When British independent schools consider opening overseas, the conversation usually starts with the market. Is there demand? What will families pay? What does the regulator require?
Those questions matter, but schools also need to spend as much time getting to know the people they will work in partnership with. What do they want from the partnership? How do they run their schools? Can you make difficult decisions together?
It’s worth considering, though, that the partner in question will ask questions, too. Will the school commit senior people, not just its name? How will standards be assured from another country? How quickly can decisions be made when something needs to be resolved? Will the school be candid about what it does not yet know about operating overseas?
I lead Education Development Company (EDC), Morocco’s largest private school group. We run more than 30 schools across Moroccan, French, American and international curricula.
In September 2027, we will open Ardingly British School Casablanca in partnership with Ardingly College UK.
Before returning to Morocco, I spent more than 20 years in British education, most recently as chief executive of Anthem Schools Trust. That experience helped me understand what a British school would want to know - and shaped the questions I wanted to ask.
Questions for international school partnerships
Our research showed demand among Moroccan and expatriate families for an authentic and high-quality British education.
As such, we wanted to partner with an established, British heritage school whose experience and standards would help us meet that demand - and play an active part in building the school and supporting its development.
To this end, we spoke with several established British heritage schools, all with strengths.
Reputation and commercial terms mattered, but most important was that any partnerships aligned on what we wanted to build: an outstanding education experience that develops the whole child.
We also needed a partner who understood EDC. We are an investment group, with the capacity and experience to run schools across several international systems.
That meant finding a partner comfortable working with a large organisation and willing to talk openly about the business side of the development: school improvement model, enrolment targets, fees and school budgets. In a project like this, educational and commercial decisions are intertwined.
Ardingly saw our scale not as a risk to its identity but as the operational backbone a new school needs.
Understanding culture and context
We also needed someone willing to understand Morocco. Casablanca has its own regulatory, cultural and linguistic context. Families want an international education while keeping their children connected to their country and their roots.
This meant working through practical questions together: how would the British curriculum sit alongside Arabic, French and Moroccan cultural studies? Which parts of Ardingly’s ethos would translate directly to Casablanca, and which would need rethinking for local families?
Who would appoint the founding head, and against what criteria? And how would we decide when educational and commercial priorities pulled in different directions, whether on class sizes, admissions or fees?
Beyond discussions, schools need to be prepared to be assessed, too. A prospective partner will want to know who will be involved, how much time they will give and how quality assurance will work at a distance.
In practice, that means detailed conversations about who from the school will sit on the governing board, how often senior staff will visit and how the founding head will be recruited, supported and line managed.
It also means agreeing what will be reported back to the UK, from outcomes data and safeguarding audits to quality review visits.
And it means educators being ready to sit across the table from finance and investment colleagues, not only fellow educationalists, and to engage with budgets and enrolment as seriously as with curriculum.
Long-term view in school partnerships
Ardingly was a strong fit through these discussions - and it was clear they were looking carefully at us as we were at them.
We could show them how EDC develops teachers, monitors outcomes and evaluates quality across our schools. These were practices already in place, which they could examine and question.
My experience in England also gave us common reference points on inspection, safeguarding, curriculum and leadership. That helped us understand each other, particularly early in the relationship.
But we also made sure we both had a long-term view and discussed deeply what would happen not just one year after opening but 10 years: how we would maintain standards, resolve disagreements and respond if things went wrong.
Those discussions helped us judge whether we could work together over time.
We sometimes describe the relationship with Ardingly as a marriage. Signing the agreement is the beginning of a lifetime of commitment and collaboration.
As we prepare for September 2027, I keep thinking about the families who will choose us. Their children’s experience and the doors they will walk through will be the measure of what we have built together.
Mohsen Ojja is président directeur général (CEO) of Education Development Company
