Opening a new school
Every school starts with a vision. We help you turn yours into a school that is ready on day one: the right people, the right curriculum and the paperwork done.
We have done this ourselves. Our consultants have led two new international schools from opening and founded schools of their own in northern Thailand.
Starting a school means making hundreds of decisions before a single child walks through the door, and most of them depend on each other. Your vision shapes your curriculum. Your curriculum shapes who you hire. Your budget shapes all of it.
We work through those decisions with you in the right order, bringing practical experience of what it costs, what the regulators ask for and what families look for when they choose a new school.
Read: What it takes to set up a new schoolGetting you started
Eight areas we support.
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Vision and mission
Every school starts with a vision. Whether you are writing yours for the first time or revisiting it as part of strategic planning, we help your whole team understand your community’s strengths and hopes, and work towards them. We have run planning and visioning days for new schools and established ones.
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Organisational planning
The structures, roles and lines of communication a new school needs, worked out before the first day rather than patched together afterwards.
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Curriculum design
Whether you are adapting, revising, embedding or writing a curriculum from scratch, our consultants have worked with all the major international curricula. We are currently designing an original curriculum based on Buddhist principles for a new school project in Thailand.
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Recruitment
The right staff are not simply the most qualified teachers. We believe character matters at least as much as qualifications. We have many years of experience interviewing and recruiting for personal values, and for what each person will bring to the spirit and ethos of a school.
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School registration
Registering a new school is a long process, and it takes real knowledge of how to work with local government departments. Our school registration specialist knows the process in Thailand in detail and can support you all the way through it.
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Financial forecasting
We have written short and long-term financial forecasts for two school start-ups, and we know the many costs of running a school, from staff salaries to classroom furniture.
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Initial teacher training
Preparing new staff for your classrooms, your curriculum and your way of doing things, so the first term begins with a team that already works together.
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Policy development
We can help you write your school’s policies and handbooks, and induct teachers so everyone understands exactly how your school works and what is expected of them.
- Start-up
Led two new international schools from opening, grew enrolment significantly in their first three years and established both in the regional international school market.
- Start-up
Founded a play-based preschool that reached full enrolment in its very first term.
Chiang Mai Grow-operative, Thailand - Start-up
Founded an English language school in northern Thailand that is still running successfully today.
The Learning Centre, Thailand
Other ways we can help
The first conversation is free.
Tell us where your school is and where you would like it to be. We will listen, ask good questions and give you an honest view of how we could help.
