2011-12 and 2020-21, a report by Private Education Policy Forum found laat year.
In 2020-21 alone, nine British private schools made profits of more than £1 million each from such arrangements with four banking more than £2 million, PEPF found.
Hilary Goldsmith, a school business leader, said “hugely successful” grammars could “easily take on the independent sector in terms of the market, so why wouldn’t they?”
“The ethical worry is whether state funding is supporting the venture.”
In a press release announcing the move, Queen Elizabeth’s said: “Opening affiliated schools overseas is an established model for leading UK independent schools but it is believed this is the first time that a UK state school has followed this path.” It insisted no state funding would be involved.
Others that have tried similar schemes have landed in hot water. St Olave’s grammar in south London previously axed its plans to open linked private schools in China.
Former leaders at the school set up limited companies in their names and licensed the school’s intellectual property. But the companies closed after an investigation commissioned by Bromley council in 2018.
The investigation said “no school would want its [leaders] spending so much time on something that was of no direct benefit to the students”.
Meanwhile, the government is pursuing leaders of the collapsed SchoolsCompany Trust to recover up to £2.8 million of “lost public funds”.
Court documents show Elias Achilleos, its former chief executive, pursued “domestic and international business projects” in China and Ghana while employed by the trust. Achilleos said the allegations were “speculative”.
Human rights concerns
The school’s articles of association state that the trust’s “object is specifically restricted to the following: to advance for the public benefit education in the United Kingdom”.
Micon Metcalfe, a school finance expert, questioned whether using its branding reputation for something outside its charitable purpose could fall foul of this.
Academy funding rules also state “novel, contentious and/or repercussive transactions” must always be referred to the Education and Skills Funding Agency for approval.
The school said the agency had been consulted and had no objections.
Metcalfe added: “One view may be well it’s a novel way of raising money.
“Another is should a UK grammar school be associating itself with education perhaps in countries (such as UAE) that have a poor record on human rights?”
A spokesman for the school said: “We recognise that there are cultural difficulties with exporting British educational brands to other countries.
“However, we believe that providing a British education can be a powerful agent for change in the younger generation of the countries in which the partnership would be operating.”
Queen Elizabeth’s will be involved in headteacher recruitment and quality assurance, but said each school would have its own leadership team and staff. A timeline would be announced in the coming months.
It comes after a Schools Week investigation last week revealed parent and teacher associations are raking in thousands running mock exams, sparking claims some grammar schools are “making a fast buck out of parents’ 11-plus test anxiety”.
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