Woodhead adds to profit-making schools empire

Chris Woodhead, the former chief schools inspector, is expanding his empire of profit-making private schools despite the economic downturn.

Mr Woodhead, head of education watchdog Ofsted in the Nineties, told the Evening Standard today that he has bought Clifton Lodge School in Ealing and The Charterhouse Square School in the Barbican.

Both are highly popular prep schools with strong academic records - Clifton Lodge is known for getting children as young as nine to pass GCSE maths - and Mr Woodhead said the company he chairs, Cognita, planned further acquisitions in London and the South-East.

Cognita now owns 44 private schools in England and Wales, including 23 in London.

The credit crunch and its effect on the City is likely to lead to thousands of job losses among Cognita's target market, people who pay school fees.

"These are tough times," Mr Woodhead acknowledged. "All I can say is that thus far we've not seen any impact on rolls in our schools. The experience of the early Nineties seemed to be that the roll of independent schools wasn't particularly affected.

"The wisdom is that the last thing parents want to do when faced with financial difficulties is to take their children out of school."

Mr Woodhead said the average annual fee at Cognita schools was now £8,500 a year, when many London day schools charge well over £10,000. He promised that parents at the three newest schools - Cumnor House in Croydon joined the group in March - would not face massive fee hikes. "Fees increase slightly below the average for the independent sector," he added. Mr Woodhead, whose company is backed by private equity firm Englefield, said he believed the group could weather the financial storm. "We refinanced earlier this year before the current credit problems so we've got very substantial funds for acquisition and are keen to expand our portfolio in London and the South-East." He said Clifton Lodge would continue to enter pupils for GCSEs up to seven years early - where former owner David Blumlein, who will stay on as headmaster, thought appropriate.

Charterhouse Square, which was criticised by inspectors from Mr Woodhead's former employer in 2004 over breaches of health and safety rules, was also providing an education of the "highest possible standard", he added. When he was head of Ofsted, Mr Woodhead sparked outrage among state school teachers by claiming that 15,000 of them were incompetent.

After being kept on as Ofsted head by Tony Blair after the 1997 election, he resigned in November 2000 and accused ministers of failing to implement policies that raised standards.