Cognita

Cognita
Privately held company
Industry Education
Founded 2004
Founders Englefield Capital and Sir Chris Woodhead
Headquarters United Kingdom
Number of locations
 68 schools (2017)
Area served
 Worldwide
Key people
 Ralph Kugler, Chairman; Chris Jansen, Group Chief Executive Officer
Owner Bregal Fund and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts L.P.
Website Cognita

Cognita is a global private schools group which owns and operates schools throughout the United Kingdom, Singapore, Spain, Thailand, Vietnam, Brazil and Chile.[1] Cognita was founded by the late Chris Woodhead, previously Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools in England. Cognita currently has a portfolio of 67 schools in 8 countries, employing some 5,000 teachers and educating over 30,000 children.[2]

Curricula in Cognita Schools

Between them, Cognita schools deliver eight different curricula.[3]

History

Cognita was formed in October 2004 by its founder management team and Englefield Capital, a private equity firm, now called Bregal Capital, and its former chairman, Sir Chris Woodhead, the former Chief Inspector of Schools in England.[4] From 2004 Cognita started operating its first school, Quinton House School in Northampton. Later in 2004, Cognita acquired the Asquith Court Group, bringing a further 18 schools into the group. From 2004 until 2007, they continued to buy independent schools within the UK.

In 2007 Cognita spread internationally acquiring schools in Spain and Singapore. Cognita established its first school from inception in 2009, Stamford American International School in Singapore. Also in this year, a group of three international schools were purchased in Thailand. Schools in Vietnam joined Cognita in 2011, and in 2012, Cognita bought their first school in South America, in Brazil.[5]

In August 2012 Cognita questioned the financial viability of its Ffynone House School in Swansea.[6] Following lobbying and negotiation by parents and staff of the school,[7] Cognita agreed to surrender the school to its lessor, Ffynone House School charitable trust, from which Cognita had leased the school. Cognita paid the trust £535,000 as a surrender sum and 10 years rent in advance of £270,000 and the school continues to operate with an operating surplus.[8]

On May 6th, 2013 the formerly majority British-owned company Cognita agreed to be invested in by the American private equity firm KKR Kohlberg Kravis Roberts L.P.[9]

In June 2013, Cognita expanded its network of Latin American schools through a partnership with Desarrollos Educacionales (DDEE), a Chilean private schools group operating nine national curriculum day schools under the Pumahue and Manquecura brands.[10]

In April 2014, Cognita transferred ownership of Ferndale Preparatory School, Faringdon, Oxfordshire, to Ferndale Preparatory School Limited, a parent-led consortium. This filed for administration on 22 July 2016 due to lack of pupil numbers and funding issues, leaving staff redundant. [11][12]

In December 2014, Cognita welcomed Instituto GayLussac in Niteroi, Brazil.

In March 2016, Cognita started a school from inception in Chile with the opening of Colegio Pumahue Chicauma.[5] Also in 2016, a further three schools joined Cognita - International School of Barcelona and the English Montessori School in Spain along with St. Andrews International School, Dusit in Thailand.[5]

Leadership

The Group Chief Executive Officer of Cognita is Chris Jansen, who has over 20 years' experience in consumer products and service businesses. Prior to Cognita, he was Chief Executive Officer of the AA following six years at Centrica PLC, latterly as Managing Director of British Gas Services from June 2010 to July 2013. From 2000 to 2007, Mr Jansen worked for British Airways PLC, where he held a number of general management roles including responsibility for Concorde, global head of the Executive Club and Managing Director of Airmiles. Before British Airways, Mr. Jansen worked for Procter & Gamble for seven years from 1993, having joined on the graduate programme.[13] Mr Jansen is a member of the Corporate Partnerships Board of the Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity.[14]

Cognita's Chairman is Ralph Kugler, who has over 30 years' experience of general management and brand marketing and of regional management in Asia, Latin America and Europe. During that time he held numerous senior leadership roles in Unilever, latterly as Main Board Director of Unilever PLC and Global President of Home & Personal Care from 2005-2008. Prior to that he was President of Home & Personal Care, Europe, President of Latin America and Chairman & CEO of Unilever's businesses in Thailand and Malaysia. Mr Kugler serves as a Board Trustee of the David Rattray Memorial Trust, which seeks to improve education for the underprivileged in South Africa, and is also a Member of the International Advisory Board at Leeds University Business School.[15]

Cognita’s Director of Education for Europe is Simon Camby, who joined Cognita in 2015, having previously been a lead Ofsted inspector and Chief Executive of the Focus Trust.[16] Simon Camby has written on the issue of GCSE reform taking place in 2017 as the first stage in a complete transformation of the exam system that will eventually affect all subjects.[17] He argues schools shouldn’t specialise so early and to such a degree that there is no room for a broad curriculum and achieving the right balance between depth and breadth is essential whilst schools must not become exam factories.[18]

Criticisms

Cognita was accused of pension irregularities in 2012.[19]

In 2012, Cognita staff were instructed to impersonate parents and take tours of competing schools in Wales. This conduct was defended as a "normal" way of assessing the competition.[20]

In 2012 Judge Robert Reid QC ruled that the Cognita-owned Milbourne Lodge in Esher, Surrey, had acted unfairly in removing two children, aged eight and six, without warning after the children's parents criticized the school's parents’ association, the Friends of Milbourne Lodge, for lack of transparency in its fundraising and spending. The Judge said that the parents’ association was "somewhat shadowy" and a "shambles".[21]

Cognita's management of Southbank International School was criticised in 2011, with parents groups claiming it had "no serious interest in maximising the educational experience of ... children if it impacts on their bottom line". Then Chairman Chris Woodhead denied the allegations, claiming that its profits were in line with others in the sector.[22]

Southbank International School was accused of inadequately vetting staff after a former teacher, William Vahey, was found to have abused pupils over several years.[23] Southbank was one of The article also quotes the School's Chairman of Governors, Sir Chris Woodhead, stating the school carried out checks dating back 17 years on Vahey but they did not pick up on a 1969 conviction for child molestation in California: "Vahey's CV showed he had been registered as a teacher in the state of New Jersey in 1986, and Woodhead said it was reasonable to have assumed that would not have been the case if he had been convicted of child molestation. 'The system in America broke down, he said, enabling Vahey to carry out abuse in the number of international schools he worked in around the world over his 40-year carrer."[24]

Parents at Cognita's Saint Andrews Sukhumvit 107 School in Bangkok, Thailand, prepared a petition containing an open email to Sir Chris Woodhead in 2012 alleging lack of transparency and a disdain for parental views following a decision by Brian Rogove, Cognita's former Asia Pacific CEO, to change the leadership of the school.[25]

In 2012 Cognita's former director of education, Geraint Jones, was quoted as saying "13 weeks’ paid holiday is enough compensation for hard work during term time" and that "teachers have a duty to go beyond their classroom duties", indicating that putting up wall displays, collecting dinner money, performing lunch duties and providing cover are vital tasks of the teaching job and should not be delegated to assistants.[26] Controversially, Mr Jones also publicly criticised the inefficiency of state schools stating that it "makes him sick".[27]

List of Cognita Schools

Schools in the United Kingdom

Schools in Spain

Schools in Singapore

Schools in Hong Kong

Schools in Thailand

Schools in Vietnam

Schools in Brazil

Schools in Chile

References

  1. ↑ "Cognita History". Cognitaschools.com.
  2. ↑ "Cognita History". Cognitaschools.com.
  3. ↑ "Cognita History". https://www.cognitaschools.com/school-finder/. External link in |publisher= (help)
  4. ↑ "Current Investment - Cognita". Bregal Capital. Retrieved 17 April 2011.
  5. 1 2 3 "Cognita History". Cognitaschools.com.
  6. ↑ "Ffynone House School Swansea future under threat".
  7. ↑ "Parents' joy as independent school's future is secured".
  8. ↑ "FHS Trust Trustees Annual Report" (PDF).
  9. ↑ "Article: Breaking: Cognita's backers sell stake to KKR". EducationInvestor.
  10. ↑ Cognita (20 June 2013). "Cognita expands its Latin American network of schools through a partnership with Chilean private schools group". Cognitaschools.com.
  11. ↑ . April 2014 http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/14652653.Teacher_s_sadness_after_adminstrators_called_in_to_school/. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  12. ↑ "Teacher's sadness". swindonadvertiser. 22 July 2016.
  13. ↑ "Article: Bloomberg Executive Profile: Chris Jansen". Bloomberg.
  14. ↑ "Article: Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity Corporate Partnerships Board". Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity.
  15. ↑ "Article: Bloomberg Executive Profile: Ralph Kugler". Bloomberg.
  16. ↑ "Focus Education - Simon Camby". focus-education.co.uk.
  17. ↑ Simon Camby (9 September 2016). "The GCSE bar has been raised". The Telegraph. Retrieved 9 September 2016.
  18. ↑ Simon Camby (9 September 2016). "The GCSE bar has been raised". The Telegraph. Retrieved 9 September 2016.
  19. ↑ Daniel Boffey (10 June 2012). "Woodhead Schools Pension Probe". The Observer. Retrieved 10 June 2012.
  20. ↑ Sherriff, Lucy (13 June 2012). "'Spies' Sent To St Michael's School In Llanelli, Wales, To Pick Up Information". Huffington Post. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  21. ↑ "Expulsion row hits ex-Ofsted chief Sir Chris Woodhead's schools empirel".
  22. ↑ Daniel Boffey (10 April 2011). "Free schools: private firm Cognita 'milked profits'". The Observer. Retrieved 14 April 2011.
  23. ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/apr/24/southbank-international-school-warned-vetting-william-vahey
  24. ↑ "School 'failings' over paedophile William Vahey".
  25. ↑ Problems of for-profit school company, Cognita, spread to Bangkok
  26. ↑ "'It makes me sick'".
  27. ↑ Irena Barker (19 October 2012). "'It makes me sick'". Times Educational Supplement. Retrieved 19 October 2012.
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