Final Results

WEY EDUCATION PLC

("Wey", the "Group" or the "Company")

PRELIMINARY ANNOUNCEMENT OF RESULTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 AUGUST 2020

Investor Presentation

Wey Education plc will provide a live presentation to retail investors reporting on the Group's preliminary results via the Investor Meet Company ("IMC") platform on 11 November 2020 at 4pm.

· The online presentation is open to all existing and potential shareholders.

· Questions can be submitted pre-event via your IMC dashboard up to 9am the day before the meeting or any time during the live presentation via the "Ask a Question" function. Although the Company may not be in a position to answer every question it receives, it will address the most prominent within the confines of information already disclosed to the market. Responses to the Q&A from the live presentation will be published at the earliest opportunity on the Investor Meet Company platform. 

· Investor feedback can also be submitted directly to management post-event to ensure the Company can understand the views of all elements of its shareholder base.

Investors can sign up to Investor Meet Company for free and add to meet Wey Education plc via:

https://www.investormeetcompany.com/wey-education-plc/register-investor 

Investors who have already registered and added to meet the Company, will be automatically invited to the meeting.

The review of the financial year ending on the 31st August 2020 gives us the first opportunity to present the results of the new strategy which commenced in November 2019, whereby we focused the activities of Wey Education through InterHigh and Academy 21. I am pleased to report that we have achieved all of the short to medium term goals that we set at that time and that the business is performing well against all of our internal metrics.

The growth of our student base is very pleasing, and it is becoming increasingly clear that we represent a true alternative to a traditional education in a bricks and mortar environment. At the time of writing over 3,000 students receive an education from Wey and the quality and breadth of education they receive is no less impressive than the high number of students enrolled.

As part of our strategic review, we wanted to continue to refine and show ambition in our education provision. We have restructured our senior education team into a flexible, collegiate structure to suit our modern, progressive ethos. Under the leadership of our Director of Education, Dr Sara de Freitas, we have seen early benefits of this new strategy including improvements in the quality of materials, transparency of reporting and a highly motivated new team.

Our educational delivery and engagement goals include the desire to incorporate relevant augmented reality, artificial intelligence and gamification as part of our provision and Sara has significant experience in these fields. We continue to be an attractive destination for teachers and have been able to support our teaching staff with our accredited teaching online qualification which is being undertaken and passed by an increasing number of our team. We are experiencing no difficulties in the recruitment of high-quality teaching staff to accommodate new learners.

This calendar year has also seen us recruit a new Director of Marketing, Esther Clark, who is implementing strategies to not only increase the awareness of our services but also to directly market to parents and educational institutions. Whilst it is early days, we are pleased to note that our marketing expenditure is seeing tangible results, particularly from awareness and radio campaigns. We are increasing our investment in Wey ambassadors and believe that the recruitment of these well-known individuals, in a very modern marketing mix, will lead to improvements in brand association and awareness. We are confident these new marketing initiatives will continue to attract new students to our ever-increasing cohort. Our strategy going forward is to continue to increase marketing expenditure in a targeted way, benefitting from the knowledge we are gaining from more market analysis and feedback. Our enhanced education structure gives us more opportunities in terms of gearing our education provision towards an ever-increasing number of students.

In Academy 21 we have continued to grow our sales staff and in the light of recent events continue to demonstrate that Wey is a real alternative for local authorities, schools and other institutions. We have no doubt that further opportunities are available to us in the business to business market where we sell directly to commercial organisations and school groups and I believe that the opportunity here has only been limited so far by our desire to focus on the delivery of our initial strategic goals. We are also increasing our investments in Information Technology, with further enhancement and solidification of the Wey platform. Our ability to use third party platforms ensures scalability and quality of delivery and we are also improving our operational systems.

Financially, this was a year for Wey to demonstrate that it could show a very clear relationship between student numbers, gross margin and profitability and I am very pleased that we have recorded a profit for the year which is not compromised by external investments and restructuring costs as it was in previous periods. I believe that these results also show the ability for Wey to gear its investments in marketing further to achieve increasing levels of profitability in future. Of course, we are also focused on ensuring that we continue to attract students through the quality and desirability of our education provision. Our cash position is very strong and gives us a firm basis for future investment considerations in new materials and technology.

Having achieved our short to medium term goals in a timely fashion, we are now focused on the next steps towards Wey becoming the size of a Multi Academy Trust in terms of student numbers. Clearly, there are a multitude of opportunities and online education is now in the broader conversation across the media and elsewhere. I am determined that we retain our focus but remain ambitious as to the markets that we can address.

Dame Erica Pienaar has recently stepped down as a Non-Executive director of Wey and I would like to take this opportunity of thanking her for her steadfast support and being instrumental in defining Wey's attitude towards the quality and safety of its education provision. Erica has been elected Chancellor Emeritus of InterHigh in perpetuity and continues to head our Academic Council. We are currently interviewing for a replacement Non-Executive Director.

Finally, I must thank Jacqueline Daniell, the Board and our staff for their hard work and dedication. Everyone at Wey is committed to providing a high-quality individual learning experience for our students. The success of this financial year and our solid basis for the future is a result of their commitment.

Barrie RJ Whipp

Chairman

10 November 2020

I am pleased to be able to report on a year where Wey Education set and met its clear objectives of accelerated growth, with measurable results. High level goals and initiatives have been linked to operations so that every part of the business has understood what was to be accomplished and delivered their targets. We have continued to build alignment across departments with a detailed plan that rallies everyone around KPIs, milestones, and deliverables for young learners.

At the start of the academic year, new pupil enrolment numbers benefitted from the summer radio campaigns with the more recently established junior school performing well. Student numbers generally rose through the autumn period and throughout the new year. From the beginning of the UK lockdown, student numbers enrolled in Alternative Provision started to decline as Local Authorities and state school customers sought to look at utilising the provision they were now having to provide themselves while their schools were closed. However, the total student numbers across the operating businesses continued to climb throughout the year.

For clarity I describe our operating businesses as follows:

InterHigh (www.interhigh.co.uk), InterHigh founded in 2005, has a 15-year track-record of delivering online schooling for both UK based and international fee-paying pupils. Interhigh caters for pupils from age 8 to 25 years old, offering a wide range of academic and enrichment courses, IGCSE, AS and A-Level subjects as well as vocational qualifications. It is a complete school with full academic, health and wellbeing and social programmes ensuring that all students who join the school study successfully for their future career choices. InterHigh is also available for partner schools and academies, both UK and international, to deliver supplementary academic programmes.

Academy 21 (www.academy21.co.uk) Academy21 was founded in 2011 and is a specialist in providing Alternative Provision online. It delivers services designed to help schools, local authorities and other public bodies such as children's homes meet the challenge of delivering short, medium- and long-term provision for pupils with complex behavioural, medical and mental health issues. It provides a balance of academic challenge and educational engagement through quality teaching and learning with flexible study programmes - responding directly to the challenges schools and local authorities face in securing high quality, cost effective alternative education provision.

Education and Learning

As part of Wey's wider business strategy adopted in November 2019, Dr Sara de Freitas was appointed in January 2020 to provide Leadership of the Education Strategy to enhance quality, improve student engagement and scale for growth. This year has seen the reshaping of the Education Department, introducing a more collegiate structure to lead the main programmes of the education strategy - quality, curriculum and the learner experience, as well as leading on outcomes. In addition, Sara has strengthened the safeguarding processes and procedures and re-aligned the Academic Council. Sara also defined our internal investment in a Learning Design Team for the Learning Development Programme, attracted external funding from InnovateUK to develop virtual labs, trips and campus and started to implement the Wey Education Model of Learn-Explore-Apply-Reflect. This is designed to make use of different teaching modes that correspond with the different learning modes pupils assume during the process of learning.

The education strategy also includes a number of associated plans including the Professional Development Plan, a training programme for Newly Qualified Teachers, and improvements to the Teaching Online ATHE accredited course. Other initiatives include the Quality Enhancement Plan with an academic focus on attaining Online accreditation, implementing the Quality Framework, School Improvement Plans, revamping the Assessment and Examinations facility, enhanced Education Delivery and a revision of Alternative Provision, Primary and College Plans.

In summary, our education provision has been restructured to ensure the best individual learning experience across the Wey group for an increasing number of students.

Marketing

In March 2020 Esther Clark took up her duties as Director of Marketing to continue the marketing activities and growth of InterHigh and Academy21 in both the UK and international markets. Wey Education uses a marketing mix as well as traditional and digital channels to not only increase awareness of its offering but also to guide prospective families and clients from consideration to decision stages.

From May 2020, a marketing strategy for accelerated growth was developed that centres on the customer and growth of the customer base through the recruitment of students and business partners; the retention of students and clients; the referrals from increased awareness activity as well as media and public relations. Brand positioning, business to business and business to consumer marketing plans have been completed and actioned in 2020. A comprehensive Ambassador programme has been developed to accelerate brand awareness and growth.

Wey has achieved notable success in sharing student stories, testimonials and thought leadership in the form of news articles, blogs and industry publications. Sharing what Wey does and the benefits of online learning are essential to Wey's accelerated growth as online learning moves towards mainstream customers. InterHigh was recognised as "Educational Establishment of the Year" at the annual Education Resources Awards.

Staffing

Highly effective resourcing has been a key business initiative to enable the business to deliver both the growth and quality elements of the Wey strategy. There have been Executive appointments to the Board as described as well as the appointment of Keith Geraghty as Chief Technology Officer (CTO). The CTO is positioned to develop and deliver the technology strategy outlined below. The executive team is well set, performing well and positioned to further build on our global international strategy.

There has been further organisational realignment to enable the business to scale and grow in line with the business objectives of increased student enrolments. The overall headcount is now over 200 employees. A significant tranche of 42 teachers have joined for the new academic year ahead and recruitment to fulfil student demand and ensure a high-quality student experience as well as excellent educational outcomes is ongoing.

Wey had already launched its remote working policies before national lockdown and has been well placed to respond to the global pandemic from a highly engaged and motivated employee base. Our teaching staff have always worked remotely, meaning that we were able to continue our education provision with no disruption to our learners.

Technology

Current Wey technology architecture successfully delivers the needs of today's business. Wey has been preparing to scale to next level growth. Programmes to deliver exceptional service, deliver improved operational efficiency and to strategically assist learning delivery to remain at the forefront of education presents an opportunity for Wey to now invest in a step change in cutting edge technology architecture. With the appointment of a Chief Technical Officer, the division have been planning the new technology strategy and investment into the target Wey technology architecture has commenced with new platforms planned for delivery in 2021 and beyond.

The 2019- 2020 year has seen the greatest internal rate of change since our formation. Wey has implemented unprecedented marketing investments and activity and experienced increased level of interest, scrutiny and enrolments as a result. Simultaneously we have transformed our structures, content, processes and procedures to meet the actual and anticipated changing profile of our customers now and going forward to meet our ambitious vision.

The outlook for Wey Education is unequivocally optimistic. The impact of our previous consolidation and focus, followed by a robust strategy for accelerated growth has meant that the pandemic growth and subsequent changes in behaviour have presented yet further opportunities. The biggest opportunity of our lifetime is to fundamentally reshape the way we think about, develop, and value education systems around the world. Wey Education has the diligence, business plans and sustainability of the sector to deliver an increased breadth of offering beyond its UK time zone and secondary education.

The key factor determining investment decisions is Wey's clear angle of differentiation and skill set in comparison to emerging providers. We are well placed to capitalise on structural shifts with improving lifetime value to invest ahead of competition.

Wey is going forward into the 2020/21 academic year with mastery, autonomy and a great sense of purpose.

WEY EDUCATION PLC

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF COMPREHENSIVE INCOME

YEAR ENDED 31 AUGUST 2020

There is no recognised income or expense for the year other that the loss shown above and therefore no separate statement of other comprehensive income has been presented.

WEY EDUCATION PLC

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL POSITION

AT 31 AUGUST 2020

WEY EDUCATION PLC

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF CHANGES IN EQUITY

AT 31 AUGUST 2020

WEY EDUCATION PLC

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF CASHFLOWS

AT 31 AUGUST 2020

WEY EDUCATION PLC

NOTES TO THE RESULTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 AUGUST 2020

1. The financial information set out above does not constitute statutory accounts for the purposes of the Companies Act 2006. These financial statements have not been reviewed or approved by the Group's auditors.

2. Wey Education Plc has adopted International Financial Reporting Standards ("IFRS"), IFRIC interpretations and the Companies Act 2006 as applicable to companies reporting under IFRS.

3. Exceptional costs

The group incurred exceptional costs in the prior year in respect of:

4. Discontinued Operations

During the prior year, the Group took the decision to cease operations in its overseas entities. Therefore, the results of the following entities were reclassified as discontinued operations in accordance with IFRS5:Wey Education Nigeria Limited;Wey Education Limited; andWey Education Consulting (Beijing) LimitedIn addition, various expenses incurred by the parent entity in relation to the discontinued operations were classified within discontinued operations.

5. Changes to accounting policy

The Group applied IFRS 16 from 1 September 2019 and elected to transition to IFRS 16 using the modified retrospective approach and has not restated comparatives for the 2019 reporting period, as permitted under the specific transition provisions in the standard.

Initial application of IFRS 16 affected leases which had previously been classified as operating leases. At the year end, the Group has no short term or low value operating leases which would be exempt from the requirements of IFRS 16.

On adoption of IFRS 16, the group recognised lease liabilities in relation to leases which had previously been classified as 'operating leases' under the principles of IAS 17 Leases. These liabilities were measured at the present value of the remaining lease payments, discounted at a market rate for a loan of a similar amount and term as of 1 September 2019.

6. Capital reorganisation

On 24 September 2018 at a General Meeting, to allow the Company to create distributable reserves, shareholders approved a resolution to effect a capital reduction, transferring £6,000,000 from share premium to retained earnings. The transfer became effective on 21 December 2018 following Court approval.

7. Weighted average number of shares

The calculation of the basic earnings per share is based on the profit attributable to ordinary shareholders and the weighted average number of ordinary shares in issue during the period.

The calculation of the diluted earnings per share is based on the profit per share attributable to ordinary shareholders and the weighted average number of ordinary shares that would be in issue, assuming conversion of all dilutive potential ordinary shares into ordinary shares using the treasury share method.

Reconciliations of weighted average number of ordinary shares used in the calculation are set out below: