School management and ownership

We put our knowledge – gained from work in teacher development – into practice through our ownership and management of independent schools: St Andrew’s School and Oakfield Preparatory School in England, and the International School of Cape Town, South Africa. The Independent Schools Inspectorate described our UK schools as ‘excellent’.

St Andrew’s pupils’ results in standard assessment tests (SATs) were 29% higher in maths and 21% higher in reading than the national average. The school moved up nine places to 35th place in the annual Sunday Times ‘Parent Power’ survey of the top 100 UK independent schools.

St Andrew’s provides all-round support and education, investing in ICT, wellbeing and in its community links. The school hosted a joint team-building day and delivered weekly French language sessions at a local infant school which previously could not offer French to its children.

Children joining Oakfield School are academically in line with the national average but during their time at Oakfield, they go on to exceed national standards: 13 percentage points higher in reading and maths at KS1 and KS2. All pupils, including all children with SEND, were offered places at the senior school of their choice.

Oakfield was commended by the Independent School Teacher Induction Panel (IStip) for excellent provision and support for early-career teachers (ECTs). Pupils had some brilliant experiences and outcomes in competitive games and community performance and became the Independent Schools Association’s national gymnastics winners.

Our UK independent schools are in the Sunday Times top 100 prep schools while our Cape Town school is one of the top-performing in South Africa.