The Real Problem: Data Everywhere, Insight Nowhere
- johnddmurphie
- Nov 28, 2025
- 5 min read
Most independent schools are not short of data. You’ve got:
Finance systems
MIS and timetabling
HR and payroll
Admissions and enquiries
Estates and maintenance logs
The trouble is, that information sits in separate silos, owned by different people, in different formats. As John puts it in the episode, it’s a treasure chest that nobody quite has the key to.
So decisions get made based on:
Gut feel
Last term’s report
Whoever shouted loudest in the meeting
A board paper that was already out of date when you wrote it
By the time a monthly or termly finance pack reaches the governors, the numbers may have moved on. That’s nobody’s fault – it’s just the rhythm of term life. But it means big calls on staffing, bursaries, fee-setting and capital projects are often made with a hazy or historic picture.
Why “Constantly Available” Data Changes the Game
Elise offers a simple analogy in the episode: would you drive a car with a speedometer that only updates once a month?
Yet that’s exactly how many schools are being run.
When you have a small set of constantly available data points, a few things shift:
Confidence – Leaders feel less like they’re flying blind, especially around roll, staffing and cash.
Speed – You can respond when the picture starts to move, not when it’s already become a crisis.
Trust – When governors, heads and bursars are looking at the same live numbers, conversations become calmer and more focused.
Alignment – People across departments see the same story, instead of defending “their” spreadsheet.
A practical example from the episode:
If you notice a dip in Year 7 enquiries in January on a live dashboard, you can:
Adjust marketing activity
Revisit your messaging
Talk to feeder schools
…in time to influence the outcome, rather than simply explaining the shortfall six months later.
From Excel Fatigue to “Decision-Ready” Data
A phrase that crops up in the conversation is “decision-ready data” – which sounds a bit consulting-speak, but the idea is straightforward:
Every number you look at should help you say: yes, no, or not yet.
That means moving away from:
Big report packs that try to cover everything
Manual spreadsheets that only one person truly understands
Metrics that are interesting, but don’t actually change what you do
And towards:
A small set of clearly defined indicators
One shared view (a simple dashboard, not a flashy BI project)
Data that is updated automatically wherever possible
The goal isn’t more data. It’s data that actually prompts action.
Where to Start: Three Numbers on One Screen
The good news, as John and Elise stress, is that this does not need to be a massive IT project.
You can start ridiculously small. For example:
Pick three indicators you wish you always had in front of you
Admissions pipeline (enquiries → visits → offers → acceptances)
Cash position / forecast
Staff costs as a percentage of income
Staff absence
Your “Armageddon number” (the point at which roll or income triggers serious action)
Bring them into one shared view
This could be as simple as a Google Sheet or Excel file set up as a dashboard.
The key is that everyone is looking at the same version.
Make it as live as you reasonably can
Link it to existing systems or exports so it updates with minimal manual effort.
Reduce copying and pasting wherever possible – that’s where errors and fatigue creep in.
If you’re thinking, “We don’t have Power BI or a data team,” that’s fine. The episode is very clear: the win is in clarity and consistency, not in fancy visuals.
A Simple Pilot for This Term
In the episode, Elise suggests a very practical “this term” experiment – especially if you’re listening around November or mid-year:
Map your data pain points
Where are you most blind or slow today? For example:
Do you only see a clear admissions picture once a term?
Do you struggle to know, mid-term, if you’re on track for next year’s roll?
Are staffing costs creeping up without you noticing until year-end?
Choose one area to pilot a live dashboard
Good candidates:
Pupil recruitment
Cash and working capital
Boarding occupancy
Bursaries and discounts as a percentage of fee income
Ask: “Where would a clearer weekly picture change the decisions we make?”
Ask the key question: “What decisions do we wish we could make faster?”Then work backwards:
Which 3–5 numbers would unlock those decisions?
Who needs to see them?
How often?
By January, you could be going into SLT and committee meetings with one simple page that everyone recognises and understands.
Lessons from the Bursar’s Chair
Both hosts draw on lived experience. Boiled down, their “lessons learnt” from trying this in real schools look like:
Start with the question, not the tech For example: “Are we on track for next year’s roll?” Build a dashboard around that, rather than starting from a list of available reports.
Less is more A handful of well-chosen indicators, consistently used, will usually beat a 40-page pack nobody has time to digest.
Involve others early Middle leaders and budget holders are more likely to trust and use the data if they’ve had a say in what’s on the screen and how it’s defined.
Agree definitions up front “Enquiry”, “application”, “offer accepted”, “staff cost” – make sure everyone means the same thing. Otherwise you’ve just moved the argument from one spreadsheet to another.
Their transferable tip:
Start with one board or SLT question and design backwards from that. Don’t try to fix everything at once.
Build, Buy or Stick With Spreadsheets?
Towards the end of the episode, there’s a brief “debate slot” around three trade-offs:
Do you try to make everything live – or focus on a few key metrics?
Everything live: impressive, but heavy and hard to maintain.
Essentials live: lighter, faster, and more likely to be used.
Do you centralise into one dashboard – or let each area keep its own spreadsheets?
Centralised: one version of the truth, better for governance.
Local: flexible, but risks conflicting numbers and confusion.
Do you build in-house – or partner with someone?
In-house: maximum control and tailoring, but relies on scarce skills.
Partner: faster and more robust, but involves cost and a mindset shift around control.
There isn’t a single “right” answer; it depends on your setting. The key is to be honest about where you are now, and pick the next small, sensible step.
Try This Before Your Next Meeting
If you take one thing from this episode, make it this:
Before your next SLT or governors’ meeting, choose three numbers you wish everyone could see on one screen – and sketch how you’d show them.
You don’t need new software to do that. You just need to decide:
What matters most right now
Who needs to see it
How often you can realistically keep it up to date
From there, you can layer in better tools and automation over time.
If you’d like to listen to the full conversation with John and Elise, or explore more content for independent school leaders and bursars, you’ll find it here:
