What should I ask about a language school’s student retention between levels?
Ask for enrolment by level across several terms and trace each group as it moves up. Find where students leave, whether levels are merged to hide small classes, and what the school does to bring people back. Retention between levels tells you more about teaching quality than the headline student count.
Begin with cohorts. Ask for a record of how many students started each level and how many enrolled in the next one, term after term. A school that reports strong total enrolment can still lose most beginners before they reach the intermediate stage, and only a cohort view shows that. If the seller keeps no such record, ask what is available from the booking or payment system.
Then ask why people stop. Does the school collect exit comments? Are drop-offs concentrated at a particular level, a particular teacher or a particular time of day? Find out whether placement tests are used and whether students are moved up before they are ready, which can feel good in the short run and cause departures later.
Finally, look at what the owner does to keep students: reminders, progress reports, discounts for continuing, social events, or direct calls. Ask which of these are routine and which depend on one person. Compare the retention story with the revenue records and with parents’ or students’ reviews so that the explanation and the evidence agree. Where they do not, ask the seller to reconcile them before you go further.
Key takeaways
- Ask for cohort records showing how many students move from each level to the next.
- Find out where students leave and whether the school collects reasons.
- Check which retention habits are routine and which depend on the owner personally.
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Sources
This answer is checked against primary sources. Links were last confirmed on the dates shown.
- 01Business Development Bank of CanadaGovernmentHow to conduct due diligence when buying a business
- 02Business Development Bank of CanadaGovernmentWhat are the steps to buying a business?
- 03Business Development Bank of CanadaGovernmentAfter buying a business, what is the next step?
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