End-of-term reports for private courses: what to review

At the end of each term, a course owner should review seven reports: enrolment and re-enrolment, attendance, class fill rates, collections, overdue fees, paused enrolments and lead outcomes. The point is not to summarise the past but to decide what happens next: which classes open or merge, how pricing and payment plans change, and who gets a call first.

Before you run the numbers

Reports are only as good as the data behind them. Before closing the term, check that:

• Attendance has been recorded for every lesson.
• All payments received during the term have been entered.
• Students who left have been moved to past status.
• Every enquiry has an outcome recorded.

Also pick a comparison point. One term’s figures on their own say little. Put them next to the previous term, or the same term last year, and patterns start to show.

1. Enrolment and re-enrolment

What to look at:

• Active students at the start and end of the term.
• New enrolments during the term.
• Students who left, and why.
• Students who have re-enrolled for next term.

Decisions it drives:

• If re-enrolment is clearly lower for one course or level, look at its content, teacher or timetable.
• If “the time did not suit us” keeps appearing as a reason for leaving, add different time slots next term.
• If new enrolments cluster in a particular month, plan your promotion calendar around it.

2. Attendance

Attendance is the earliest signal of re-enrolment. Students who stop coming regularly are much less likely to sign up again.

What to look at:

• Average attendance by class.
• Average attendance by teacher.
• Attendance by day and time slot.
• Students whose attendance dropped noticeably during the term.

Decisions it drives:

• If one time slot consistently has low attendance, say early weekday evenings, shrink it next term or give it to a different age group.
• If one class in a course lags well behind the others, talk with the teacher about the group. Make it a support conversation, not a reprimand.
• Hand the list of students with falling attendance to your front-desk team before the new term and plan a short call to each family.

The accuracy of this report depends on how attendance is taken. See our attendance tracking software page for more.

3. Class fill rates

What to look at:

• Each class’s capacity and its student count at term end.
• Classes that ran under capacity all term.
• Classes that were always full or had a waiting list.
• Weekly room usage.

Decisions it drives:

• Consider merging two same-level classes that ran well under capacity. Tell families early.
• Open a new class for courses that were always full, and offer places to the waiting list first.
• Use empty room hours for a new course or for one-to-one lessons.

For example, if a class with space for 12 ran all term with 5 students, the teacher cost stayed the same while revenue fell below half of what the class could bring in. The fill-rate report makes classes like this visible.

4. Collections

What to look at:

• Total sales for the term versus the amount actually collected.
• The split between upfront, instalment and partial payments.
• The split by payment method: cash, bank transfer, online card payment, promissory notes.
• Collections by month.

Decisions it drives:

• If collections dip in the same months every year, move instalment due dates away from them.
• If few families pay by card online, make the payment link easier to find.
• If the gap between sales and collections is growing, rethink the payment plans you offer next term.

To read income alongside expenses, see our school income and expense tracking software page.

5. Overdue fees

The collections report shows what came in. The overdue report shows what should have come in but did not. Review it separately every term.

What to look at:

• Total overdue amount and number of students.
• Ageing: under a month, one to three months, over three months.
• Students still attending whose payments are late.
• Students who have left with a balance outstanding.

Decisions it drives:

• Talk to families of current students with late payments before the new term starts and agree a new plan.
• Keep a separate follow-up list for balances owed by students who have left.
• If overdue amounts concentrate in one payment plan, change that plan.

If you work with promissory notes, check their due dates alongside this report. Where legal steps may be needed, confirm the current rules with your lawyer.

6. Paused enrolments

Pausing lets a student take a break instead of leaving. But if nobody checks whether paused students come back, a pause quietly becomes a dropout.

What to look at:

• How many students paused during the term, and why.
• Students whose pause ended and who returned.
• Students whose pause ended and who did not return.

Decisions it drives:

• Call every student whose pause has ended without a return, before the new term begins.
• If reasons repeat, such as exams, health or moving house, plan flexible options for them, for instance fewer lessons during exam season.
• If your pause rules are vague (maximum length, how many times per year), make them clear in next term’s contract.

7. Lead outcomes

End of term is not only about current students. Families who enquired but did not enrol are your warmest list for next term.

What to look at:

• Number of enquiries and how many became enrolments.
• Reasons for lost leads: price, timing, location, chose another school.
• Leads waiting for a call-back.
• Which sources bring leads that actually enrol.

Decisions it drives:

• Call leads who said the timing did not work and tell them about your new time slots.
• If price comes up often, review instalment options or term bundles. A discount is not the only answer.
• Spend less time and money on sources that rarely convert.

For keeping leads and conversation notes in order, see our enrollment lead tracking software page.

Turn reports into a decision list

Reading reports is not enough. Finish with a concrete list:

1. Pull no more than three findings from each report.
2. Write one decision per finding, such as “merge the Tuesday 5 pm class with Thursday”.
3. Give each decision an owner and a deadline.
4. Revisit the list at the end of the new term’s first month and check the results.

If you run several branches, produce the same reports per branch. Differences between branches reveal problems that disappear in the overall totals.

Summary

• Make sure attendance, payment and enquiry data is complete before closing the term.
• Review seven reports: enrolment, attendance, fill rates, collections, overdue fees, pauses and leads.
• Compare each report with the previous term.
• Turn findings into decisions with owners and deadlines.
• Check the results a month into the new term.

If you would rather pull these from ready-made reports than build them by hand, you can try Jamaster’s 47 built-in reports and CSV export in the 10-day free demo.