Old Palace School bursaries

@SprogTakesAQuarry thank you, not sure how to use this platform so probably reaching out to the wrong audience - will take a look at money matters too

@Meleena I think you will get the best advice if you start a new thread on this. You could try posting in money matters or legal advice topics as well as in secondary education. Good luck

Hi all, my daughter is due to sit her GCSEs this May and attends Old Palace School of John Whitgift. I've been paying Alumnae fees into the Whitgift Foundation and the school announced that it is due to close in 2025. Given that there will no longer be an alumnae, I should get a refund back on the amounts paid over the last 5 years. I've emailed the Foundation a few times, but no response. Any suggestions on what I should do, I'm not the only parent asking.

Just the most awful news - poor poor girl.

I understand that the girl who was killed was the friend of the killers ex-girlfriend. Standing up for her friend - the values of standing up for others that OP taught so well. Devastated for her and her family and for her poor friend who saw it happen.

I can't stop thinking about that poor girl.

Terrible news on top of what has already been a shocking week for the Old Palace community

Jesus Christ, poor, poor girl.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12565699/Police-rush-scene-incident-outside-busy-Croydon-shopping-centre.html

Truly truly awful!!!

The real issue with OP is that it provided a good education to a lot of girls in really awful circumstances - far less the case with the boys at Whitgift and Trinity living in the leafy suburbs. For many of these girls OP was the point of stability in their chaotic lives and now the rug has been pulled from under their feet. If Whitgift cared about these girls they'd academise the school.

I don't think it was 'for sale', rather it got swallowed, (from what I heard) like countless other private school by various quangos, trusts, and private equities.

I really don't think it would have closed if it had stayed on the one site and not expanded, but its true the bankrupt council, the bodged redevelopment of Whitgift centre and Westfield which closed many shops and killed off the shopping centre, none of these things have helped, so who knows?

The only development in the centre has been the building of 1000's of luxury flats designed for singles and couples and bars and eating in Boxpark to entertain them. (something that is happening all over London).

I do believe Old Palace had an important role in the much 'uglier' north of Croydon in providing local girls a first class education, there's nothing to replace it, which is sad.

Would the school have closed in 1993 if Whitgift didn't buy it?
Why was it for sale?

I think it’s a bit simplistic to say that the Whitgift Foundation just didn’t want to fund them in the way they are funding the others.

the £1billion shopping revamp property punt 12 years ago that blew up in their faces and burnt a big hole in their finances and the girls school closes?

The Foundation have owned the Whitgift school since 1600, they owned Old palace since 1993....guess which one closes?

Old Palace was always a local school in an unfashionable area, next to places like West Croydon Thornton Heath that many wealthy SW London parents would run a mile. Whitgift took a gamble they could get the daughters of the Whitgift crowd and they expanded the school massively with the leafy Melville Rd site, over the road from the Whitgift sports club, it didn't work which anyone could have told them wouldn't.

So you had the same crowd but a much bigger site , with some girls attending the Prep, their parents not dreaming of sending them to the main site (My friend was one who was aiming for Wallington or Croydon High at 11+, but was happy with the huge space her DD had at the Prep.

Pre- Whitgift , this would have never happened, as you chose the main site or didn't choose the school at all.

Old Palace's results were diluted after it merged with the non-selective Melville Rd school, (Whitgifts idea) which was the final nail in the coffin.

I think that's very true about girls in sixth form, it certainly dragged my son up to their higher standards. You're right, the girls schools are missing a trick. An dthe boys sixth forms are tough to get into now, especially as they're competing against the really bright girls, so more sixth form provision locally for the boys would be well subscribed I think.

Central Croydon was meant to be up and coming. And at one point, it actually was. Sadly though, it never happened due to (very provable and evidenced) mis managememt by the now bankrupt local council, and it really now is way worse than it was 10 years ago. Extremely depressing and run down.

I'm sure it will improve at some point. It has to with the development and the transport links, but not in the timescales for girls starting school now.

A big problem lots of girls schools are facing is that a lot of the brightest, most confident girls only stay until GCSEs, do really well and then want co-ed in the Sixth Form. Lots of boys schools have cottoned on to this and made their Sixth Forms co-ed snapping up exactly those girls.
It then artificially bumps up the A level league tables of a lot of schools that are only co-ed in the Sixth Form. We are seeing this phenomenon in a lot of private schools and even some state grammars.
The co-ed Sixth Forms can then offer more A level choices as well etc and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. The stellar A level results then ensure the reputation of those schools and make sure the places further down in the schools are filled.
The girls schools are stupid not to compete and also admit boys in the Sixth Form.

Croydon is meant to be “up and coming”…
I think the exact location of a private school is quite important to some parents, including how safe it is directly next to the school, what shops/restaurants etc are nearby and if there is a nice feel. I don’t think many people rich enough to afford private school choose to live in Central Croydon? And the richer lot out in eg Purley/Sanderstead etc will more likely send their girls to Waldingham or other Surrey schools and Wimbledon lot to a more local GDST school or other private school.

Exact location really does matter for a private school and that is not something that can be changed. GDST is also a big brand for girls schools. It’s interesting that people are having a go at the Whitgift Foundation, I doubt any trustee would do anything without relying on what some professional adviser has told them in writing. They will have covered themselves and they have insurance. So unless you can prove fraud/bad faith, nothing can be done.

I think the scandalous way Croydon town centre has been left to rot by the corrupt and bankrupt planning department must have played a part here. Whitgift is in S Croydon and Trinity in Shirley and both can be reached without much interaction with the central part of Croydon. I mean who would want to send their kids there every day? I find it depressing going there myself now after previously been a big supporter of Croydon town centre as a place. It's terrible how it's been left to decay and turn into a lawless dump. Even at T and W kids are hassled on buses.and mugged for airpods and iPhones on a regular basis. I can't see the appeal now of sending young girls into that for a school that maybe is no longer up there academically. I hope the girls all get sorted at other schools soon.

Student numbers in 2019 were approx 725, including nearly 100 for nursery and just under that for prep. So the 608 now reported looks very similar. Still below planned by a lot.

Is it fair that Whitgift has peacocks in the grounds and OP has to close?

No but they've been consntent in treating the girls as second class citizens. Now they are support humans for the boys as their school is being chucked under the bus to raise funds to ensure that the financial hit the FOundation took over Westfield does not impact on the boys in any shape or form.

Its a disgrace and IMO the entire court of govenors should be debarred from acting as trustees or directors ever again.

This is very sad news.

Why has OP become so unpopular? I read it had 900 girls in 2019 but it's down to 600 now. It can't just be birthrate because lots of other independent schools are doing well.

Is it fair that Whitgift has peacocks in the grounds and OP has to close?

It's frustrating that the accounts lack the details of costs/income for each school

It's a mess if some shops were forcibly closed to make way for Westfield.

I gather that the boys at Whitgift and Trinity have had a letter this weekend telling them that they have nothing to worry about - ie its just the girls who'll suffer for the Foundation's financial incompetence. Very telling comment on the OP Facebook page that the boys at Whitgift get to keep their flamingos and wallabies whilst the girls lose their school.