Bursars Review | Autumn 2018 | Sample

News 7 @the_isba Autumn 2018 Independent school overseas 'franchises' are on the rise The number of independent schools in the UK opening up campuses abroad will grow by more than a quarter this year alone, a study by ISC Research has found. There are currently 57 overseas campuses of British schools, with another 15 due to open in September. In the past two years, a further 19 have opened up, marking a steep increase in the past three years. Richard Gaskell, schools director at ISC Research, said: “There hasn’t been much growth in the UK market for a lot of independent schools and they are looking for a non-fee-based income. “The desire to offer more bursaries is definitely a driving principal for many of the top schools. Opening a campus overseas offers another major revenue stream. They also want to keep fees down, so this takes the pressure off.” He explained that most independent schools use a franchise model, where an investor or management company pays the school a fixed amount each year − similar to a royalty − in order to use their name, brand or expertise. The British “mother ship” school is often paid a percentage of the school fees each year, on top of the franchise fee. Barnaby Lenon, chairman of the Independent Schools Council, said: “Schools want to offer more bursaries and they know they have to hold their fees steady.” He said that opening an overseas school is a “very good source of income” for institutions that want to raise more cash to fund places for disadvantaged pupils. Read more on this story on page 37. Children who struggle to catch a ball are less likely to perform well in reading, writing and maths exams, a study has found. The research raises the possibility that schools could provide extra support to children who lack hand-eye coordination, psychologists said. More than 300 children aged between four and 11 took part in various computer tasks for the study, led by researchers at the University of Leeds. Their co-ordination and interceptive timing was tested by their ability to interact with a moving object. Tasks designed to measure eye-to-hand coordination involved steering, taking aim and tracking objects on a computer screen. In one task, the children had to hit a moving object with an on-screen bat, which researchers said tapped into a fundamental cognitive ability − how the brain predicts the movement of objects through time and space. The study found that those with better hand-eye co-ordination tended to have higher academic attainment. Those who performed best at the steering task were, on average, nine months ahead of classmates who struggled. However, while interceptive timing skills tended to be linked to ability in maths, it did not influence reading and writing development. Mark Mon-Williams, professor of cognitive psychology at the University of Leeds, said: “The results show that eye-to-hand co-ordination and interceptive timing are robust predictors of how well young children will perform at school. “Psychologists think that the neural circuitry used to build up a child’s understanding of their external environment, the way they orientate themselves spatially and understand their world is also used to process numbers and more abstract thinking, so should schools be identifying those children who are seen as clumsy or not so well co-ordinated and giving them extra support?” The study, published in the peer-review journal, Psychological Science, was conducted at Lilycroft Primary School in Bradford, West Yorkshire, which has remodelled its reception, indoor and outdoor areas to include a space where children can develop motor skills and co-ordination. BETTER HAND-EYE COORDINATION COULD LEAD TO IMPROVED GRADES Children who struggle to catch a ball are less likely to perform well in reading,writing and maths