Education Advisory
Schools make some of their most important decisions with long time horizons, significant financial commitments and responsibilities that extend well beyond the numbers.
MA&C provides specialist strategic and financial advisory to independent schools, governing bodies and school leaders navigating establishment, growth, capital investment and other significant decisions.
The work combines sector experience, financial rigour and an understanding of how schools operate in practice, helping decision makers see the implications clearly before they commit.
Education advisory is most valuable when the decision is significant, the assumptions need testing or the Board needs a clearer view of what sits behind the recommendation.
A specialist education practice
School strategy cannot be separated neatly from enrolments, staffing, funding, fees, facilities, governance and educational purpose. A decision in one area quickly changes the assumptions in another.
MA&C brings these threads together so that strategic choices can be tested as a whole rather than considered in isolation. The aim is not simply to produce a model or a report. It is to help leaders and governing bodies understand what the analysis means, where the pressure points sit and what needs to be true for a decision to be sustainable.
Core areas of work
Business planning, long-range financial modelling, enrolment and fee assumptions, establishment planning and financial viability work supporting new independent schools and significant new initiatives. Jacquie McCann is a NESA-approved financial viability assessor — authorised to certify that a non-government school meets the financial requirements under the NSW Education Act 1990.
Helping schools test enrolment growth, capacity, capital programmes and funding implications together, including scenario modelling, affordability, staging and Board decision support.
Supporting Boards and executives to test strategic choices, assumptions and financial implications, and turn complex analysis into clear decision material. This can include strategic and financial planning and governance-ready papers.
The work begins by understanding the decision and what needs to be true for it to succeed. Assumptions are tested rather than simply accepted, and strategy, enrolments, operations and finance are considered together.
MA&C makes the implications visible and brings them into clear decision material that leaders and governing bodies can understand and use. Engagements are shaped around the decision at hand, drawing on appropriate specialist capability where required.
Experience grounded in the sector
MA&C's education practice is shaped by Jacquie McCann's executive experience inside education, where strategic decisions had to work financially, operationally and in service of the organisation's purpose.
Meet Jacquie"It was a joy to work with Jacquie in the development of documentation related to the governance and financials of a new school being set up in the independent school sector and I have no hesitancy at all in recommending her. Her professionalism, her deep knowledge and understanding of these areas, and her willingness to consult and collaborate with our organisation, built confidence and trust in our team and we are grateful for her willingness to share her expertise with confidence and patience. She enabled the development of a Business Plan, a strategy for enrolments and fees, long term financial forecasting, a master plan, and documentation for the governance of our school."
"As a new school starting up in Sydney, Jacquie came highly recommended to assist us in the process of applying for a Financial Viability Certificate. This entailed many different facets and her in depth knowledge of governance and financials in the independent education sector was invaluable in enabling us to successfully obtain it. Jacquie worked tirelessly to meet deadlines and to ensure a full understanding of the ethos of our school which was reflected in the required documentation and was of an extremely high standard and very thorough."
Whether the question is establishment, growth, financial viability or a significant investment decision, a conversation is often the best place to begin.
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