Hatton asked about the best aircraft to start a group with.
Best aircraft for a group is a totaly different question, to my mind the best group aircraft would probably be an LAA aircraft as the savings on maintanence will save a load over a CAA type, flew our RV7 Barton - Lille and back this weekend, 2:05 out, 2:15 back, cost was £84 plus fuel (125l), try and achieve that in a Cessna of any type and I will be surprised if you manage it!
For a school the argument is completely different, in the UK performance is not normally a problem from most fields, reliabilty, operating cost and ease of maintenance becomes the major factor which is where the C152 comes in.