School closing down - gutted -what next?

[LidlshopwithWaitrosebags]

I realise this is happening up and down the country at the moment.

Dc's independent school has announced that due to falling numbers they will be closing at the end of the summer term. We are all naturally very upset.
The parents have grouped together and are trying to see if anything can be done to rescue the school, and have asked us to hold fire before looking for places at alternative schools.
But I'm worried that delaying looking for a new school will mean I will be rushed into taking whatever I can find, and want to start looking now, but feel disloyal to the school and the other parents,
But being blunt, we will all be competing for the same places if the school cannot be rescued.
I'm not that optimistic about the chances of the school being saved, so don't want to sacrifice the chance to choose from places remaining at other local schools.
Has anyone else any experience of this that can advise me?

Personally I would start looking now. I would also get your children's names on suitable State school waiting lists. Looking doesn't necessarily mean applying, but find out about the local schools and how well they match your child's needs.

I wouldn't wait either; I doubt other parents will hold off regardless of what they say.

If the school has suffered from falling numbers then I imagine other schools in the locale will be facing the same, which suggests to me that the competition for places might not be as fierce as one might expect.

And if other schools aren't facing falling numbers, it rather suggests that maybe there's an issue with the school that means its passing isn't such a tragedy after all.

That sounded meaner than I meant it to be, sorry

There are two state schools near me with very, very low numbers on the rolls. One was actually rather good but suffered from a lack of confidence from local parents. Goodness knows why. The other was/is a bit rubbish, but as long as either has such low pupil numbers they're going to struggle and it's a bit of a vicious circle :(

Has there been no indication prior to now that the school was in trouble? I've read threads elsewhere on MN where private schools have closed; it might be worth doing a bit of a search for them.

It has come as a complete shock. We knew the numbers were low, but were under the impression that it was sustainable and that things were picking up. The school is lovely, has great teachers and a nurturing ethos, but sadly lacks the facilities that the other schools have.
Some of the classes are so small that it puts off prospective parents, and some families have left as there were too few children to have a good social group. I don't think the school were doing anything wrong.
I think I will have to start looking, but I feel like if I find somewhere suitable that I would rather go sooner than later, as I will probably be ostracised in the playground for bailing out. I will probably still have to pay a terms fees in lieu even though the school is closing, which will be hard to find.
It's just a horrible situation.

It is natural to be upset. You have emotional capital tied up in the decision to choose this school. DC has even more emotional attachment. But ... at the end of the day, it is a business decision. You have to be hard hearted and clear headed: your DC come first.

There is usually a 'rescue committee' set up by parents. Dunno if it ever comes to anything.

Sounds as if numbers were too low to be sustainable. Did you have a rough idea as to what the breakeven number of pupils was?

There is always a parents rescue bid. you would however be very shortsighted not to be actively seeking places for your dcs elsewhere. If the school is indeed rescued then you can consider the terms and see if it is still right for you.

You don't owe a closing school any loyalty but you do have to look after your DCs interests.

Depending on how old your DC are I would take stock and think about next steps including Senior / Secondary schools.

i.e. if you have a DC is Y4 are there any obvious feeder schools into your secondary level choices?

Unless you think the school might be bought out, can find a rich educationally-minded philanthropist, or can convert to a free school, then I think you need to start looking for alternative provision asap.

I doubt any of the "saviour" scenarios will come to pass in time (but if they did, you could always change your mind and continue). And there is no way that new families will join the school without a saviour now that word is out; as it's unsustainable on current pupil numbers and is in no position to attract more, then you need to find the best possible exit strategy.

Start looking now - everyone else will be. You owe no loyalty to anyone except your child.

This is hapening a lot. At least they had the good grace to tell you it was closing and not wait until the end of the summer term as one school I know did.

I do think everyone else must be looking, but keeping quiet. I can't believe they wouldn't be. But everyone is pretending to be really upbeat and positive, that the school closing is a minor issue that can easily be sorted out. It's hard as there is no one who wants to admit its not going to work. I don't feel as though I can talk to anyone.

We don't exactly know the break even point; the governors have been less than forthcoming with information. I think the amount of work required to turn things around is too great to manage in a few short weeks. It's a case of not knowing quite how bad things had got until it was too late to do anything about it.
It's just so unfair that the dc's will have to go through this.

If you have governors then is it a charitable school? Have you looked at the accounts on the Charity Commission website?

Just from first principles, for each class you need to pay the teacher (including NI and pension), pay a non-teaching member of staff (admin, cook, cleaning, maintenance etc) and pay for materials, as well as contributing to overall costs such as insurance, maintenance etc. So each class would need to be bringing in at least £70k in fees or so just to break even. But obviously it varies depending on the number of say SEN/specialist staff etc.

Can I ask how many are in a class at the moment?

My son is at an independent school in a class of 6. We are leaving as socially it's a nightmare. It's a real shame as it is a lovely school. Once classes get this small it's a self perpetuating scenario of people leaving due to a class being too small. It's a real pity.

Our school did a scholarship day to try and entice some pupils with big fee discounts. Unfortunately it didn't attract much interest and was a waste of time. I guess at least they tried!

I feel for you Lidl, this is in the process of happening to my sister's kids' school and it is horrible.

It has really coloured my views on the school I will choose for DS. I'm going for somewhere much bigger and 'corporate' than I would otherwise have considered just for the increased degree of security that it can actually make a go of staying open.

It is possible to rescue a school, but I think you need to have a group of parents who are specialists at rescuing failing businesses, accountants and lawyers. It's not really the remit of PTA folks, who are happy to fundraise.

If the school has already announced that it is closing, then it may be too late. The vultures from other schools will already be licking their chops.

If there is some hope of keeping the school open, they will need to look at how their debt is structured. They also need to look at how they get their revenue, ie school fees, but particularly looking at their bursary fund. I suspect that they will have an outrageous number of bursaries and relatively low fee income. They need to trim 'back office' to an absolute minimum They need to go after people who owe money.

I don't think the OP needs to panic particularly about finding a new school place. Obviously it depends what your local area is and what is available. Rest-assured, the other independent schools will absorb your pupils and maybe some teachers too.

Start looking for a place and visiting prospective schools. They will probably have special open days for your school's families. Your school may invite other schools to come in with their display stands and flyers. These schools may waive their usual registration fees.

Don't jump ship at Easter as you will be outside of contract and liable for a term's fees. There should be no need to do this, and if the school is definitely closing, everyone will want to have a smooth transition to their new schools.

This is the problem with small Prep schools. Lovely in so many ways but financially just not really viable once classes fall below 15 unless thay have a big senior school attached that can support them.

I fully expect many such small Prep schools to shut in the next few years and there will be at least one in our town for sure. The fall off in birth rate after the Millenium baby bubble and the terrible dragging economy and falling house prices (so Grandparents can't borrow so easily against their house) are all taking their toll.

I do strongly advise everyone to go to the Charity Commisison website if your school is run by a charitable trust (as most private schools are) and look at the accounts. We do this every year for DSs school.

The class sizes are small, 6/8 would be about average. It's hard for friendship groups. On the other hand, I don't want a really big class for the dc's either!
About 15/16 is my ideal.
The accounts available online are only up to 2010. The 2011 ones won't be available until May, and the numbers have dropped significantly in that time so they won't be great.
I much prefer small schools for the family feel, and feel depressed about looking at some of the bigger schools. We looked at them before, and they were, as you say, a bit corporate.
I just feel so sad and angry at how this has happened, but I suppose I have to put emotions to one side. Will start ringing round schools tomorrow.

I would second the advice to look on the Charity Commision website for any potential new school. I was also given direction to Companies House on another thread where you can pay £1 to download a school's accounts if they are a business.

I found depressing information about the financial state of a school I really liked the look of that way. It was sad to have to rule it out for that reason but much better to know and be able to make an informed decision than face an abrupt closure.

It happened to a school near us a couple of years ago, except that it happened near the end of the summer term. The parents tried desperately for a couple of weeks to raise funding for the school to continue in some form. Some parents immediately started looking elsewhere and others waited and lost out. I think they were all in shock that it could happen as there were still quite a number of pupils there, but there was considerably less than there had been previously and the school could no longer keep going.

So sorry for you.

This happened to an independent school in our LEA too at at the end of the summer term. The school was kept open for a year as a fee-paying academy and applications were made to re-open as an all age (4-16) free school but this was rejected and there were many disappointed families.
Your concerns about lack of availability in other schools are very realistic and I would look at these other options now. Yes there is a possibility the school may be saved but it may not work out so you need to keep your options open.

OP, if you stay until the end of the summer term then have place lined up for DC for autumn term you will not have to pay a terms fees in lieu of notice as the school have already given YOU notice that the contract will be ended. There is no need for you to give notice of leaving.

Therefore, you can get on with arranging an alternative place and, if the rescue operation is a success and the school stays open, you will still have the option of staying with them, or not if you choose not to.

However, if you move DCs for the summer term you would have a terms fees to pay in lieu.

Start looking right away - everyone else will be too whatever they may say, and the fact they do will scupper any chance of success for a rescue package. You are in a fortunate position (in some ways), that they are finishing 'cleanly' at the end of a school year and giving you plenty of notice. When this happened to dd's school it was the middle of term and we had 2 days notice!

How old are your dc? Try to be upbeat with them and I'm sure they will adapt quickly to a new school - there are always some positives. This maybe what the other parents are trying to do rather than being deliberately secretive (probably not) it's essential to minimise the uncertainty for your dc as much as possible imo.

Accounts information available for free here
www.duedil.com/
including the ability to see what OTHER things the trustee directors are doing

That's a great link TalkinPeace2, thanks for that.

I wish I had a bit more financial understanding when I'm looking at these things. Does anybody know what is the best indicator of a school's financial health (with regards to the info available online)? It is just whether the school's income is more than their spending year on year? Or is it better to look at whether their net assests are stable?

The charities commission website is also useful and you can look at the latest accounts, etc.

We went through this a few years ago. It is a horrible time and it can be quite devastating.

What you must do is ring around other local schools immediately and find out where there are places available. In our case, (i had my suspicions about the schools finances and panicked- rightly so it turned out) of the other 3 independents, only one had a place in the year I needed and it only had that place because someone else had given notice. I put my name down straight away, all the others in our year had to go to schools in other towns.

This was 5 years ago, so more places may be available nowadays, but don't take it for granted that there will be anywhere. you need to be proactive.