Better operating decisions mean more to spend on what matters.
We work with Australian non-government schools and the systems behind them on enrolment, financial sustainability, delivery, workforce, and network strategy. Built from work inside and alongside schools. Grounded in data.
Built inside the sector
led and advised across government, Catholic, and independent education
Strategy rigour from BCG and McKinsey
applied to school budgets and school communities
Proprietary benchmarking
a funding-and-surplus model across 2,675 non-government schools, plus live national vacancy data
Cross-sector
government · Catholic · independent, every state and territory
The situation
The numbers are harder to manage than they used to be.
What we do
Education insight meets analytical rigour.
We bring the financial analysis, benchmarking, and strategic discipline that major organisations take for granted. Applied by people who have worked inside schools and systems. Translated for a school budget and a school community. Our work spans five areas:
Growth
Identify where the enrolment funnel is leaking and build the strategy to fix it.
Explore →Financial sustainability
Strengthen the surplus that funds your mission: funding, fees, revenue, and cost.
Explore →Delivery model
Structure and staff your educational offer to match your strategy and your budget.
Explore →Org design & workforce
Organise the school and build a plan to attract and keep the people it needs.
Explore →Network optimisation
For systems: get more from operating as a network than as separate schools.
Explore →How we work
Go deep only where it counts.
Every engagement begins with the Review. A single diagnostic that benchmarks your whole position against schools genuinely like yours and surfaces the three to five priorities worth acting on. From there we go deep only where it matters, as discrete, scoped projects. You know the priorities before you commit to the work.
How we work →Who we serve
For schools and the systems behind them.
We work with single schools and whole systems, with findings that connect at both levels.
Independent schools
principals, business managers, and boards navigating growth, sustainability, and workforce pressure.
Systems and networks
dioceses, school groups, and multi-campus operators planning and optimising across many schools.
Why us
Why School Excellence Group
Built inside the sector
we have led and advised inside schools and systems, not just consulted from the outside.
Data others don't have
a benchmarking model across 2,675 non-government schools, and live national teacher vacancy data.
Scoped and senior
a defined question, a clear output, and the people who scope the work do the work.
Deliberately bounded
we go deep on the operating side and stay out of curriculum, pedagogy, leadership, and culture.
The partnership
Two Managing Directors. Senior throughout.
School Excellence Group is led by Jesse Whelan and James Centenera. Between them: strategy careers at BCG and McKinsey, hands-on roles across government, Catholic, and independent education, and 2,675 schools' worth of financial data.
Meet the team →Insights
Insights from the data
Which states are facing the most acute teacher shortages, and where the data diverges from the public narrative.
Read on Medium → EnrolmentCatholic enrolment pressure is structural, not cyclical. Most dioceses are not treating it that way.
Read on Medium → WorkforceWhy independent schools are struggling to fill temporary contracts, and what the vacancy data shows.
Read on Medium →Want to know where your school really stands?
The Review gives you and your leadership team a clear picture of where the numbers point, and the three to five priorities worth acting on.