Case study 6 - Independent school strategy review
Description:
The independent school had a wide range of complexities that it had to manage in developing its strategy, including:
- The delivery of quality education to a higher-than-usual proportion of pupils with specials needs
- A need to improve its pupil recruitment methods
- IT systems not optimised
- A need to consolidate from two sites to one
MCL’s analysis
The client had a good, integrated team of professionally
skilled people but had had no opportunity to review the way
it worked at an administrative level – it was too busy delivering
the services to keep the school running on a day-to-day basis.
They needed external help to manage the many complexities of the move
from two sites to one (larger) location and sale of the redundant premises.
The client’s IT services were in need of updating and improving
and they also needed to help in making better use of the software
they had. In particular, its management information systems (MIS)
were not integrated in a way that would minimise data input or provide
all the required reporting for management and administration.
MCL’s services:
In this case there were not really any right or wrong answers – only
a structured, real-world and cost-effective approach to developing an over-arching
strategy and each of the tactical components within it. MCL has experience in the
field of education and was able to combine this with its general management
consultancy skills to provide a unique service to its client.
Having planned and run all of the work required as a single project, MCL has
been delivering each as a micro-project. Using its own approach to business
analysis and project management, MCL has successfully delivered these components
of the overall project:
- Consolidation of all education, administration and IT infrastructure on one site
- Preparation for the sale of the redundant site
- Negotiations with the school’s bank in all aspects of its move and ongoing operations
- Improvements to its pupil recruitment methods
- A move to a single MIS
And it continues to manage the remaining micro-projects that comprise the strategy it had helped the school to define, including:
- New timetabling software
- Further improvements to communications with pupils, parents and carers, teachers and external 3rd parties
- Reviewing the use of IT for curriculum-based activities
- Reviewing how IT might support teachers in their work, and to provide the training necessary to support improved use of timetabling software, MS Office programs and others useful to teaching staff
- Helping the administrative staff to make better use of the desktop office software that they have