PESTLE Analysis for Schools or Education

• Schools being privatised (like the NHS)
• A government initiative creates the risk that the school may fail to deliver the policy or be diverted away from local priorities etc.
• Changes to the skills required to be a teacher/ tutor
• Changes to curriculum with short lead times
• Requirement to be self managing
• Requirement to be self financing

• Central or local government funding decisions may affect school/ establishment finances
• Closure of a local industry may affect fund raising plans etc.
• Ability of parents to raise funds for optional activities
• The need to run breakfast/ after schools clubs
• Ability to invest ‘savings/ surpluses’
• Cost of providing resources:
  • Staff – teaching & support
  • Basics – books/ paper
  • Technology solutions laptops etc
• Interest rates
• Shortages of materials on national/ international markets
• Over provision of school places in the area resulting in competition from neighbouring schools
• The risk of highly valued, key staff moving on to more ‘up and coming’ schools/ academies

• Decline in birth rate, reflecting national trends
• Local population changes (increasing/ decreasing numbers)
• Demographic changes may affect likely pupil rolls or the nature of pupils needs e.g. pupils with English as a second language etc.
• Closure of local firms providing employment
• Inability to attract staff
• Social networking – blogs, facebook, twitter
• Changes to qualifications expected
• Integration with local community
• Integration of students with special needs
• parental preference – an increase in ‘parent power’ has allowed parents more freedom of choice over their child’s school
• the risk of highly valued, key staff moving on to more up-and-coming establishments
• Information is accessible to staff anywhere in the world via the Internet
• Staff were not given enough training or access to effectively change their habits and how they expected information to be made available

• Changes to standards/ equipment required
• Risk of selecting the wrong technology at times of change (i.e. windows -v- open source)
• New computer viruses may affect school/ college operations,
• Disturbing/ illegal images on the internet may affect ICT security measures etc.
• Move from paper based books to e-book readers
• Computer hardware being out of date
• Computer software being out of date
• Time to manage IT systems

• new legislation may create risks of non-compliance with the law, create new administrative burdens etc
• Changes to child protection legislation
• Raise the age of school leaving age
• Raise/ lower the age of starting school. Nursery/ kindergarten
• Change to school opening hours
• Changes to funding of charity based organisations
• Health & safety legislation

• A new highway layout near the school may create new dangers for pupils etc
• Waste disposal
• Reduction of green space available for activities
• Changes to local bus routes
• Using a significant amounts of paper and photocopier toner to produce printed information.

P – N
P – N
P – N
P – N