Forfar Education / Finborough School

[chlozz1984]

hi all,

my daughter’s school in Suffolk has just been taken over by “Forfar Education”, it was unexpected and pretty quick changeover but im nervously optimistic about it tbh - I just hope they don’t make too many changes too quickly as my daughter is thriving at the school and I’m a bit nervy things will change. Very little real info about other than what’s on their website. They own a few other schools across the UK so keen to learn if they’ve had a positive impact and what others thoughts are?

Was it a for profit or non-profit school before?

It was family owned/run by a husband and wife team so for profit but they’ve made a big success of it - it’s more than doubled in size the past few years and they’ve invested a lot in new facilities, so I am in two minds whether a bigger firm taking it over will mean further investment and improvement, or changing the family dynamic of the school to something more corporate 🤷‍♂️

Thx- the only reason I asked is that a change from non-profit to for-profit would likely be more of a change because that 5-10% investors' return has to come from somewhere, whereas for non-profit schools they just have to break even (no money flows out of the school as it has an asset lock by definition). However, it's possible that the old owners didn't really require a return beyond their own salaries whereas a corporate definitely will. You might see early efforts at cost cutting, although possibly most of this will come from admin roles as they can combine things like payroll and finance across the group.

From what I’ve heard of schools groups, Forfar is a decent one.

It's always been a for profit school!!!!

The old owners only took salaries!! Let me guess - they will leave the £20m+ they got for selling it to disabled cats!!!!

How is the school doing 6 months after the change of ownership?

Forfar Education is owned by Mubadala, the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund. So that's where your fees are going!

Well all I can say is that it’s a whole school year down now. Fees have just been increased and the implementation of wrap around charges have just been announced.
not a terms notice of either change so quite poor.
from all respects.
The owner of Forfar has been reported as being completely uninterested in anything to do with children’s welfare and comes across as a pure business minded person. With profit at the forefront of anything to do with schools in the group.

Although he has apparently stated that if any parent is not happy they are free to walk out the door without the terms notice following a conversation with him.

I would say that Finborough days are numbered as an independent school, the family feel that existed before had been eroded completely and Forfar do not seem to know how to manage schools nor change that well.

😵‍💫

@Suspiciousparent That all sounds entirely aligned with the way private equity groups manage schools. No surprises.

My DD's school only released their fee increase (which is expected annually) last week for September - a standalone school not part of a Group and given the current climate, yes, there are some unexpected charges there but nothing out of the ordinary. I think you would struggle to find an independent school that doesn't charge for wrap around care! Just looked at fees and they are far below other independent schools in the area. Much of your comment is hearsay "has been reported as being", "Although he has apparently stated" which is not helpful to the OP/others. Facts would be more useful. I've just had a little look at some of their other schools and from the 'news' it shows they do invest in facilities and student welfare. Independent schools are businesses! I guess better provision = more attractive = more pupils. It's unlikely the owner of the company is running the school so would be better to look at the leadership and how they impact the daily lives of pupils.