At the IPSEF 2026 conference, speakers already opening schools in India– or seriously eyeing the marketplace– shared what they have actually learnt more about taking British K‑12 brands into the world’s fastest‑rising education hotspot.1.
India is “the long, long video game”– and moms and dads move gradually
Iwan Lloyd, international advancement director, Bedford School cautioned that India is a “long, long game”: parents might go to a campus 5 or 6 times and typically want it to be running for a minimum of a year before registering. They drill into detail on teacher backgrounds and ongoing training, so UK schools should be prepared for adult examination and a sluggish develop.
2. Demand is substantial– and India currently does elite boarding very well
Maghin Tamilarasan, director of domestic and international partnerships at Haileybury, explained that India isn’t a blank slate: there are “excellent Indian boarding schools” that are often “enormously oversubscribed”. UK brands coming in have to really include something to a system where aspirational families already understand what premium looks like.
3. Co‑branding is not “second finest”– it’s a strategic choice
John Chisholm, director of global education at Whitgift School, explained that Whitgift’s Hyderabad job, Sagebrook International School ‘in association with Whitgift School’, is a purposeful co‑branding relocation. For a very first venture into India, sharing the front‑of‑house name with a strong local partner is a much safer way to “dip our toes and discover a lot” while still exporting educational DNA.
4. The best Indian partner has to do with values as much as scale
Alastair Morrison, managing director, RGS Guildford International, said RGS picked Ryan Group– one of the biggest privately managed groups in India, which runs over 150 schools– since of a “really strong alignment of values” and a real “conference of minds”. Values-based trust can be important to making it through the inescapable bumps.
5. Cultural intelligence is non‑negotiable for school leaders
Haileybury’s Tamilarasan stressed that heads in India need to have “cultural intelligence” and have the ability to welcome an “amazing, energetic, in some cases a mad” environment. He encouraged that heads ought to carry out duplicated, in‑person sees and invest “a good deal of time in situ” with prospective partners– arguing that, in India, cultural fit and first‑hand experience on the ground are as essential as the strength of a school’s brand name.