Leweston school abrupt closure

[kashcai]

Really sad to see this - another very good school that was just about affordable to lots of local families gone by the wayside. Seems to have come as a blindsiding shock to parents who found out today. Really sad for all the kids who won’t be returning to their classmates and community after half term. Clayesmore is miles away and Leweston was mostly a day school I believe. Our child was so keen to be heading there next year. Hope all affected manage to find places in time for Monday at their preferred back up options. Thinking of all the staff too.
https://www.leweston.co.uk/

I am sure that the Sherborne schools will have space available, but there will be a reason why parents chose Leweston instead of them in the first place.

Apparently the group owning Leweston was looking for investment to cover cash flow and run out of time. It does beg the question why they started the academic year if the situation was that precarious in the first place.

Seems terrible to let people know over half term.. poor families and teachers..What about the kids doing GCSEs and A levels? The upheaval of having to move schools mid year is really terrible.

Yes just over 500 day pupils and about 70 boarders.

That is very difficult for all involved. Clayesmore is about 35 mins drive away, Perhaps Sherborne maybe able to organise a daily coach to help take the pupils and staff from the Leweston school area to their new school. It would be worth turning up to school at 7.30 am to limp through the year, especially if you were in an exam year.

I guess the younger pupils may decide to look elsewhere.

The premises look absolutely beautiful. I wonder what happens to the building and grounds now?

Dreadful that they even started this academic year knowing they were in such a precarious financial position.

I would encourage parents to visit
Bryanston for the prep and senior. They have limited space but are solid as a rock financially. Also just an incredible body of staff that will support families through this horrible time. (I don’t work for them but am a current and ex parent)

Must be so stressful, 3 working days to find and assess a new school and get application sorted. Imagine it’s ruined a few half term breaks for other schools admissions staff too - I saw Sherborne Group are offering some big discounts and are open for viewings from tomorrow, they moved fast!

I suspect Sherborne will do quite well out of this, especially for senior school children whose families may be prepared to dig a little deeper for a couple of years to reduce the risk of more disruption. It is certainly much closer to Leweston than Clayesmore is (10-15 minutes vs 40-50 minutes).

From what I've read Claymore is part of the same group - so why are the teachers not getting paid?

I would agree about Bryanston being a better option, but it is quite a distance

Millfield have announced their admissions team is working over half term and happy to talk to anyone who has faced a “sudden change in circumstances”

What discounts is Sherborne offering beyond the regular scholarships and bursaries that all schools offer?

They announced some time ago the introduction of a new day boys fee for pupils that do not need boarding.

No Clayesmore is part of ILG which is a different trust-they have (not all too altruistically) stepped in to offer spaces in their schools in the hope their voids are filled.
I wouldn’t say it was a great alternative given how Clayesmore has changed irrevocably since it was taken over recently.

I’d say parents who chose Leweston did so to avoid Sherborne vibes. Bryanston or Millfield would be a better fit but the fees have some significant rises vs Leweston. I gather Lew had many day pupils so distance will be a factor.

they have to be careful not to upset the apple cart with current families, so can’t be huge. They’re currently selling a boarding house and have made lots of staff redundant so will be keen for more bums on seats.

I know that King’s Taunton offer emergent and/or short-term placements. It’s a bit more of a trek for day pupils (still only just under an hour drive), but they have an outstanding boarding structure. They’re also great with helping with second hand uniform to be readily available etc and take boarders from age 8. They also use very similar exam boards to Leweston for exam year pupils. Maybe for families in between Sherborne and Taunton it could be an option?

Such sad news. Aother community lost, with no sign of the VAT going into state schools as promised.

I've heard that King's is far from financially stable - their books online do reflect that, too.

Queen's College, Taunton is supposedly more stable and also a cheaper option.

Taunton School again stable but more expensive. I suppose it's what the pupils and parents requirements are but I'd definitely check the books before jumping ship (admittedly hard when you've only got 3 days to do it!).

Absolutely. If funds can stretch, much safer to go for the local heavy hitters such as Canford or Bryanston which are known to be financially solid but there will be very few places.

Only asking for 12.5% of the fees for this term.
For the Spring/Lent and Summer/Trinity terms, where there is a material difference in fees, they will charge halfway between the comparable Leweston fee and our normal fee.

Sherborne, like all the other schools out there will be desperate to pick up extra pupils.

Thanks to our previous leader for that act of pure spite. I would take a wild guess that HIS children dont attend a state school 😡

King’s are backed by the Woodard Corp (the largest CofE independent school cooperation), and they’ve been known to get some of their schools out of financial problems. King’s also only had a £1 mil loss last year.. They’ve recently provided all students with brand new laptops, built a 6th form centre and another international school in India (with another currently being constructed in SA), they also have just had a massive 2-week cricket and netball tour to Barbados, and a 1-week Ireland rugby tour, with a plan for a trip to Iceland and two to France in this coming year, I can’t see them doing this if they weren’t financially stable. Pupil numbers (especially in the 6th form) have also risen drastically over the last couple of years. It’s definitely an option for anyone looking for 6th form/senior school.

@tachetastic12.5% of the total term fee for this half term, no registration or deposit fee, no entrance test and half the difference between Sherborne and leweston fees off afterwards- not sure how long for but also said they have a healthy bursary fund! Thought that pretty good - hopefully will get a few families out of a tricky fix and help smooth the path for those doing exams.

Concept said the had £10+ million to invest. Obviously in fantasy land.
Leweston was ok without them. They had loads of kids on the school register so even with the beastly government’s misguided politics of envy, Concept Education seem to have badly mismanaged the situation.

It was utterly negligent of the governors to open for the new school year if finances were so bad they would close 8 weeks later. Really shocking. It’s awful for the pupils and parents, particularly those in exam years, but it’s much worse for the staff who have been laid off at no notice and, I read, possibly not even being paid this month. Rural schools are big employers and big users of local services, their closures really affect the local communities. All extremely depressing.

I’m really sympathetic to the issue on this thread, but if you’re talking about KS his kids do attend state schools.

Why did leweston close?

Latest ISI report they had 480 kids which is not tiny.

What is Sherborne school like?

What are Sherborne vibes?

80 of those are nursery though so it’s a small school- 400 kids across 13 years whereas many other schools mentioned here have 600+ over 5 years (9-13). It closed due to cash flow issues so I guess just economies of scale and rising costs. I’m not sure what its student capacity was ( ie how full the school was). My understanding is that it was a bit of a gentler, more nurturing school.

I agree VAT has been a factor but in rural areas falling populations and falling birth rates overall are also starting to bite- the peak birth year is the current year 10 so just on number of available kids to recruit you’re seeing a 1% annual decline from there.

Also the general decline in boarding and the increasing localisation of boarding ( due to the trend for weekly vs full) also impacts rural areas more because they are not attracting DC from a long way away to the extent they did.

i think some closures were inevitable but VAT definitely sped it up.