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Find out with our new interactive tool!
Australian non-government schools are navigating some of the most challenging and fast-changing financial conditions we’ve seen in years—rising costs, funding shifts, and increasing pressure on boards to make sound long-term financial decisions.

One idea we keep coming back to in our advisory work is a simple one: think of your school’s finances as a dam.

Revenue is the rainfall filling the catchment. Staff and operating costs are drawn off before the water reaches the reservoir. What remains—the operating surplus—is what actually fills the dam.

From there, two floodgates draw the level back down: debt repayments and capital expenditure needed to maintain and improve your campus. The reserve sitting behind the wall is your buffer against financial shocks.

It’s a simple picture, but it illustrates an important point: a break-even operating budget isn’t necessarily neutral or safe. If there is nothing left to service debt and replace ageing assets, the school may be slowly drawing down its financial capacity.

Try our new Dam Simulator

We’ve turned this thinking into an interactive Dam Simulator (excerpt above).

Set your own revenue, operating margin, debt, and capital expenditure assumptions and see what happens to your school’s reserves year by year—including the impact of borrowing for new buildings and what happens when a capital program exceeds what the operating surplus can sustainably support.

The Dam Simulator is one of the first tools on our new Research & Development (R&D) page—a working space where we develop, test, and share new tools and ideas before they become part of our core Financial Survey for Schools methodology or client deliverables.

Try it. Challenge the assumptions. And tell us what you think.

👉 EXPLORE SOMERSET EDUCATION R&D AND TRY THE DAM SIMULATOR  

Tools like this sit alongside—not instead of—the discipline of knowing where your school actually stands.

That’s where the Financial Survey for Schools (FSS) comes in: clear, independently benchmarked insight into your school’s financial position against 500+ Australian non-government schools, helping boards make decisions grounded in real numbers, not guesswork.

If your school hasn’t participated in FSS this year, now is a good time—particularly given how much the operating environment has shifted. And if you have participated, the Dam Simulator is a useful way to bring your results to life for a board that is still getting comfortable with the numbers.

🎥 | New to FSS or want a refresher? 
> Watch my 10-minute video walkthrough: https://vimeo.com/1182141507

Q | Any questions?
For FSS, budgeting, reporting tools, or financial governance training contact us via email survey@somerseteducation.net; or telephone 1300 781 968 (International +61 7 3263 5300).

🗓️ | 31 July is closer than you think
Don’t miss the opportunity to secure Early Bird and Loyalty discounts—and gain immediate access to the latest Financial Survey for Schools (FSS) benchmarking data.

Schools that submit early don’t just save money, they also receive earlier access to powerful financial insights that can help inform budgeting, strategic planning, and board discussions for the year ahead.

Submit your 2025 school-year data by 31 July 2026 to unlock:
✔ Participation from A$960 + GST (includes a $120 Early Bird discount)
✔ Financial Report Package from A$2,080 + GST (includes up to $1,160 in discounts)
✔ 50% of the above for schools with fewer than 250 enrolments.
Note: If you’re unable to complete and submit by 31 July 2026, any applicable package and loyalty discounts will still be honoured. Please contact our team to discuss.

✍🏼 | Why participate?
✔ Compare your performance with over 500 schools
✔ Turn data into insight
✔ Make more informed financial decisions
✔ Strengthen planning and budgeting with meaningful benchmarking
✔ Generate reports tailored to your school’s profile.

⏰ | Don’t leave it until the last minute—Early Bird pricing closes on 31 July 2026
Submit your data today to save on participation costs and start accessing the latest benchmarking insights sooner.

🎥 | New to FSS or want a refresher? 
> Watch my 10-minute video walkthrough: https://vimeo.com/1182141507

Q | Any questions?
For FSS, budgeting, reporting tools, or financial governance training contact us via email survey@somerseteducation.net; or telephone 1300 781 968 (International +61 7 3263 5300).

• Identify what the key figures in your financial statements mean
• Understand the fundamentals of accounting—clearly explained, no prior knowledge needed
• Utilise benchmarking tools to see how your school compares to peers
• Apply that insight to board conversations—confidently, in plain language
• Evaluate your school’s financial health and spot early warning signs.

• Presentation slides that tell the story—graphs, trend data, and plain-language descriptions you can take back to your board
• A quick-reference guide to the key financial and staffing metrics covered
• A live demonstration of the Financial Survey for Schools portal
• Access details to continue exploring after the session.

Q | Any questions?
For FSS, budgeting, reporting tools, or financial governance training contact us via email survey@somerseteducation.net; or telephone 1300 781 968 (International +61 7 3263 5300).

• Identify what the key figures in your financial statements mean
• Understand the fundamentals of accounting—clearly explained, no prior knowledge needed
• Utilise benchmarking tools to see how your school compares to peers
• Apply that insight to board conversations—confidently, in plain language
• Evaluate your school’s financial health and spot early warning signs.

• Presentation slides that tell the story—graphs, trend data, and plain-language descriptions you can take back to your board
• A quick-reference guide to the key financial and staffing metrics covered
• A live demonstration of the Financial Survey for Schools portal
• Access details to continue exploring after the session.

Q | Any questions?
For FSS, budgeting, reporting tools, or financial governance training contact us via email survey@somerseteducation.net; or telephone 1300 781 968 (International +61 7 3263 5300).

Great news, the 2025 Financial Survey for Schools (FSS) reports are now live, two months earlier than previous years! As soon as you submit your 2025 school-year data—and we give you access—you can select samples of similar schools and generate reports. Due to the blending of last year’s and current year’s data, there is no waiting—you can access data from more than 500 schools.

🎥 | New to FSS or want a refresher? 
> Watch my 10-minute video walkthrough: https://vimeo.com/1182141507

How to submit your 2025 school-year data:
There are two options

Option 1 | Key your data directly into the FSS
1. Input Financial Questionnaire (FQ) data aligned to familiar FQ item numbers, and
2. Input Students and Staffing data in a familiar format based on the Non-government Schools Census Summary report available in Schools Hub.

Option 2 | Email your data to us to upload into the FSS
Step 1. Download your 2026 Financial Questionnaire data in CSV format as follows:

• Sign in to Education Funding System
• Download your Financial Questionnaire 2026 in CSV format.

Step 2. Download your Students and Staffing data in Excel format as follows:

• Sign in to Schools Hub
• Click Data Collection, click Non-government Schools Census 2025, click Summary, then,
• Download your Census Summary in Excel format.

Step 3. Email both files in Excel format to dataupload@somerseteducation.net
Step 4. We’ll upload your data and send instructions to finalise your submission.

Q | Any questions?
For FSS, budgeting, reporting tools, or financial governance training contact us via email survey@somerseteducation.net; or telephone 1300 781 968 (International +61 7 3263 5300).

Dear School Leaders,

A quick reminder—from tomorrow (Tuesday 12 May 2026), access to your 2024 school-year reports in the Financial Survey for Schools (FSS) will no longer be available as we prepare to open 2025 reporting.

If you haven’t yet downloaded all your 2024 FSS reports, please log in today.

The good news: 2025 FSS data entry remains open and is ready for your input.

The Department of Education Financial Questionnaire (FQ) will open soon. Here is a link to FQ updates. There doesn’t appear to be any changes to FQ item numbers so the format of our FSS survey is sound. We can’t upload your FQ until we know more, but this does not stop you keying your 2025 data into our FSS which is easy because it uses identical FQ item numbers.

🎥 | Walk through FSS with John
> Watch this awesome, 10-minute video on the features of the FSS: https://vimeo.com/1182141507

Q | Any questions?
For FSS, budgeting, reporting tools, or financial governance training contact us via email survey@somerseteducation.net; or telephone 1300 781 968 (International +61 7 3263 5300).

Dear School Leaders,

Thank you to the 500+ schools that participated in last year’s Financial Survey for Schools (FSS). Your continued support is helping drive stronger, more informed financial stewardship across the sector. This year, we’ve made significant improvements—designed to save you time and deliver insights faster than ever.

🚀 | What’s new in 2026

The process is now dramatically simpler: You can easily key the data or send us your Financial Questionnaire (FQ) and Student and Staff Census (Excel files downloaded via SchoolsHUB), and we’ll upload everything for you into the FSS. (Note: 2026 FQ not yet released by Department of Education. We hope there re no format changes.)

✔ No data dissection required to produce your KPI report
✔ Optional additional data entry to unlock deeper insights and ratios.

Even better—2025 reporting is expected by mid-May, around three months earlier than previous years.

📊 | Why it matters

Once available, your reports will deliver:

> Instant KPI benchmarking against similar schools using current year and prior year ratios indexed by 3.1%
> Insights and informed action using both current and historical survey data and budget data
> Use the Staff Estimator and Financial Sustainability Planner to inform strategy.

Once your data is in the system, the Somerset Education Team is just a phone call away if you need advice or guidance.
This timing aligns more closely with the presentation of your 2025 audited accounts, strategic planning, and budgeting.

🗓️ | Important dates

> Tuesday 7 April 2026: Data entry for 2024 closes and 2025 opens
> Mid-May 2026: Reporting for 2024 closes and 2025 reporting opens.

🎥 | Walk through FSS with John
> Watch this awesome, 10-minute video on the features of the FSS: https://vimeo.com/1182141507

Q | Any questions?
For FSS, budgeting, reporting tools, or financial governance training contact us via email survey@somerseteducation.net; or telephone 1300 781 968 (International +61 7 3263 5300).

Dear School Leaders,

Thank you to the over 500 schools that participated in our Financial Survey for Schools (FSS) last year. This year, we’re making some significant changes that we think you’ll love.

If you participated last year, please ensure by Tuesday 7 April 2026 that you’ve completed any outstanding 2024 data entry and saved a pdf of your survey. From 7 April, the system will be switched over to start capturing 2025 school-year data.

🚀 | Here’s the exciting bits
The new process is dramatically simpler—provide us with your Financial Questionnaire (FQ) and Student and Staff Census data (in Excel format) that you’ve already lodged with the Commonwealth Government (SchoolsHUB), and we will upload it for you. This year no data dissections are necessary to produce a KPI report. But you’ll also have the opportunity to enter additional data to unlock even more ratios and insights.

For a few weeks, while 2025 data is coming in, 2024 reporting will remain available. And here’s the really exciting part: We expect to have 2025 school-year reporting available by mid-May, which is three months earlier than previous years.

Once 2025 reporting is made available, you’ll receive instant KPI reports benchmarked against similar schools, drawing on both current and historical survey data (using 2024 dollar figures increased by the Department of Education 2025 School Resource Standard indexation rate of 3.1%). The timing couldn’t be better—your benchmarking reports will be ready much closer to when you’re presenting 2025 audited accounts to the board.

If you’ve never participated before and time has been the barrier, that barrier is now gone. We’d love to welcome you to the FSS community this year.

🗓️ | Important dates
> Tuesday 7 April 2026: Data entry for 2024 closes and 2025 opens
> Mid-May 2026: Reporting for 2024 closes and 2025 reporting opens.

Q | Any questions?
For FSS, budgeting, reporting tools, or financial governance training contact us via email survey@somerseteducation.net; or telephone 1300 781 968 (International +61 7 3263 5300).
 

Best wishes to all Somerset Education blog followers for the 2026 year. I hope you had a wonderful break with family and friends over the year-end vacation period and feel refreshed and ready for the year ahead.

Below is a link to a complimentary webinar being run by Spectrum Analysis on changing student populations. Somerset Education Financial Survey for Schools participants have access to a demographic Geo Mapping tool where you can self-analyse student population changes in your catchment. This tool is powered by Spectrum Analysis.

I can’t emphasis enough the importance of responding in a timely manner to adverse changes in enrolments in particular identifying the likely effect on operating surpluses, debt servicing and campus reinvestment. From 30 years of working in the sector, typically schools that find themselves in financial difficulty have not clearly identified and addressed adverse enrolment and/or staff changes until they start to run out of cash, which can happen faster than expected. For example in a school of 500 students, a 5% reduction in enrolments, with no adjustment to costs, could result in a $700,000 decline in operating surplus. Depending on a school’s debt, they could quickly become financially stressed.

My long-term research highlights that financially healthy schools regularly re-forecast financial performance for changing scenarios to inform and take action. We therefore developed our SKI Scenario Builder™ to help schools effortlessly and instantly re-forecast budgets for changes in enrolments, staff, income and expenses. If you haven’t tried this tool, now is the perfect time being the beginning of the year when you know 2026 enrolments. Use the SKI Scenario Builder™ to give a “heads up” on the likely annual financial performance, then plan and take mitigating action now if required…. don’t wait until it’s too late.

🎥 | Here is a short video: SKI Scenario Builder™ (included with SKI subscription).

Over 500 schools have completed 2024 school-year data in the Financial Survey for Schools (FSS) with another 90 in progress. Don’t forget you can participate at anytime until we roll the FSS in April 2026 to gather 2025 school-year data

Complimentary webinar |  x Spectrum Analysis 
> Topic: Changing Student Populations—Where will your future students come from?
> Date: Thursday 22 January 2026
> Time: 12pm —1pm (AEDT)
> Cost: No charge—complimentary.
> Registration: Via this link Eventbrite (Slides and recording will be available post-webinar)ℹ️ | About the webinar
If you are feeling that there has been a slight drop in future enrolments at your school, especially over the last two years, this is probably NOT a market share issue. It is likely that the pool of school age children in your area is reducing, particularly if your school is in a higher socio-economic area close to a capital city in Australia.As we have had received a lot of interest in this change of student demographics and how this population change could affect the financial viability of a school, this webinar will look at:

• Children birth numbers and which way they are heading over large areas
• Where students are living and their socio economics
• Ability of the parent population to spend money on education
• Interest in single sex or co-educational school.

🚀 | Learning outcomes
✔ specific tips related to student locations
✔ data insights that are essential for your strategy in 2026
✔ ability to ask questions before, during, or after the webinar.

🤔 | Who is this webinar for?
✔ owners, principals, leaders, centre managers, and board members of schools and early education centres
✔ business and operations managers in schools and early education centres
✔ staff in the areas of marketing, communications, website development, enrolments and community development in schools, and early education centres
✔ advisers and service providers to schools and early education centres
✔ students studying education management, governance, and finance.

📣 | About the speaker
Peter Buckingham BSc GradDip MktMdl CMC CFE FFCA MEdPlus is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of Spectrum Analysis Australia Pty Ltd, a boutique provider of quantitative geodemographic modelling, facts, data, and analysis services based in Surrey Hills, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Email: peterb@spectrumanalysis.com.au

Kindest regards
John and the Team.
  
🍎 Somerset Education | Simplicity | Integrity | Professionalism  John Somerset is a Chartered Accountant. He has extensive knowledge of the independent school sector and is past President of Independent Schools Queensland and a past board member of the Independent Schools Australia.UPCOMING EVENTS:
Association Independent Schools of Western Australia: Financial Management of Independent Schools — Perth WA, 29 April 2026.
Independent Schools New Zealand: Financial Governance for Independent School Leaders — Wellington NZ, 11 June 2026.
Association of Heads of Independent Schools of Australia: Pre-conference financial workshop — Perth WA, 06 October 2026.
Somerset Education Training and Education: Webinars and Seminars — ‘Live’ and Videos-on-demand, John Somerset.
Somerset Education Customised Presentations: For School Boards and Business Managers — Ongoing, John Somerset.

 

Q | Any questions?

🍎 Somerset Education | For FSS, budgeting, reporting tools, or financial governance training contact us via email survey@somerseteducation.net; or telephone 1300 781 968 (International +61 7 3263 5300).

📊 Cole School Experts | For accounting, payroll and HR, cash and fee management contact us via email office@coleschoolexperts.com.au.

We look forward to your ongoing support, or if new to the survey, we warmly welcome you joining in.

 

Changing financial landscape
At the date of writing almost 500 schools have completed 2024 school-year data in the Financial Survey for Schools (FSS) with another 90 in progress. Don’t forget you can participate at anytime until we roll the FSS in April 2026 to gather 2025 school-year data.

The FSS shows the average non-government school reinvested two and half times depreciation in campus improvements in 2024, cash reserves reduced by 10%, debt was much the same but operating surpluses reduced by 14%. Overall, the sector was sound with an average 2.7 months in cash reserves and Debt/EBIDA of 2.9 times.

From our work with schools this year, given wage and building cost increases and staff shortages, 2025 may see a further reduction in operating surplus and increased debt.

🛠️ | FSS — a gateway to Financial Tools
Participation in the FSS is the gateway to many financial tools and services to help schools navigate this changing financial landscape by helping identify and pull the right levers to strengthen financial sustainability. The secret is doing this in a timely manner. So, participate in the FSS and seek help early if required.

I sincerely thank the hundreds of schools that have trusted us again this year and I also particularly thank the wonderful Somerset Education team for sharing their considerable skills to help our school clients.

🚀 | The future
2026 will see me resuming my PhD research focused on predicting and preventing financial stress for non-government schools. This research contributed to the development of the SKI Scenario Report which is now a financial tool available to FSS participants. This tool enables instant financial forecasting and risk assessment for changes in key variables like enrolments, staff, costs, building projects etc.

My mind is bursting with ideas, one being the School Financial Index (SFI) which will help schools to rate, triage and address potential financial stress — prevention being better than cure. Stay tuned!

🏖️ | Happy holidays! Year-end office times
Somerset Education offices will be closed from 5.00pm Friday, 12 December 2025 to 8.30am Monday, 12 January 2026. If you have any queries during this time, please call us on 1300 781 968 or email info@somerseteducation.net, and we will do our best to respond in a timely manner.

Q | Any questions?

🍎 Somerset Education | For FSS, budgeting, reporting tools, or financial governance training contact us via email survey@somerseteducation.net; or telephone 1300 781 968 (International +61 7 3263 5300).

📊 Cole School Experts | For accounting, payroll and HR, cash and fee management contact us via email office@coleschoolexperts.com.au.

We look forward to your ongoing support, or if new to the survey, we warmly welcome you joining in.