How can you tell if a school is financially strong?

[Inquiringmum]

Is there any way to tell if an independent school that belongs to a large education group is in a healthy financial position? I can’t find details of their finances anywhere – and yes, I checked Companies House. Since learning that The Royal School in Haslemere is set to close this year and discovering it is part of United Learning I’m worried about the prep that I am considering for my DC.
Would the school be forthcoming with this information, if asked?

When you say you checked companies house; did you not find them? Or did you not find any useful information?

I thought United Learning were academy trusts?

I’d be most worried about very small schools and those that seemed significantly under capacity. You can ask the school what their max class size is and how many form entry it is and then just see if that tallies up with what you see on the tour.

If the school is part of a group you can’t really. Usually the schools accounts on Companies house will be less comprehensive as the roll up to a group. And a lot of the big groups will be healthy re finances, it’s how this school fits into their strategy and whether they are going to make money long term keeping it.

There are a few things you can do though:

look at the info about the enrolled numbers and see if it’s going up or down. You may need to dig through previous inspection reports etc but you can usually get a feel for it. You can also ask the school directly.

Look at the groups accounts and actually read the narrative. In a lot of cases a lot can be cleaned by that in respect of direction they are looking to go - ie growing certain schools or areas, they may talk about rationality properties. Are they in acquisition mode? Have they already started to close provisions?

Look at where the school sits in the indie league tables. If the school is top 100 or top 150 and the group is making money then it’s unlikely this is a school they will close.

If you are really nosey you can look to see who owns the land, and also then whether there is a push for development in that area. If they own the land outright, it’s not a big or top performing school and the local council need to build more houses there is a chance the group will cash in.

None of this is perfect, and none will give you a straight answer but all this can help paint a picture on the risk that it may close.

No, its a charitable trust group of schools with CoE affiliations. "United Church Schools Trust"

They own Guildford High School too.

FYI - If it’s a charitable trust then the same info is held through charities commission not companies house.

I don't think I'd send my child to a private school with falling rolls, for a start. The school should give you the last few years admission figures.

https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/en/constituency-search/-/charity-details/313999

Loads of money.

But clearly don't suffer failing parts of their business.

I only know them from this and how local parents are less satusfied than they were before they took over

www.parksidecc.org.uk/about-us/united-learning#

This gov.uk schools searcher shows any schools capacity vs current enrollment. I've been checking it to ensure the schools where I enrolled my children are nearly full. A school well below capacity is probably not in a good position. See the entry for the Royal School: get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/Establishments/Establishment/Details/125348

Thanks everyone, I had considered a few of your suggestions before but have some new ideas so thanks again. I have to admit I’m still not sure where the school stands. The financials for the school are not included in the group’s annual report. I’ve had a look at the school’s enrolment figure against capacity. This doesn’t help much either. The figure is not as dire at The Royal so I can’t draw any obvious conclusions. Let's just say it's closer to capacity than the reverse. I also can’t look at leagues tables as it’s a prep, not a senior school (unless there is a prep league table that I’m not aware of). The school performs well academically as its leaver’s destinations suggest. But is that a guarantee of future demand? I don’t know. By the way what size would be considered small for a prep school? I actually would prefer a school that is relatively small- say around 300 pupils.

Small I would say 1 form entry with 15 or less per year. My DD’s old school was (too) small and that was ~150 but about 40 of those were nursery age so it left only 90 in reception-Y6.
300 doesn’t sound that small, probably 2 form entry I’m guessing but that depends on the specific ages the school takes. 300 for a reception to Y6 prep would be quite busy! But less so if that’s nursery to 13.

Definitely look at leavers destinations as well as the number of leavers.

There is a v small prep around here which is shrinking - they retain nursery to 7+ but then appear to lose loads after this point so the year 6 class ends up being like 10-15 kids whereas they have 4 nursery classes and 60 kids in reception. So over all figures look healthy but it’s lower down the school.

Actual leavers destinations is also a v good indicator - if they sent kids to top secondaries then it’s likely, as long as the numbers are decent for y6 students, that it will remain as a desirable prep. this is a huge focus for our current prep school in its effort to survive and differentiate with our Head currently trying to pressure those with City Girls and City boys offers to take them over other less ranked / prestigious schools because it looks great for them to crow about offers and acceptances for top London schools.

as for size - can’t really tell you, as it depends on location. In London you have some v small thriving ones and big ones not doing well…. Better to look at others close by and see if they have a similar footprint buildings wise and compare student numbers. Our prep had 300 - but expanded to 550 about 10 years ago and still is considered small/medium Which is a good size for us. 3 or 4 classes depending on the year and class sizes 18-22 ish. Edit - tbh most people would probably say that is large now!

I had two DC at a United Learning prep school which closed with a terms notice. In hindsight the writing was on the wall but at the time none of us saw it coming. If there’s any doubt don’t do it as it was an awful situation for all involved to be left without a school place.

Is the school a charity? If so, its charity accounts should be on the charity commission website. Might be worth a look there? If you name the school I'm happy to see what I can track down.

Thanks for the offer but I don’t want to name the school. It would be unfair and could lead others to believe that there is cause for concern. I hope to get a better sense of where they stand financially when I visit. Given its academic success and reasonable enrolment number I don’t think it is currently at threat, at least no more than any other independent.

If a school has recently been merged or acquired by a trust I would steer clear. I suppose, are there any full years with waiting lists? Are there some years with more classes than others. Recently gone co-ed would also be a red flag.