Audit services for international schools
An Audit, or a Quality Assurance Review?
Which is right for you at this time?
Quality Assurance Review: you understand your school, have clear aims for it, and are seeking either accreditation, or school improvement. Find out more about our quality assurance reviews and accreditation support
Audit: you wish to know that the school is operating as effectively as the information you are given suggests. Our audit services for international schools achieve this for you.
Our range of audit services for international schools
Curriculum and Testing
(Essential where teachers are unqualified or qualified outside the curriculum you offer)
External Examination results
(Essential where a significant number of senior managers, the exams officers, and teaching staff have been in place over 3 years)
Special Educational Needs provision
Management
Teaching
Staff retention
Policies
Financial Review
Health & Safety
Reporting to parents
Admissions
Our audit services for international schools are designed to check that your business is operating to expectation
Our audit services for international schools are designed around your needs, and to investigate aspects of your business that accreditations do not consider in depth. and may not recommend action on.
Our audits are single focus, and may be combined to provide a more thorough picture through a series of related audits. Each looks specifically at a school’s operations to identify to what extent they are working to what owners’ believe them to be. Where operating effectively, and what actions may need to be taken if they are not, and they are designed to focus on aspects of operations that
Indicators that a school and education audits are advised
numerous unqualified teachers are on the staff, and there has been a history of appointing such staff.
you have qualified teachers, but not all are trained to deliver your curricula
managers promoted from the teaching team, but with little or no management experience, and few if any management qualifications
COO without a background in the education business
COO without a background in the curricula that you deliver, as well as poorly qualified management
financially under performing schools
children not being accepted into other schools from your school
parents taking their children out of school to join other schools
new teachers (with the right qualifications, and good experience) leaving before or at the end of their first year.
a high staff turnover
a high turnover of managers
a significant number of teaching staff that have been in place over 3 years
significant behaviour problems in the school
pupils gaining the same marks in external exams, where those marks are a low pass or below (this indicates that the curriculum is not being taught)
a school unable to meet the needs of a wide range of learners
a school or education business that is unable to back up its claims for success due to a lack of quantitative data
When does IGE’s experience suggest school audits should be carried out?
IGE advises that audits take place at least every 2 years, and certainly Whenever major changes take place at the school. This includes new managers being introduced, and when managers have been in post for over 3 years. We also advise audits after unexpected events, such as a school losing its status as an examination centre.
Management audits should take place whenever staff leave within a year, or at the end of their first year, whilst a significant number of staff remain for years. This is often an indicator of bullying of new staff, and shows an unwillingness to change by existing managers and staff, who may well not have the necessary competencies or interest to develop the school. This is very costly for school owners, not simply in staff recruitment, but also in the lack of development and inability of the school to adapt to changes in the market, and take advantage of opportunities.
Managers may be informing owners that the school’s exam results are high, yet parents are saying something very different. We have known schools where IGCSE pass rates are reported to owners as being 60%, but our analysis has shown that pass rates at IGCSE are 25%, and at IAL, 5%. Pupils with consistent marks at IGCSE just below pass rates, or on a ‘4’ for IGCSE, indicate that the curriculum is not being taught fully. Withdrawals of pupils by parents may well indicate that parents have low confidence in the school to attain high grades, jeopardising future operational profits.
In our experience, the better the quality of management, and the better the Board is informed, the greater the chance of short, medium, and long term success.