Latest
operationsgrowth
Online, in person, or both
Running both is the obvious answer and the expensive one. The question is which parts of your school gain from being online at all.
27 October 2026
Read itBlog
Notes from running schools
Admissions, retention, fee collection and staffing - written for the person who has to make the month work, not for a conference talk.
operationsscheduling
A 16-week operating rhythm for a tutoring school term
The work that decides whether a term goes well happens at predictable moments, and most of it is easy to do on time and hard to do late. Here is a week-by-week calendar from two weeks before the first class to the renewal conversation.
22 October 2026
growthparents
The cheapest enrolment is one you are not asking for
Parents recommend schools constantly. Most schools have no idea it is happening and no way to make it happen more.
20 October 2026
moneyoperations
Where the cash in the drawer goes
Small schools lose more money to undocumented cash than to bad debt, and almost nobody is stealing it.
13 October 2026
growthretention
How long a student stays decides how much you can spend to find one
Marketing budgets are usually set by what feels affordable this month. A better anchor is what a student is worth over the months they stay. Here is how to work it out from records you already keep.
8 October 2026
operationsmoney
The make-up class policy that quietly costs the most
Nobody prices make-up classes, so nobody notices that a generous policy can consume a tenth of your teaching capacity.
6 October 2026
moneypricing
When to raise your prices
Most small schools raise prices too late, then too much, and lose families over a number they should have moved gently years earlier.
29 September 2026
moneypricing
What one class hour really costs you: a worked model for tutoring schools
Most owners know what they charge for an hour. Few know what an hour costs them. Here is a model you can fill in with your own numbers in an afternoon, and what it usually reveals.
24 September 2026
staffingteaching
Lesson observation that teachers do not dread
Observation is the only way to know what your customers are paying for. It is also, done badly, the fastest way to lose a good teacher.
22 September 2026
admissionsteaching
What placement tests are actually for
Most schools use a placement test to sort students into levels. Its more valuable job is setting the parent's expectations.
15 September 2026
admissionsgrowth
The enquiry that arrives at 9pm
Parents research schools after their children are asleep. Whoever answers first usually wins, and it is rarely about being better.
8 September 2026
attendancereporting
How to read an attendance report properly
An attendance percentage is one of the most useful numbers a school has and one of the easiest to read wrongly.
1 September 2026
staffingretention
Your best teacher is your biggest risk
Every small school has one teacher families ask for by name. That is an asset and a liability, and most owners only treat it as the first.
25 August 2026
operationsonboarding
The two weeks before term decide the term
Almost every problem a school hits in week four was already visible, and fixable, in the fortnight before it opened.
18 August 2026
staffingoperations
Your first admin hire is not a receptionist
Most schools hire someone to answer the phone. The role that actually pays for itself is the one that owns the follow-up.
11 August 2026
complianceparents
The student data you should not be keeping
Most schools worry about protecting the data they hold. Fewer ask whether they should be holding it at all, which is the cheaper question.
4 August 2026
operationsonboarding
How to move off spreadsheets without closing for a week
Most migrations fail the same way: the school tries to move everything at once, in the middle of a term, and quietly falls back to the old files.
30 July 2026
retentionattendance
The students who quietly leave
Almost nobody announces that they are quitting. They miss a Tuesday, then a Thursday, and six weeks later they were never really enrolled.
21 July 2026
moneyparents
Collecting tuition without becoming the person parents avoid
Late payment is rarely about money. It is about timing, ambiguity and who has to be the one to bring it up.
9 July 2026
operationsreporting
Five numbers to look at every Monday morning
Most school dashboards show you what already happened. These five tell you what is about to happen, while there is still time to act on it.
30 June 2026
operationsgrowth
The spreadsheet doesn't break at 200 students. It breaks at three people.
Everyone assumes the sheet fails when the school gets big. It fails much earlier than that, and student count has almost nothing to do with it.
18 June 2026
moneypricing
Discounts you never revisit
The sibling discount granted in 2023 to one family is still running. So are eleven others, and nobody has added them up.
3 June 2026
moneyoperations
The arithmetic of class size
Every owner knows small classes are the selling point and large classes pay the bills. Fewer have worked out where their own break-even actually sits.
20 May 2026
growthoperations
What actually breaks when you open the second campus
Not the money and not the lease. What breaks is that everything held in one person's head now has to exist somewhere else.
6 May 2026
moneypricing
Packages or monthly? How you charge changes who enrols
The choice between a course package and a monthly fee is not an accounting preference. It selects your students and sets your cash flow.
22 April 2026
parentsretention
How often should you contact parents?
Schools swing between silence and a group chat that never stops. Both produce the same result: parents who do not read anything you send.
8 April 2026
staffingretention
When a teacher resigns mid-term
The lesson cover is the easy part. What actually decides whether you keep the class is what the parents hear, and when.
24 March 2026
operationsscheduling
Building a timetable that fills rooms instead of pleasing everyone
Most timetables are the accumulated result of individual requests. That is why Tuesday at 5pm is chaos and Thursday at 3pm is empty.
10 March 2026
moneystaffing
Three ways to pay teachers, and what each one quietly rewards
Hourly, per class, or salary. Every pay model is also an instruction, and staff follow the instruction rather than the handbook.
24 February 2026
admissionsgrowth
The trial lesson is a sales meeting. Design it like one.
Most trial lessons are a normal lesson with a stranger in it. That is why they convert badly, and why the fix costs nothing.
10 February 2026
Try it with your own students
Import a CSV, build one week of timetable, send one invoice. If it doesn't beat your spreadsheet by the end of the trial, walk away.
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