Is your school growing, and are you prepared for the challenges?

Over the last five years, student enrolments at schools have increased. In Australia, enrolments grew by 4.7% in 2021. Independent schools experienced the largest growth, accounting for 11.4% of enrolment growth, while government and Catholic school enrolments grew by 3.9% and 2.6%, respectively.

With growing enrolments comes opportunities for investment in a school, its facilities and drivers of positive learning outcomes. But with these opportunities also come challenges for school leaders, students, parents, and teachers. For school leaders, proactively managing enrolment growth is critical to effectively managing systems and processes and maximising usage of the school’s assets to maintain strong cash flow. Keep reading for an overview of how to address the challenges that come with growing student enrolments.

Anticipate needs and plan ahead

When an organisation grows, resources must be managed and allocated effectively. In schools, where student achievement, engagement, and well-being are critical, it’s especially important. Leaders of growing schools need to anticipate a school’s needs and plan ahead. Whether it’s through ensuring teachers and students have the equipment they need to teach and learn in the classroom and remotely or conducting an audit to make sure systems are usable and scalable, proactively managing resources will ensure school staff and teachers have everything they need to do their job well and remain engaged. This can also positively impact parent engagement through establishing and implementing clear strategies to deliver the best learning outcomes possible at the school’s leadership level through to teachers.

Integrate and centralise records where possible

Growing schools with multiple campuses often have separate systems and financial records. There is no right or wrong with managing records, but the approach must be consistent across all campuses to ensure data is always current. Consistent systems management also ensures leaders have the information they need to make strong commercial decisions. If your school operates across multiple campuses, assess whether your financial records should be centralised to provide greater visibility and control. For schools that choose to keep records separate, ensure systems are cloud-based with the ability to push real-time updates across the organisation. Not only do cloud-based systems reduce infrastructure costs, but they can help reduce service disruptions and reduce systems maintenance workloads.

Maximise the use of and value derived from your school’s assets

Enrolment growth presents an opportunity to ensure your school has the right assets, from buildings to smaller items such as vehicles and technology. Devices with short useful lives, such as laptops, can be leased to ensure teachers and students have access to the latest technology while having the lessor manage the end-of-lease processes. Not only can leasing lower the total cost of ownership (TCO) for an asset, but it can also reduce e-waste and address environmental, social, and corporate governance issues (ESG).

The use of larger assets should also be analysed at times of enrolment growth. For example, in the case of school buses, you can review financial and usage records to determine whether alternatives such as coaches might be more appropriate. The cost of any new assets when undertaking such an exercise can be offset through chartering existing assets, such as your school’s buses, to third parties and other schools. It’s also important to note the additional marketing benefits of having a newly wrapped coach on the road for more hours of the day.

Innovative cost-offset solutions can be expanded to other assets that could be used by third parties, including sporting and training facilities, performing arts theatres, or playing fields. The key here is offsetting the cost of new assets through initiatives that allow the school to maintain strong cash flow throughout all growth stages.

Prepare your school for growth with Quadrent

Many challenges need to be overcome as a school grows, but it also presents an opportunity for your school’s leaders to make sure it’s deriving as much value as possible from its systems, processes and assets. From centralised record keeping and financial systems to using assets to generate cash flow and offset other costs, there are several things school leaders can do to prepare for growth and address challenges proactively.

Quadrent’s asset leasing and financing solutions for the education sector help schools ensure they always have the best systems and hardware available. Contact Michael Adams today to learn more about how Quadrent’s solutions can support your school in times of growth and change.