William Clarence Education was established by managing director Steve Spriggs in 2014, as an education consultancy business providing the very best advice to families around the world for private tuition, school placement, university applications, Oxbridge and US admissions.
Since 2018, it has developed a school-facing arm; supporting school leaders with its publishing and content business Schoolmanagementplus.com. The digital content platform is supported by three termly magazines International School, Independent School Management Plus, and Wellbeing in International Schools. Schoolmanagementplus.com has a rapidly growing online presence with 50 per cent website traffic growth month on month and 250 per cent growth in its social media following in the last year alone.
With its three market leading publications; wide array of distribution partners and a surge of contributor and supplier interest, it is the fastest growing go-to source of news, opinion, and insight for the independent and international schools sector worldwide.
In recent months, Schoolmanagementplus.com has announced collaborations with several prominent UK and international organisations including Outstanding Schools Middle East (OSME), Educational Collaborative for International Schools (ECIS), GESS Dubai, Council of British International Schools (COBIS), Global School Alliance (GSA), The Association for Admissions, Marketing and Communications in Independent Schools (AMCIS), the Association of Governing Bodies in Independent Schools (AGBIS), and the Institute of Development Professionals in Education (IDPE), who regularly contribute to the termly publications and distribute the titles.
Schoolmanagementplus.com has also announced last week a research partnership with UK based MTM Consulting for the launch of The UK Independent School Confidence Index 2022 – an annual online survey which aims to gauge the health of the UK Independent School sector according to heads, bursars and marketing professionals. It is set to launch in the early new year.
The most recent addition to the William Clarence enterprise is the personalised school communications platform, Kampus24. The platform was developed at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic to support schools with the increasing challenges of recruiting students in such a competitive market. The platform, which launched in March 2021, has already gone from strength to strength counting over 85,000 total parent interactions and a growing social media presence.
With all this in mind, Steve Spriggs, managing director, looks to 2022 with ambitious plans to grow the business further.
He said: “With William Clarence maturing as a brand name in the parent services and education advice industry, we are perfectly placed to develop our school placement, Oxbridge Applications and Medical School Admissions business further.
“Coupled with that, the rapid growth of traffic and content with School Management Plus, means we will see a continued increase in advertising revenue, along with more opportunities to explore recruitment, careers advice, CPD and events for the global fee-paying education sector.
“A very exciting element of our growth story is Kampus24 – our personalised school communications platform. We have a global audience across the group, and a revolutionary product that supports the recruitment of students and staff into education institutions worldwide. Coming out of its pilot phase and with the usage data from existing schools, this platform is set for widespread adoption and fast expansion with school subscriptions. Having recently secured a round of funding from our initial investors, we approach 2022 with excitement and remain committed as always to delivering real value to the education sector worldwide.”
Bill Donoghue, chairman of William Clarence Education, and part of the original early investor group (including Louise Rogers and Matthew O’Sullivan) said on behalf of the group: “We are thrilled at having the opportunity to reinvest in William Clarence Education at this really exciting juncture for the company. Under Steve Spriggs’ brilliant leadership, we have seen the company grow from strength to strength over the past five years from relatively small beginnings to be a market leader in bringing overseas students to schools and universities. William Clarence has carved out an important role for independent schools news and jobs (both in the UK and internationally) with School Management Plus, and this year launched Kampus24, a school communications platform, which is already being used by many flagship schools and is poised to grow substantially – addressing a key need for schools post-pandemic. We are looking forward to the next five years of continued growth and success.”