Cognita

Cognita

Type	Privately held company
Industry	Education
Founded	2004
Number of locations	70 schools (2018)
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, Hong Kong, Singapore, Spain, Thailand, Vietnam, Brazil and Chile.^[1] With some 70 schools in eight countries, Cognita’s network has a common focus on strong academics, character development and instilling a global mindset.^[2]

Cognita was founded by the late Chris Woodhead, previously Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools in England. It employs over 7,000 teachers and educates over 40,000 children.^[3]

Curricula in Cognita Schools

Between them, Cognita schools deliver eight different curricula.^[1]

• National Curriculum (England, Wales and Northern Ireland)
• International Baccalaureate
• American Curriculum (including American Education Reaches Out - Common Core Plus)
• Advanced Placement
• Australian Curriculum
• Spanish Curriculum
• Chilean Curriculum
• Brazilian Curriculum

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 6 May 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]

In September 2017, Cognita opened Stamford American School in Hong Kong. In the same month it opened the Early Learning Village in Singapore with more than 2,000 places, according to Nursery World magazine, which states “with its innovative design and scale, the Early Learning Village is a timely addition to international school provision on the island.”^[13]

In November 2017, Cognita announced it would be expanding Downsend School in Leatherhead, UK to include a Senior School from September 2020.^[14]

In January 2018, Cognita opened a second campus for International School Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam.^[15]

In March 2018, The American British School in Chile joined Cognita.^[16]

In May 2018, Cognita opened BSB Nexus in Spain, a new pre-university campus which is part of The British School of Barcelona.^[17] In the same month, Woodland Pre-Schools in Hong Kong joined the Cognita group.^[18]

On 3 September 2018, global investment firms Bregal Investments and KKR announced the signing of a binding agreement for the sale of Cognita to Jacobs Holding of Switzerland. The transaction is expected to complete in the fourth quarter of 2018, subject to customary regulatory approvals.^[19][20] Also in September 2018, Santo Tomás School – located in Ñuñoa, Metropolitan Region, Santiago of Chile – joined Cognita.^[21]

Leadership

The Group Chief Executive Officer of Cognita is Chris Jansen, who has over 20 years' experience in consumer products and service businesses and described by the Financial Times as “Cognita schools chief puts trust back in private model”.^[22] Prior to Cognita, Chris Jansen 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.^[23][22] Mr Jansen is a member of the Corporate Partnerships Board of the Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity.^[24]

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.^[25]

Cognita’s Director of Education is Simon Camby, who joined Cognita in 2015, having previously been a lead Ofsted inspector and Chief Executive of the Focus Trust.^[26] 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.^[27] 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.^[27]

Simon Camby is an advocate of metacognition research showing that teaching a child how to learn – alongside helping them to learn – enhances their overall education. “There is compelling evidence from a range of global sources that the effective promotion and teaching of metacognition impacts positively on the achievement of students.”^[28]

Criticisms

Cognita was accused of pension irregularities in 2012.^[29] 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.^[30]

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".^[31]

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.^[32]

Southbank International School was accused of inadequately vetting staff after a former teacher, William Vahey, was found to have abused pupils over several years.^[33] 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 career."^[34] Regulatory and statutory bodies have since praised the transformation of safeguarding practices and processes in the school as "comprehensive and robust."^[35]

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.^[36]

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.^[37] Controversially, Mr Jones also publicly criticised the inefficiency of state schools stating that it "makes him sick".^[38]

List of Cognita Schools

References

External links

• Cognita official site