Cognita is a global private schools group which owns and operates schools throughout the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Vietnam, Brazil, India and Chile. Between them, Cognita schools deliver eight different curricula:
National
National may refer to:
Common uses
* Nation or country
** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen
Places in the United States
* National, Maryland, ce ...
Advanced Placement
Advanced Placement (AP) is a program in the United States and Canada created by the College Board which offers college-level curricula and examinations to high school students. American colleges and universities may grant placement and course ...
, Australian, Spanish, Chilean and Brazilian.
Cognita was founded by the late
Chris Woodhead
Sir Christopher Anthony Woodhead (20 October 1946 – 23 June 2015) was a British educationalist. He was Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools in England from 1994 to 2000, and was one of the most controversial figures in debates on the di ...
, previously Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools in England. It employs over 7,500 teachers and educates over 50,000 children.
Jacobs Holding Jacobs Holding AG is an investment firm based in Zürich founded in 1994 by Klaus Johann Jacobs which developed from Jacobs Suchard AG.
Following the sale of 10.1% of Adecco in 2014, the focus is on the 50.1% stake in Barry Callebaut AG. In additi ...
is the majority owner and it is the sole economic beneficiary of the firm’s investments.
The Group Chief Executive Officer of Cognita is Frank Maassen.
Northampton
Northampton () is a market town and civil parish in the East Midlands of England, on the River Nene, north-west of London and south-east of Birmingham. The county town of Northamptonshire, Northampton is one of the largest towns in England; ...
. Later in 2004, Cognita acquired the Asquith Court Group, bringing a further 18 schools into the group. From 2004 until 2007, they continued to buy independent schools within the UK.
In 2007, Cognita spread internationally acquiring schools in Spain and Singapore. Cognita established its first school from inception in 2009,
Stamford American International School
Stamford American International School (SAIS) is a co-educational international school in Singapore. The school is owned and operated by Cognita and enrolled its first students in August 2009.
Stamford American offers multiple graduating pathway ...
in Singapore. Also in this year, a group of three international schools were purchased in Thailand. Schools in Vietnam joined Cognita in 2011, and in 2012, Cognita bought their first school in South America, in Brazil.
In August 2012, Cognita questioned the financial viability of its
Ffynone House School
Ffynone House School is an independent co-educational secondary day school in Swansea, Wales. It is situated in the Uplands area of the city at 36 St. James Crescent.
The school teaches children from age 11 to 18 (Year 7 to GCSE and A Level). ...
in Swansea. Following lobbying and negotiation by parents and staff of the school, Cognita agreed to surrender the school to its lessor, Ffynone House School charitable trust, from which Cognita had leased the school. Cognita paid the trust £535,000 as a surrender sum and 10 years rent in advance of £270,000 and the school continues to operate with an operating surplus.
On 6 May 2013, the formerly majority British-owned company Cognita agreed to be invested in by the American private equity firm KKR Kohlberg Kravis Roberts L.P. In June 2013, Cognita expanded its network of Latin American schools through a partnership with Desarrollos Educacionales (DDEE), a Chilean private schools group operating nine national curriculum day schools under the Pumahue and Manquecura brands.
In April 2014, Cognita transferred ownership of Ferndale Preparatory School, Faringdon, Oxfordshire, to Ferndale Preparatory School Limited, a parent-led consortium. This filed for administration on 22 July 2016 due to lack of pupil numbers and funding issues, leaving staff redundant. In December 2014, Cognita acquired Instituto GayLussac in Niteroi, Brazil.
In March 2016, Cognita started a school from inception in Chile with the opening of Colegio Pumahue Chicauma. Also in 2016, International School of Barcelona, the English Montessori School in Spain, and St. Andrews International School, Dusit in Thailand joined Cognita: .
In September 2017, Cognita opened Stamford American School in Hong Kong. In the same month it opened the Early Learning Village in Singapore with more than 2,000 places. In November 2017, Cognita announced it would be expanding Downsend School in Leatherhead, UK to include a Senior School from September 2020.
In January 2018, Cognita opened a second campus for International School Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. In March 2018, The American British School in Chile joined Cognita. In May 2018, Cognita opened BSB Nexus in Spain, a new pre-university campus which is part of The British School of Barcelona. In the same month, Woodland Pre-Schools in Hong Kong joined the Cognita group. On 3 September 2018, global investment firms Bregal Investments and
KKR
KKR & Co. Inc., also known as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., is an American global investment company that manages multiple alternative asset classes, including private equity, energy, infrastructure, real estate, credit, and, through its strateg ...
announced the signing of a binding agreement for the sale of Cognita to
Jacobs Holding Jacobs Holding AG is an investment firm based in Zürich founded in 1994 by Klaus Johann Jacobs which developed from Jacobs Suchard AG.
Following the sale of 10.1% of Adecco in 2014, the focus is on the 50.1% stake in Barry Callebaut AG. In additi ...
of Switzerland, due to complete in the fourth quarter of 2018, subject to customary regulatory approvals. Also in September 2018, Santo Tomás School, in Ñuñoa, Metropolitan Region, Santiago de Chile, joined Cognita.
In November 2018 and January 2019 respectively, Colegio Europeo de Madrid (CEM) and the British School of Valencia in Spain joined Cognita and became the group's sixth and seventh schools in Spain.
In January 2019, BDT Capital Partners and Sofina became minority owners of Cognita, with Jacobs remaining as majority owner. In February 2019, Colegio San Francisco Javier Huechuraba became Cognita's 13th school in Chile. In July 2019, International School Zurich North joined Cognita, becoming its first school in Switzerland and 74th school globally. In September 2019, Colegio Maxi became Cognita's third school in Brazil. In November 2019, Chirec International School in Hyderabad became Cognita's 1st school in India, and 76th school globally. In December 2019, Centro Educacional Pingo de Gente & Laviniense joined Cognita.
UK independent school Brighton College opened an international school in Singapore with Cognita in August 2020. In September 2020, Mirasur International School in Spain became a Cognita school.
Cognita acquired The Greenland School in Santiago, Chile, in January 2021 and Escola Villare in Brazil in February 2021. In March 2021, Horizon English School became part of Cognita. Obersee Bilingual School in Switzerland and Kindergarten Bilingual School of Florence became part of Cognita in May 2021.
Controversies
Cognita was accused of pension irregularities in 2012. In 2012, Cognita staff were instructed to impersonate parents and take tours of competing schools in Wales. This conduct was defended as a "normal" way of assessing the competition.
In 2012, Judge Robert Reid QC ruled that the Cognita-owned Milbourne Lodge in Esher, Surrey, had acted unfairly in removing two children, aged eight and six, without warning after the children's parents criticized the school's parents' association, the Friends of Milbourne Lodge, for lack of transparency in its fundraising and spending. The judge said that the parents' association was "somewhat shadowy" and a "shambles".
Cognita's management of Southbank International School was criticised in 2011, with parents groups claiming it had "no serious interest in maximising the educational experience of ... children if it impacts on their bottom line". Then Chairman Chris Woodhead denied the allegations, claiming that its profits were in line with others in the sector.
In 2014, the same school was accused of inadequately vetting staff after a former teacher, William Vahey, was found to have abused pupils over several years. In an article in The Guardian, the school's incoming chairman of governors, Sir Chris Woodhead was interviewed: "The school said it had carried out checks dating back 17 years on Vahey, who had taught in international schools in eight countries. But they did not pick up on a 1969 conviction for child molestation in California. Vahey's CV showed he had been registered as a teacher in the state of New Jersey in 1986, and Woodhead said it was reasonable to have assumed that would not have been the case if he had been convicted of child molestation. 'The system in America broke down,' he said." Regulatory and statutory bodies have since praised the transformation of safeguarding practices and processes in the school as "comprehensive and robust".
Parents at Cognita's Saint Andrews Sukhumvit 107 School in Bangkok, Thailand, prepared a petition containing an open email to Sir Chris Woodhead in 2012, alleging lack of transparency and a disdain for parental views following a decision by Brian Rogove, Cognita's former Asia Pacific CEO, to change the leadership of the school.
In 2012, Cognita's director of education, Geraint Jones, was quoted as saying "13 weeks' paid holiday is enough compensation for hard work during term time" and that "teachers have a duty to go beyond their classroom duties", indicating that putting up wall displays, collecting dinner money, performing lunch duties and providing cover are vital tasks of the teaching job and should not be delegated to assistants. Jones also criticised the inefficiency of state schools, saying "it makes me sick".
List of schools
United Kingdom
* Akeley Wood Senior School,
Buckingham
Buckingham ( ) is a market town in north Buckinghamshire, England, close to the borders of Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire, which had a population of 12,890 at the 2011 Census. The town lies approximately west of Central Milton Keynes, sou ...
, Buckinghamshire
* Akeley Wood Junior School,
Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes ( ) is a city and the largest settlement in Buckinghamshire, England, about north-west of London. At the 2021 Census, the population of its urban area was over . The River Great Ouse forms its northern boundary; a tributary ...
, Buckinghamshire
*
Breaside Preparatory School
Bromley is a large town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is south-east of Charing Cross, and had an estimated population of 87,889 as of 2011.
Originally part of Kent, Bromley became a market town, cha ...
Charterhouse Square School
Charterhouse Square School is an independent, non-selective, co-educational day school with 250 children aged 3 to 11, situated in the Barbican area of the City of London. It occupies a five-story Victorian building overlooking Charterhouse Squar ...
,
Islington
Islington () is a district in the north of Greater London, England, and part of the London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the ar ...
, London
* Clifton Lodge School,
Ealing
Ealing () is a district in West London, England, west of Charing Cross in the London Borough of Ealing. Ealing is the administrative centre of the borough and is identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Plan.
Ealing was histor ...
Hertford
Hertford ( ) is the county town of Hertfordshire, England, and is also a civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district of the county. The parish had a population of 26,783 at the 2011 census.
The town grew around a ford on the River Lea, ne ...
, Hertfordshire
* Glenesk School,
East Horsley
East Horsley is a village and civil parish in Surrey, England, 21 miles southwest of London, on the A246 between Leatherhead and Guildford. Horsley and Effingham Junction railway stations are on the New Guildford line to London Waterloo. ...
, Surrey
* Hendon Preparatory School,
Hendon
Hendon is an urban area in the Borough of Barnet, North-West London northwest of Charing Cross. Hendon was an ancient manor and parish in the county of Middlesex and a former borough, the Municipal Borough of Hendon; it has been part of Great ...
, London
*
Huddersfield Grammar School
Huddersfield Grammar School is a coeducational independent school located in Huddersfield in West Yorkshire, England. The school was established in 1995 on the site of the former independent St David's School, which closed on 1 September 1995. ...
Hydesville Tower School
Hydesville Tower School is a coeducational independent school located in Walsall in the West Midlands, England. The school is owned and operated by Cognita, the largest independent schools provider in the UK.
Hydesville Tower School, which ov ...
, Walsall, West Midlands
* King's School, Plymouth,
Plymouth
Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west.
Plymouth ...
Long Close School
Long Close School is a coeducational Independent school located in Upton, Slough in Berkshire, England. The school is owned and operated by the Cognita Group, and is the largest independent school in Slough. The school was founded in 1940. It ...
,
Slough
Slough () is a town and unparished area in the unitary authority of the same name in Berkshire, England, bordering west London. It lies in the Thames Valley, west of central London and north-east of Reading, at the intersection of the M4 ...
, Berkshire
*
Meoncross School
Meoncross School is a for-profit, mixed private school located in the village of Stubbington, near Fareham in Hampshire, England.
History
Meoncross School was opened by a Mr Watson as a boys' preparatory school in 1953. In 1964, now with Mr M ...
,
Fareham
Fareham ( ) is a market town at the north-west tip of Portsmouth Harbour, between the cities of Portsmouth and Southampton in south east Hampshire, England. It gives its name to the Borough of Fareham. It was historically an important manufact ...
, Hampshire
*
Milbourne Lodge School
Milbourne Lodge School is a co-educational pre-prep and preparatory school for children aged four to thirteen.
Located in Esher, Surrey, the school is housed in a Victorian mansion situated on of Surrey countryside.
History
Milbourne Lodge ...
North Bridge House Nursery School
North Bridge House School is a private school located in London for children aged 2 to 18-year-olds. The school has six different locations for different age groups. The Nursery School, in Hampstead on Fitzjohn's Avenue, is for 2 to 4-year-ol ...
Oakleigh House School
Oakleigh House School is a co-educational private primary school in Swansea, Wales. The school is owned and operated by the Cognita Group, and is situated in the Uplands area of the city.
History
Oakleigh House School was established in 1 ...
,
Swansea
Swansea (; cy, Abertawe ) is a coastal city and the second-largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Swansea ( cy, links=no, Dinas a Sir Abertawe).
The city is the twenty-fifth largest in ...
Northampton
Northampton () is a market town and civil parish in the East Midlands of England, on the River Nene, north-west of London and south-east of Birmingham. The county town of Northamptonshire, Northampton is one of the largest towns in England; ...
, Northamptonshire
* St Clare's School, Porthcawl, St Clare's School, Porthcawl, Wales
* St Margaret's Preparatory School,
Gosfield
Gosfield is a village in the Braintree district of Essex, England. It is located around two miles west of the town of Halstead.
Places of note include the following:
*Gosfield Hall: a country house and Grade I listed building, dating back to 154 ...
, Essex
* St Mary's School,
Henley-on-Thames
Henley-on-Thames ( ) is a town and civil parish on the River Thames in Oxfordshire, England, northeast of Reading, west of Maidenhead, southeast of Oxford and west of London (by road), near the tripoint of Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buc ...
, Oxfordshire
* St Nicholas Preparatory School,
Kensington
Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West End of London, West of Central London.
The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up b ...
, London
* Salcombe Preparatory School, Southgate, London
* Southbank International School Westminster, London
* Southbank International School Kensington, London
* Southbank International School Hampstead, London
Spain
* Colegio Europeo de Madrid, Madrid
* Hastings School of Madrid, Madrid
* The English Montessori School, Madrid
*
El Limonar International School, Villamartin
El Limonar International School, Villamartin - ELIS Villamartin (established in 1998), is a private profit-making coeducational international school located in Villamartín, (San Miguel de Salinas / Alicante), Spain (not to be confused with th ...
,
Villamartin
Villamartin is the name of both an urbanisation and a golf course in the Costa Blanca area of eastern Spain. It lies in the municipality of Orihuela, in the province of Alicante in the Valencian Community
The Valencian Community ( ca-valen ...
* British School of Valencia, Valencia
* Mirasur International School,
Pinto, Madrid
Pinto is a municipality in the Community of Madrid, Spain. It is located in the central area of the Iberian Peninsula at an altitude of 604 meters, 20 kilometers south of Madrid, and covers 62.7 square kilometers. In 2018, Pinto had a population ...
Serangoon Gardens
Serangoon Garden Estate is a residential estate in the Serangoon district of the North-East Region of Singapore.
History
Serangoon Garden is one of the oldest estates on the island, and was built during the 1950s.
The estate was upgraded i ...
*
Stamford American International School
Stamford American International School (SAIS) is a co-educational international school in Singapore. The school is owned and operated by Cognita and enrolled its first students in August 2009.
Stamford American offers multiple graduating pathway ...
, Serangoon
* Brighton College Singapore, co-located with Australian International School and Stamford American International School, opening in August 2020
Hong Kong
* Stamford American School,
Kowloon
Kowloon () is an urban area in Hong Kong comprising the Kowloon Peninsula and New Kowloon. With a population of 2,019,533 and a population density of in 2006, it is the most populous area in Hong Kong, compared with Hong Kong Island and t ...
* Woodland Pre-Schools
Thailand
*
St. Andrews International School, Rayong
St. Andrews International School Green Valley (, ) is an international school for children aged 2 to 18 years old in Rayong, Thailand
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in So ...
,
Rayong
Rayong ( th, ระยอง, ) is a city (''thesaban nakhon'') on the east coast of the Gulf of Thailand and the capital of Rayong province. It covers tambons Tha Pradu and Pak Nam and parts of ''tambons'' Choeng Noen and Noen Phra, all within ...
Ho Chi Minh City
, population_density_km2 = 4,292
, population_density_metro_km2 = 697.2
, population_demonym = Saigonese
, blank_name = GRP (Nominal)
, blank_info = 2019
, blank1_name = – Total
, blank1_ ...
* International School Saigon Pearl (ISSP),
Ho Chi Minh City
, population_density_km2 = 4,292
, population_density_metro_km2 = 697.2
, population_demonym = Saigonese
, blank_name = GRP (Nominal)
, blank_info = 2019
, blank1_name = – Total
, blank1_ ...
* International School Ho Chi Minh City - American Academy (ISHCMC-AA),
Ho Chi Minh City
, population_density_km2 = 4,292
, population_density_metro_km2 = 697.2
, population_demonym = Saigonese
, blank_name = GRP (Nominal)
, blank_info = 2019
, blank1_name = – Total
, blank1_ ...
Brazil
* PlayPen Bilingual Education, São Paulo
* Instituto GayLussac, Niteroi, Rio de Janeiro
* Centro Educacional Pingo de Gente & Laviniense, Manus
* Colegio Maxi, Londrina, Paraná
* Escola Villare, São Caetano do Sul, Brazil
Chile
* Colegio American British School, Santiago
* Colegio Manquecura Ciudad de Los Valles, Santiago
* Colegio Manquecura Ciudad del Este, Santiago
* Colegio Manquecura Valle lo Campino, Santiago
* Colegio Pumahue Chicauma, Santiago
* Colegio Pumahue Chicureo, Santiago
* Colegio Pumahue Curauma
* Colegio Pumahue Huechuraba, Santiago
* Colegio Pumahue Peñalolén, Santiago
* Colegio Pumahue Puerto Montt, Puerto Montt
* Colegio Pumahue Temuco, Temuco
* Colegio San Francisco Javier Huechuraba
* Colegio Manquecura de Ñuñoa, Santiago
* Greenland School, Santiago
India
*
CHIREC International
CHIREC International Papaya is a K–12 school located in Hyderabad, India. The school was founded in 1989 by Mrs. Ratna D. Reddy. There are three campuses. The main campus is located in Kondapur, pre-primary campus in Jubilee Hills and a third ...
* Horizon English School, Dubai
* Horizon International School, Dubai
* Ranches Primary School, Dubai
* Royal Grammar School Guilford, Dubai
United States
*
York Preparatory School
York Preparatory School commonly referred to as York Prep School, is an independent, university-preparatory school in the Upper West Side area of Manhattan, New York City, near Lincoln Square, Manhattan, Lincoln Square.
The coeducational school p ...