Experiences of school joing the "Cognita Family"

[LadyMuck]

I have the pleasure of being invited ~(at ratehr short notice) to meet Chris Woodhead on Monday. I presume that other MNers have made the transition to a Cognita school - what were the changes for you? And what questions do I need to ask?

Ask him why he's a knob.

Is this a new school joining Cognita? Will you be part of a big group?

I met him recently. Questions asked were things like fees (no big jumps planned), facilities (yes money will be put in to improve facilities), staff (no changes). And lots more that I can't remember.

I thought he came across well. He was self deprecating, made a few jokes at his own expense, seemed very sincere and keen to talk to parents.

Message withdrawn

Oh and ask him about that student teacher. Many years ago. He'll know what you mean

Thank you for those helpful comments (I think). The school is a fairly well established prep school, but the owners are looking to sell up. I'm a bit concerend that Cognita is going for a cheap option and the people that get squeezed are the teachers. Naturally I don't want huge fee increases, but I think that the cheap private option is the worst of both worlds.

But seriously (!) I would take any answers with a pinch of salt. I mean, they have to go through the process of airing questions and things, but will be there be any guarantees attached? I would imagine they would say things like 'no big fee hikes' and 'no change to terms and conditions of contract' but is this just true AT THE MOMENT? I would try to dig a bit about projected situation for 5 years time so you can plan yourself an escape route if you need it.

Well I have to say that my initial gut instinct is to trawl around all the other schools within reasonable distance to see if I can get the dcs into them for September, though at this notice I don't fancy my chances (and of course I will now be competing against the other parents from school). I was just wondering if there were any success stories out there?

I rang up and asked a friend whose school switched to Cognita a few years ago and she said that they had done what they said they would and hadn't hiked fees.

Cognita do seem to buy up small private schools (I have limited experience of 2 of their schools over the years) They don't seem to go for the more expensive/exclusive private schools as far as I can tell - or at least haven't done to date.

Chris Woodhouse talked a lot about schools retaining their individuality so still run by the headteacher, no corporate branding etc.

Were you unhappy with the school anyway? My experience is that there have been no staff changes, the school atmosphere is the same, the fees are the same, there's just some plans for looking into (necessary) building work and some updating of things like computers. One teacher I spoke to said she was happy as it was now far easier for her to access training (she's the school SENCo).

Thanks for that yurt, that is good to hear. Actually I am pretty happy with the school, and especially the staff (who do seem already to have plenty of access to training, which seems to be Cognita's key selling point). I guess that my key concern is what happens if the staff start quitting, either on the basis of the news itself, or because they are being squeezed too much. If there is an exodus of staff followed by children in say 2 years time then competition at other local schools is likely to be fairly intense.

Looking at the other schools ours does look a bit out of the norm for them - 350+ prep school with fees already at £9k. Ho hum.

Perhaps talk to the staff. No-one's left this school, and apparently staff have stayed the same at my friend's kids school as well. Staff made it fairly obvious to us that they were very happy with the changes. If they stay the same then there may not be big changes.

Got to go ds1 screaming.

Good luck for tomorrow, LadyMuck!

friend and fellow MNer teaches at a Cognita school - will pointhet at this thread if I see her

point her (obv)

Thank you. It would be good to hear first hand from some teachers as my main fear is that they will run though I'll no doubt see their initial reaction tomorrow (conveniently I have a viewing of ds2's work after school). So far the main gripe from the parents that I know is that there is so little notice of the meeting!

should I not like Chris Woodhead then? The bloke who does the education panel in The Sunday Times right?

oh I never knowded that I wasn't supposed to like him .. precis please if you can be bothered

He used to be the Chief Inspector of Schools Twig. Think he introduced Ofsted inspections (could have that wrong). Many years ago he was a teacher himself. He made a few jokes at his own expense about Ofsted etc.

Same guy Twig. Now chairman of a company which goes round buying up schools. Not sure that I dislike him automatically. I'm just a little nervous at anything that interferes too much with the school management and teachers. I'd seen references to centralised curriculums, and weekly testing. So bearing in mind that one plus point for the dcs school was that they escape the National Curriculum and SATS this sort of thing wouldn't exactly thrill me.

Where did you see references to weekly testing and centralised curriculums? he stated quite categorically that they were against centralisation of anything (he was asked). Really the school hasn't changed at all and I kind of suspect it would far too laid back for many (part of the reason we chose it) so I would be pretty stunned if it turned into some academic hothouse.

Twig -- his Wikipedia entry is fairly balanced on the reasons that you aren't supposed to like him and on the alternative pro-Woodhead view.

I'd actually forgotten the comment about sexual relationships between students and teachers being potentially "experiential and educative on both sides" although I did have an underlying memory of "didn't he say something really quite spectacularly inappropriate once". And the Islington Green thing was news to me (was busy with newborn DS when that story broke, I suppose).

Am a teacher at a Cognita school. Have very little to do with them. Head is in charge. They have just spent £4 million on a new sports hall and other facilities. Wasn't there when they took over but there are plently of staff who are...so the staff is generally stable. I have nothing bad to say about them as they don't impact on my life as a teacher at all. Hope it all works out for you.

Thanks Snuffy, that is good to know. Yurt, probably TES staffroom.

oh god I don't go in there, bunch of nutters (last time I posted to complain about abusive stuff written about kids with ASD I was accused of being a troll!)

I am also teacher at a Cognita school. Agree with most of what has been said, but not about teachers being sent on further training courses. All of them are now being done in-house which is very limiting, and not at all exciting! One thing one does need in a private school is outside stimulus!

Budget now seems to be stabilising after a period of 5 years and we are now being given a little money to spend, and I can also see various improvements being made. As somebody also said, they try to cut expenses by now only employing young inexperienced teachers. Alright at the moment, but what will happen in time? hmm