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mtm SCHOOL MATTERS mtmCONSULTING strategy for education ISSUE 11 SEPETMBER 2012 01 mtmconsulting ltd, Portland House, 43 High Street, Southwold, IP18 6AB TEL: 01502 722787 FAX: 01502 722305 www.mtmconsulting.co.uk Page 3: MANDARIN 2 mtmconsulting’s unique market analysis tool for schools has been refined to make it even more accurate in estimating recruitment potential. Page 4: DON’T LET YOUR AWAYDAY LET YOU DOWN Proper preparation is the key to a successful strategy day. Page 5: COOKIES: YOUR WEB- SITE HAS A SWEET TOOTH Chris Smith examines the implications for schools of new regulations on website cookies. Page 6: COURSES & CONFERENCES The seventh annual mtmcon- sulting/Veale Wasbrough Vi- zards strategy conference for schools and other unmissable events this autumn. Also in this issue: If you would like to receive a digital version of School Matters please let us know. Email: office@ mtmconsulting.co.uk Continued on page 2 mtm/ISC survey: Fee-payers more confident about future? T he biggest survey of independent school parents yet undertaken has shown an encouraging rise in their confidence about being able to continue to afford school fees for their children’s full school careers. The survey records responses from nearly 6,200 parents whose children were in independent schools during summer term 2012. Undertaken by mtmconsulting, using its secure online survey technology, the survey was carried out with the full support and co-operation of the Independent Schools Council (ISC). It supplements the results of the first ever such surveys, undertaken by mtmconsulting in 2010 and, on a much smaller scale, in 2007. Many of the new survey’s findings confirm those of the 2010 survey, es- pecially in the wide range of incomes amongst independent school parents, and the extent of the financial sacri- fices that most make in order to pay for their children’s education. But the most encouraging finding for schools, after four years of economic crisis, is that, compared with 2010, there has been a perceptible shift UPWARDS in parents’ general confi- dence that they will be able to pay school fees for the remainder of their children’s education. The few who seem sure that they will not be able to continue remains unchanged at 3%, but the doubtful categories ‘possibly not’ (down from 12% to 10%) and possibly’ (down By Dick Davison mtmconsulting Head of Strategy & Research Can you continue to pay school fees until your children leave school?

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mtm SCHOOL MATTERS

mtmCONSULTING strategy for education

ISSUE

11

SEPETMBER 2012

01 mtmconsulting ltd, Portland House, 43 High Street, Southwold, IP18 6AB

TEL: 01502 722787 FAX: 01502 722305 www.mtmconsulting.co.uk

Page 3:

MANDARIN 2 mtmconsulting’s unique market analysis tool for schools has been refined to make it even more accurate in estimating recruitment potential.

Page 4:

DON’T LET YOUR AWAYDAY LET YOU DOWN Proper preparation is the key to a successful strategy day.

Page 5:

COOKIES: YOUR WEB-SITE HAS A SWEET TOOTH Chris Smith examines the implications for schools of new regulations on website cookies.

Page 6:

COURSES & CONFERENCES The seventh annual mtmcon-sulting/Veale Wasbrough Vi-zards strategy conference for schools and other unmissable events this autumn.

Also in this issue:

If you would like to receive a digital version of School Matters please let us know. Email: office@ mtmconsulting.co.uk

Continued on page 2

mtm/ISC survey:

Fee-payers more confident about future? T he biggest survey of independent school parents yet undertaken has

shown an encouraging rise in their confidence about being able to continue to afford school fees for their children’s full school careers.

The survey records responses from nearly 6,200 parents whose children were in independent schools during summer term 2012. Undertaken by mtmconsulting, using its secure online survey technology, the survey was carried out with the full support and co-operation of the Independent Schools Council (ISC).

It supplements the results of the first ever such surveys, undertaken by mtmconsulting in 2010 and, on a much smaller scale, in 2007.

Many of the new survey’s findings confirm those of the 2010 survey, es-pecially in the wide range of incomes amongst independent school parents, and the extent of the financial sacri-fices that most make in order to pay for their children’s education.

But the most encouraging finding for schools, after four years of economic crisis, is that, compared with 2010, there has been a perceptible shift UPWARDS in parents’ general confi-dence that they will be able to pay school fees for the remainder of their children’s education.

The few who seem sure that they will not be able to continue remains unchanged at 3%, but the doubtful categories – ‘possibly not’ (down from 12% to 10%) and possibly’ (down

By Dick Davison mtmconsulting Head of Strategy & Research

Can you continue to pay school fees until your children leave school?

02 mtmconsulting ltd, Portland House, 43 High Street, Southwold, IP18 6AB

TEL: 01502 722787 FAX: 01502 722305 www.mtmconsulting.co.uk

ISSUE 11 mtm SCHOOL MATTERS

Continued from page 1

of this help was from relatives, for 16% of the parents, although 19% were receiving some form of assistance from their child’s school, mostly in the form of scholar-ships or bursaries, as well as staff and sibling discounts.

Commenting on the survey, ISC’s Deputy General Secretary and Head of Research, Rudolf Eliott Lock-hart, said: “This survey helps to highlight the diverse nature of families sending their children to independent schools by identifying the broad range of parents’ finan-cial circumstances. It is all the more encouraging, therefore, to see that parents’ confidence in their ability to afford school fees for the remainder of their children’s education has grown despite the recent economic downturn.”

Melanie Tucker, mtmconsulting principal, commented: “This is a very significant piece of research and one which complements and confirms our groundbreaking research amongst parents of recent years. It underlines our capacity to undertake large-scale surveys of this kind, adding to the general state of knowledge about the health of development of the independent sector.

“We are also enormously grateful to the ISC and to the officers of the constituent associations for their imaginative support of this project and, especially, to Rudi and his colleagues at ISC both for encouraging schools to participate and for their creative input at every stage of the survey.”

Each of the participating schools will receive a copy of the full survey report, together with an analysis of the responses from their own parents.

To receive a copy of the full 2012 report, School Fees and How Parents Pay Them, contact [email protected] or telephone 01502 722787. The price is £50

(incl. P&P)

from 33% to 31%) – have both decreased and there has been a commensurate rise in the proportion of parents expressing full confidence, from 52% to 56%.

Parents do continue to be concerned about job inse-curity and falling incomes, both rated by more than half the respondents as the main threat to their continued ability to pay school fees. But the rise in university tui-tion fees, widely expected to damage parents’ thinking about the affordability of school fees, looms no larger now than before the changes were announced in 2010. 22% of parents regard university costs as a threat, compared with 23% in 2010.

Parents in 65 schools took part in the survey, and answered a wide range of questions about their family incomes, their financial commitment to independent education and the means by which they afford school fees.

The responses reveal a wide range of family financial circumstances. More than half the responding parents have gross annual incomes of under £100,000, while nearly a quarter have incomes under £60,000. These findings correlate closely with the 2010 survey, in which some 2,500 parents took part.

The importance of second incomes is also confirmed, with 75% of second parents (ie not the principal in-come earner) either employed or self-employed.

Nearly two-thirds of the families (62%) paid more than £15,000 in school fees during 2011/12, with 30% paying more than £25,000. More than half (57%) had already been paying fees for six years or more and almost as many (51%) were expecting to be paying for at least a further six years.

And, as in the 2010 survey, three-quarters of the families (74%) claimed to be making financial sacri-fices to be able to afford the fees, with holidays, gen-eral household expenditure and home improvements the commonest casualties of the economy drive al-though a quarter of families were also reducing their pension contributions and one in six their mortgage repayments.

Gross household annual income

Areas of reduced expenditure to afford fees

Three families in ten (29%) were receiving some form of third-party assistance with fee payment, a slight in-crease from the 2010 results. The most frequent source

03 mtmconsulting ltd, Portland House, 43 High Street, Southwold, IP18 6AB

TEL: 01502 722787 FAX: 01502 722305 www.mtmconsulting.co.uk

mtm SCHOOL MATTERS

Now MANDARIN 2 pinpoints the most likely buyers in your market

F or more than a decade, mtmconsulting’s MANDARIN (MArket AND ARea INtelligence)

has analysed schools’ catchment areas, using Census, socio-demographic and income data to assess the size of the potential market and to high-light the most promising areas for recruitment.

Now, in the most radical refinement of the analy-sis methodology, MANDARIN 2 offers schools the most precise estimate yet of the likely recruitment potential of their catchment.

Using detailed data on penetration of specific in-come bands from mtmconsulting’s two pioneering surveys of parental incomes and budgeting (see page 1), MANDARIN 2 can now estimate not only how many families there are in the catchment who

match your school’s current family profile, and

can afford to pay school fees,

but can further distil that estimate down still further to give a figure for how many of those families in each income band are actually likely to purchase independent education.

This is the most significant refinement yet of the MANDARIN technique and produces maps like the one above, in which the concentrations of such families are identified for hundreds of output areas in part of south London. The mapping and tabula-tion can be produced at postcode sector level, for targeted marketing.

Add to this, MANDARIN 2’s other features:

Mapping your competitor schools, their recruit-ment requirements and recent performance and their influence over your catchment, and

Accurate forecasts of the school age population in your catchment for the next 10 years

and you have the best understanding of the true potential for pupil recruitment to inform your strate-gic decision-making and target your marketing.

You cannot afford to be without MANDARIN 2. Contact [email protected] or telephone us on 01502 722787 to discuss your

requirements.

04 mtmconsulting ltd, Portland House, 43 High Street, Southwold, IP18 6AB

TEL: 01502 722787 FAX: 01502 722305 www.mtmconsulting.co.uk

mtm SCHOOL MATTERS

publications and explor-ing overseas students’ attitudes and concerns about the UK for vari-ous websites through to larger sector-based sur-veys like the Boarding Schools Report.

Dominic has now taken over many of the duties of James Leggett, formerly mtmconsulting’s re-search manager, who was responsible, amongst other things, for the development of MANDARIN 2 (see page 3), and who left the company in the summer for a post in the NHS. We wish James well for the future.

D ominic Knight has taken over as mtmconsulting research analyst. Having started in a part-time

position, he became full-time research analyst for the mtmconsulting team, responsible for undertaking re-search and reporting the findings for clients.

Educated at the King’s School, Macclesfield, he went on to study history at Trinity College, Cambridge. He worked in the publishing sector, moving into the area of market and educational research after starting in legal publishing. He has also worked as a freelance editor for a wide variety of clients in these sectors.

As well as the publishing side, his work has involved, through many different projects, publications and cli-ents, a wide range of different types of research, eve-rything from market research for specific client-based

Dominic takes over research role

STOP PRESS STOP PRESS STOP PRESS STOP PRESS STOP PRESS

W e are delighted that mtmconsulting’s contribution to the educa-tion sector has been recognised by being shortlisted, for the

second year running, for the prestigious EducationInvestor awards which identify and reward organisations who have supplemented the provision of education through skill and expertise.

Other finalists include some of the brightest stars in the sector. It is an honour to be recognised in this company. We look forward to the awards in November, but don’t envy the judges their decision!

W e all know how useful a strategy awayday can be. An opportunity for governors or the leader-

ship team to get right away from daily duties and cares and focus on the big picture, the strategic development of the school.

At least that’s how it’s supposed to be. Too often we hear that strategy days haven’t gone according to plan, that discussions lacked focus, that priorities weren’t established or considered, that decisions were fudged and the vision dissipated.

The key is in the preparation. A strategy day is not just another governors’ meeting, translated for the oc-casion to a five-star hotel or conference centre. Careful thought needs to be given in advance to the agenda, the evidence to be considered and the clear—and, probably, limited—objectives to be achieved.

It is vital to have a facilitator—an authoritative third party voice to keep the day on track and to ensure that it’s not hijacked by subsidiary issues or personal agen-das. One rarely hears of a successful awayday which

has not been nurtured by a well-prepared and knowl-edgeable facilitator.

Make sure too that you put your discussions into con-text. Plan for an introductory session at which you re-view the national and local environment and the factors (PESTLE—political, economic, socio-demographic, technological, legal, environmental) which are likely to change it in the future.

Consider too the current and recent performance of your competitors. How are they dealing with the chang-ing demands of the market place? Do they represent an increasing threat or are there opportunities to be seized? Don’t get trapped into thinking about your school in isolation.

And what outcomes do you want from the day? How are they going to be implemented?

If you need help planning your strategic away-day, or need an authoritative scene-setting ses-

sion, contact us on [email protected]

Don’t let your awayday let you down

05 mtmconsulting ltd, Portland House, 43 High Street, Southwold, IP18 6AB

TEL: 01502 722787 FAX: 01502 722305 www.mtmconsulting.co.uk

Follow mtmconsulting online

mtmconsulting’s experts write regular blogs on vital issues of the day on our website. Follow their weekly updates on

http://www.mtmconsulting.co.uk/news/

ISSUE 11 mtm SCHOOL MATTERS

and whether they have visited more than once. Useful as a marketing tool, but perhaps a bit 1984?

The Privacy and Electronic Communications EC Di-rective 2009 Regulations are a direct attempt to pro-mote privacy and safe practice for any user, and were introduced to the UK on 25

th May 2011. The regulations

state that a website user may “opt in” to cookie use on websites, the onus being on websites not to track users unless explicitly allowed to.

All UK website providers were given until 26th May

2012 to comply with the regulations, which require web-sites to offer a way for users to avoid having cookies tracked. You may have already started to see websites with an overlay offering this option when you first enter.

The good news is that the Infor-mation Commissioner’s Office has suggested it is “unable” to deal with cookie privacy complaints in the short term; there are simply too many websites. This gives you time to check with your website

company or IT team, whether or not a cookie provision is needed on your website, and, if it is to add it.

But if the ICO starts actively prosecuting cookie repro-bates, fines of up to £500,000 are possible, as well as the stigma attached to being wayward with data.

The solution is a simple piece of additional website “code”, which will still enable you to use your website as an effective marketing tool, to ensure you comply with the regulations, and satisfy the users of your website, including past, current, and potential parents and pupils.

More information on the “Cookies” directive can be found here: www.ico.gov.uk . But now, I’m off to get some “real” cookies…

U nfortunately for people like me who enjoy their cakes, this article is about the latter: what they are,

and major legislative changes requiring action from even the most basic of school websites.

In their most basic sense, cookies are small pieces of data that are used as a way for a website to remember things, much like a post-it note, and just as disposable.

Cookies were originally designed as a way of remem-bering items to be purchased. For example, when a pu-pil looks on Amazon for GCSE English study guides, Amazon’s website will create a cookie to recall which book he has decided to buy. If he then finds another book to help with his maths, Amazon will create another cookie to remember this book as well. Finally, when our diligent pupil gets permission to buy the book from his parents, Amazon will use these cookies to remember everything the pupil has decided to buy and put it into a list or “basket”, to put all the separate items together as one transaction.

This simplified process tells us that cookies are a great way of storing information about people using a website or online service. In the case of a legitimate e-commerce website like Amazon, the web-site will use the cookies to remember what you want to buy, but when you have made the purchase, or exited the website, this information will be discarded, meaning you would have to re-enter it when you return.

However, like subliminal messaging in the 1950s, cookies do have a dark side. The data sent to a web-site’s database may include anything you type on that website, from simple search terms, such as “Car” or “Laptop”, to bank details. Some sites will use search activity to inform search optimisation, to give you be-spoke results, but there is the potential that more nefari-ous websites might feed-back sensitive information.

There is also a view that cookies are a way of monitor-ing your activity online. Using Google Analytics, for ex-ample, you can view the exact path of a particular user on your website—how long they spent on individual ar-eas of the site, where they come from geographically,

Your school’s website has a sweet tooth!

Cookies!

Cookies : 1 small flat or slightly raised cake; 2 a small file or part of a file stored on a World Wide Web user's computer, created and subsequently read by a Web site server, and containing personal information (as a user identification code, customised preferences, or a record of pages visited) . Webster’s online dictionary

By Chris Smith mtmconsulting’s Head of Business Development

06 mtmconsulting ltd, Portland House, 43 High Street, Southwold, IP18 6AB

TEL: 01502 722787 FAX: 01502 722305 www.mtmconsulting.co.uk

ISSUE 11 mtm SCHOOL MATTERS

Digital Marketing 101: Introduction to Social Media

Friday 19 October Cavalry & Guards Club, 127 Piccadilly, London W1

mtmconsulting’s vital social networking workshop is being repeated after its success earlier this year. The aim of this workshop is to provide you with an introduction to social networks which you may consider using, how to set them up, and creating social media action plans. #tweeting101

mtmconsulting’s popular Proprietorial Forum was started in late 2008 in response to a clear demand for a regular opportunity for proprietors to meet to discuss issues of particular concern to them as well as pre-senting a stimulating programme of speakers and presentations on relevant topics.

The next Forum will be at the Cavalry & Guards Club on

MONDAY 8 OCTOBER

Practical Strategies for Recovery

There’s still time to book your place at the mtmconsulting/ Veale Wasbrough Vizards practical strategy conference at the Institute of Directors on 18 September

To reserve your place, contact [email protected] or call 01502 722787

Speakers include:

Sir David Bell, Former Chairman of Pearson UK and the

Financial Times Group

Gene Eidelman, founder, Mosaica Education, a leading US

operator of Charter Schools

Patrick Derham, Head Master, Rugby School

Mark Steed, Principal, Berkhamsted Schools Group

Graham Watson, director of The Seckford Foundation,

Woodbridge, Suffolk

Theo Brehony, MD of London Preparatory Schools Ltd

With workshops on:

How parents pay school fees: The findings of mtmconsulting’s

latest 2012 survey and what they mean for schools

Collaboration and federation: governance, legal agreements

and staffing issues

Digital marketing: understand the power of virtual communica-

tions and how to make them work for your school

Online learning: making a world of difference by preparing stu-

dents for success in the global economy

Cyber bullying: staying ahead of the curve

Educational charities & free schools: a new way forward?

The seventh annual strategic conference for independent schools, now firmly established as the strategic conference for heads, bursars, governors and other decision-makers in schools. The aim of the conference is practical: to re-examine the business of running schools and to offer workshops which will give you new ideas and practical initiatives to take away with you.

… and also from mtmconsulting this autumn:

Schools on the Internet: Opportunity or Threat?

Tuesday 27 November Cavalry & Guards Club, 127 Piccadilly, London W1

In the follow-on workshop from Digital Marketing 101, we will enable you to monitor the quality and ROI of your website, and suggest how to optimise it as a marketing tool for your school. A legal expert from Barlow Robbins LLP will also demystify some of the dos and don’ts of digital marketing, to promote a set of best practice ethical guidelines for schools on the internet. P

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