PRESS RELEASE

Compass launches WA operations, surpasses 1800 schools and 2 million users nationally 

Flags accelerated international expansion efforts across the UK, Ireland and Canada

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Perth, Australia, November 12, 2019: Compass today announces the launch of its Western Australian operations, opening a new office in Perth’s CBD with local support staff to help lead the digital transformation of the State’s public and private schools.

Commenting on the news, John de la Motte, Compass CEO and co-founder says, “The expansion of our operations in Perth is an exciting step forward in our goal to bring high-skilled technology opportunities to teachers, students and parents across Australia and the world. 

“Western Australian schools are in high demand of a specialised and robust school management system that meets the vast and complex needs of the State’s education system, from student welfare and curriculum coordination to parent communication and payments - the Compass Platform has been developed to automate much of the time-consuming administration tasks involved in the day-to-day of school life, freeing teachers up to focus on students,” de la Motte continued. 

The WA expansion is another achievement in what has been a milestone year for Compass. The education platform, which is used by more than 1800 schools across the Eastern Seaboard, has also recently been named the chosen school management software provider by the Catholic Education System and is the first education platform provider to pass Western Australia’s stringent school privacy and data protection regulations. 

Compass has experienced significant traction and is today used by 1 in 12 Australians. Building out its education ecosystem to offer a full school management platform, it has the backing of Advent Partners, a private equity firm with $500 million+ under management, with the firm investing $60 million in respect to Compass. Compass has also recently accelerated its global expansion efforts, launching in Ireland, the UK and Canada

Compass services government, Catholic and independent schools with a total potential student pool of 3.8 million and an addressable market in Australia worth about $265 million, a number that’s expected to nearly double in value by 2023, according to research conducted by LEK. 

“The number of schools in Australia has remained relatively constant over the past five years, while student populations are increasing by about 1.6% year-on-year. This means educators need to streamline and automate existing workflows to ensure the right level of care and consideration can continue to be afforded to the expanding number of students on each campus,” de la Motte said. 

Growing to support 2400 students and 220 staff, Perth’s Shenton College needed a way to improve communication with the thousands of stakeholders involved in the school community. As a result, the teaching executive team embarked on a mission to find a learning management system that brought its community closer together.

“We believe that we should be making our lives, and the lives of our community members, simpler. We can’t afford to be using concurrent systems that don’t interact and talk to each other. We’ve incrementally brought our community into the Compass ecosystem so everything is in one place. It is now organically part of our culture – how we share information, how we communicate,” Mr. Chris Hill, Shenton College Associate Principal said.

Leveraging the Compass platform so that the school can use one solution from one supplier rather than attempting to bolt together various pieces of technology, Shenton College has integrated all facets of student management on the Compass platform. From roll marking to student welfare, parent communication and curriculum planning, it means its teachers can focus on providing the best education to its students, rather than being weighed down by time-consuming, repetitive tasks.

“As a platform, Compass is dynamic - changing and responding to our needs. We can’t afford to sit on our hands – schools are always evolving and we’re very comfortable and confident to have a technology partner like Compass by our side," Mr. Hill said.

About Compass 

Compass Education helps school communities simplify complexity with an all-in-one school management platform and technology ecosystem. Compass empowers 1800+ schools in Australia, Ireland and Canada with the tools they need to reduce time-consuming repetitive tasks. From student information management and roll marking to parent communication and cashless school canteens, every aspect of a school’s operation can be connected in Compass. For more information visit compass.education or follow Compass on Facebook.