The turnkey partner for international school development.
Tangier, Morocco. Architectural rendering.
39
Schools delivered
16
Countries
10
Year management agreements
One partner from concept to opening day.
GSE is a genuine one-stop partner for international school development. Our school development service covers the full project lifecycle. We do not hand off at key stages; we stay with the project from initial scoping through to operational stability. Our team has launched, restructured, and managed schools across the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Africa, and beyond, from early childhood through K-12, vocational, and university preparation.
International school development, stage by stage.
01. Feasibility and Planning
Every successful school starts with clear evidence. We conduct rigorous market feasibility studies for new schools and acquisitions, covering demand analysis, competitive mapping, financial modelling, site assessment, and regulatory landscape review. Our feasibility reports range from 70 to 225 pages and include a comprehensive 10-year financial model used by private equity firms, institutional investors, and government bodies. Our business and development plans give investors and operators a credible, investment-ready foundation to move forward with confidence.
02. Investment and Financial Advisory
GSE brings institutional-grade financial expertise to school development, a capability that is rare in the education sector. We advise investors, developers, and governments on school financing structures, PropCo/OpCo models, capital raising strategies, and investor term sheets. We work directly with education-focused investment funds and family offices seeking exposure to the international school sector. This dual capability, deep education expertise combined with structured investment advisory, gives our clients a measurable advantage from the earliest stages of a project.
03. Regulatory, Licensing and Accreditation
In many of our priority markets, including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Vietnam, and Indonesia, navigating government approvals, Ministry licensing, and regulatory compliance is one of the most complex and time-consuming elements of a school development project. GSE has direct experience managing these processes across multiple jurisdictions. We also support schools through international accreditation pathways including IB authorisation, Cambridge accreditation, and national Ministry approvals, ensuring the school meets every required standard before opening day.
04. Project Management
We manage the full development process end to end. This covers conceptual building design optimised for learning environments, curriculum selection and development, staffing and recruitment, IT and digital infrastructure, marketing strategy, admissions systems, and organisational accountability structures. We coordinate across architects, contractors, regulators, and curriculum bodies simultaneously, so that nothing falls through the gaps and the project moves on schedule.
05. Curriculum Design
Curriculum is the engine of school success. A beautiful campus and qualified staff will not compensate for a weak academic programme. We work collaboratively with school leadership to build coherent, rigorous, and contextually appropriate programmes across all major international frameworks, including IB, Cambridge, US, Australian, and Finnish, as well as bespoke virtual and online models. We also design and write specialist curriculum for vocational institutions, government-commissioned programmes, and schools with unique educational briefs.
06. Operations and Management
For clients who need ongoing support beyond opening, GSE provides operational management and leadership services covering accountability structures, performance systems, staff development, and continuous improvement. We can embed directly as management partners or operate in a strategic advisory capacity, depending on what the school and its investors need. Our goal is not dependency; it is to build the internal capability that makes the school excellent on its own terms.
07. Scalable School Development
GSE works across the full spectrum of school development, from single-campus startups to large-scale master-planned education precincts. For investors and operators seeking a replicable model, we offer the GSE Connect School framework: a proven template for school development that reduces setup time, lowers risk, and delivers consistent quality across multiple sites or markets.
One contract. One accountable partner.
GSE operates a turnkey model. Feasibility, licensing, design, curriculum, recruitment, marketing, and opening day are delivered by one team under one agreement. And GSE does not leave when the school opens. We remain as operating partner under management agreements of ten years or more, accountable for academic and financial performance. The investor holds one relationship and one line of accountability, from first study to steady-state operation.
Selected work.
Six engagements that show the range of what GSE does, from launching and running schools to turning them around and building groups that hold their value. Click any project to read the case.
Cradle-to-Career Education Ecosystem, Saudi Arabia
Feasibility at platform scale · GSE MENA
A Riyadh developer set out to build a complete education platform in the Kingdom: early years through university, ten K-12 schools, a teacher training academy, and technical colleges. Not a school group, a cradle-to-career ecosystem.
GSE MENA delivered the full feasibility, built around a standardise-then-scale model: one school designed to a fixed standard, proven once and replicated rather than rebuilt campus by campus. Demand was modelled across the group so schools complemented rather than competed, and the teacher training academy answered the hardest question in any Gulf roll-out, where the staff come from.
Feasibility completed and accepted. In architecture design. First two schools launching 2028.
GFH Alia School, Bahrain
Management in partnership with the founder
An established school with 550 students already enrolled needed a professional management team without disrupting the families and staff already in it. GSE stepped in as the management team in 2026, in partnership with the founder rather than in place of them.
The engagement covers full operational management, American-curriculum delivery, and the school’s WASC accreditation standing, with Shanna Parry holding a delegated Director role inside the GSE structure. Taking over a live school is a different task from opening one: continuity matters more than change.
Operated under management agreement in partnership with the founder, 2026 to present.
International Language Institute, Alasala Colleges, Dammam, Saudi Arabia
Turnaround under shared ownership
Alasala Colleges held an English language institute performing below its potential and wanted an operator prepared to share ownership and take accountability for results, not another advisory report. GSE entered a shared JV and took over in 2024.
The work rebuilt teaching and staffing structures, established a staffing operating protocol positioning the institute as the authority on staffing outcomes within the university, and prepared its facilities for international examination accreditation across four testing labs.
Enrolment doubled within two years. Now an accredited IELTS examination centre. GSE continues as operator under the JV.
Confucius International Education Group, China
A group built and sold
The venture set out to build a differentiated international school group, not another franchise. It needed a curriculum that stood apart and an operator who could build group value, not just open doors.
GSE set up and operated the schools from launch and built the group’s defining asset: the Confucius Six Arts, a proprietary model blending UK and US frameworks with the Confucius Analects across Grades 6 to 13. Operating each school directly, rather than licensing the model out, kept delivery consistent as the group grew to three locations.
Set up and operated 2011 to 2015. Acquired by a private equity group in 2015, a trade sale within four years of the first school.
Royal International College, Equatorial Guinea
Full set-up in an emerging market
A private investor wanted to establish an international school in a market with little existing provision and no ready pipeline of operators. They needed a partner to take the project from concept to an operating school, then hand it back to run themselves.
GSE ran the full set-up: facilities planning, curriculum design, branding, marketing, and the accreditation pathway. The school was built to 1,500-student capacity and positioned as an IB Primary Years Programme candidate school.
Delivered and handed over 2024. Now operated by owner.
360-Degree School Turnaround Review, Saudi Arabia
Whole-school diagnostic and recovery plan
An established school needed an independent, clear-eyed read across every area of its operation, academic, financial, staffing, and accreditation, and a plan to act on it ahead of a move to a new site.
GSE ran a full 360-degree review across the complete scope of the school. The work surfaced significant financial savings, reworked the senior leadership and staffing model, and diagnosed accreditation gaps against required standards, converting a whole-school diagnostic into a clear path forward.
Review and improvement plan delivered 2022. School readied for transition to a new purpose-built campus.
Where we work.
GSE has delivered school projects across 16 countries. Delivery experience spans the GCC, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, Africa, and Europe, from single-campus schools to master-planned education precincts. If you are planning somewhere else, ask. We work globally.
Why clients choose GSE.
Genuine end-to-end capability
We do not subcontract critical functions or disappear after the feasibility report. Our team manages the full project lifecycle and accepts responsibility for outcomes, not just deliverables.
Education and business in balance
Many school developers are strong on pedagogy but weak on financial discipline, or vice versa. GSE brings both. Every school we design is built to be educationally excellent and commercially viable.
Practitioners, not just advisors
Our team members have served as heads, curriculum directors, school founders, and investment advisors. We draw on direct experience across more than 35 countries and every major curriculum framework.
Flexible engagement
Whether you need a focused feasibility study, full project management, or an ongoing management partner, GSE structures engagements to suit the project and the client.
A school project often calls on specialist work that sits alongside development, from investment cases to curriculum design and school audits. See the specialist work we take on.
Discussing a school project?
Tell us where you are, from early feasibility to a school already operating. Conversations are confidential.
Greg Parry and Shanna Parry, Co-Founders