Ask an owner in week four what went wrong and you get a list: two classes under-filled, a teacher whose contract lapsed, parents who never got the schedule.
Every one of those was knowable a fortnight earlier. The two weeks before a term opens are the highest-leverage time in the school year, and they are usually spent on paint.
Confirm the classes that should not run
Go through every class with its enrolment count next to your break-even number. Decide now, not in week one:
- Below break-even: merge it, move it, or cancel it. Cancelling two weeks out is an inconvenience. Cancelling in week two is a refund conversation and a family that leaves.
- At the cap: open the next one, or start a waiting list. Do not quietly run eleven in a class you advertise as eight.
This is the single most valuable hour of the fortnight, and it is the one most often skipped, because it involves telling somebody no.
Check the paperwork that expires
Teacher contracts, work permits where they apply, and any certification your market requires. A contract that lapses while somebody is teaching is not a filing problem — in most places it cannot be fixed retroactively.
Set the reminder for 60 days out so this is a formality rather than a scramble.
Make sure you can reach every family
Pull the list of students with no parent email or a bouncing one. Fix it before the term, because the first thing you will want to send is the schedule, and the families you cannot reach are exactly the ones who will be confused and unhappy in week one.
Get the first invoices out before the first lesson
Not after. Invoicing in week two means you have taught two weeks for free and are now asking for money for something already delivered — see collecting tuition for why that single change does more than any reminder schedule.
Write down who is on duty in week one
Week one generates more questions than any other week: room changes, level swaps, parents who turn up on the wrong day. Name the person handling it, and make sure the teachers know who that is.
A school that improvises week one will spend week five fixing week one.
What not to do in this fortnight
Do not start a migration, do not change your pricing, and do not launch a new marketing campaign. Your staff have the least spare capacity they will have all term. Save all three for the quiet middle.