Small preps closing; risk?

[Marchsnowstorms]

One of the Trafford preps has just announcing it's closing as not financially viable. Must be incredibly stressful for parents in a borough where there are no spare school places. 120 ish children will now be without a school. I wonder if others at risk unless over a certain number of pupils? Heartbreaking for them - regardless of what I may think about private education. They could end up travelling miles

Families with money will sell up and move -

It's a grammar area. People use the preps to help them secure free grammar places. In this case it's a RC girls prep. The equivalent RC boys prep almost guaranteed entry to boys RC grammar. So not quite as simple as moving

There are a few threads already about schools closing. The cost of living crisis and demographic trends may be hard on some small schools.

This is a reasonably wealthy area and one with school place crisis so really shocking

One in Brighton / Hove closed last year. People were very upset because they only had three weeks’ notice and Brighton / Hove can be tricky for school places.

Ours closed last year and we were told on the first day of the Summer term..... seems to be happening more and more.

@Swansong124 what did everyone do? The one near me is an area where people can't get state places if they move into area and have to travel miles

Panicked! Spread out to lots of different schools but generally all much further away as it was quite local.

I remember one locally suddenly closing many years ago but only had 30-50 children and this was well over 100. Awful

A friend of ours had children at the Minster School in York that closed due to financial losses during the pandemic. I'm not sure how many children were attending at the time but the school had roots going back to the 7th century and it was a big shock for the parents at the time. Our friend's child now attends their local state primary school.

I've just seen another thread about other schools down south too. I wonder if there is a certain size needed to be viable

Having followed the other thread about London preps it's very clear there that if they don't make enough money they just close.

Maybe some will become academies. But I guess that local governments will not agree to that unless there are sufficient numbers of projected pupils, and the number of your kids is on the decline in most areas.

Where is the thread on preps? It does feel like numbers are falling and I suspect smaller less popular schools will be at risk at closing. After the first round of offers even the new City of London Junior school didn't seem to fill all its places based on a thread here on mumsnet.

@MomFromSE look at the thread about Redcliffe Gardens on here. Some of the wider issues are discussed

@Marchsnowstorms that's really interesting. Wimbledon High Junior school is moving its reception offer date from end of January (which is when most academically selective South and SW London school's offer) to October in addition to moving to a ballot. In the current environment it definitely feels like an attempt to get ahead of the competition and secure students / deposits early!

WUS is also planning to start accepting kids from reception rather than 7.

You get the general feeling that with falling pupil numbers due to lower birth rates and families moving out of London post Brexit, schools are trying to secure as many students as early as possible. The cost of living crisis combined with Labour's plans to impose VAT on fees will probably result in a lot of closures...

Two of the usually popular local preps are advertising vacancies in every year group.

@MomFromSE I'm not london but find these trends interesting & what is behind a lot of private schools. I didn't really get the Oct ballot thing but have now had a read. Conclusions

• assessment of 3 year olds for 4+ means nothing & waste of time
• other schools are making offers before them so getting the best local
• they want everyone to apply and pay £150 entry to a ballot
• siblings automatic priority anyway
• they get 200 applicants min or 4 per 1 space (so £30k income)
• ballot has way less cost involved

@MomFromSE Rough calcs.
So if 50% of places go to siblings, there's prob 25 places left.
So 175 applicants from non siblings.
150 won't get a place but have paid registration fee.
Names are pulled out a hat. No time consuming assessments.
The Oct date should increase the number of applicants even tho they don't need any more.
Their blurb says potential families are going elsewhere due to Jan date.
So they hood to make even more on reg fees.
No increased places.
I'm not criticising the school but that's my interpretation

Is this loretto that is closing?

Ambrose prep started accepting girls last year so I suspect a lot will go there and that was part of the downfall.

The other issue with Ambrose prep / Loreto prep is that it’s actually harder to get into the association grammar schools than applying from a state school - the rules changed a few years back. So lots of parents choosing to state educate and tutor to be higher up the pecking order.

The preps in Stockport / Cheshire / Manchester that aim for the private grammars seem to be rammed and hard to get places at.

The problem in Trafford is that going to a private prep means you can be disadvantaged at the grammar entry (in some ways rightly so) so Trafford preps might be less desireable then they were if you are aiming for state grammar.

@Marchsnowstorms while smaller preps in Wimbledon might be in October, the main academic 4+ schools in that part of London like Putney offer in January. The schools who Wimbledon High is genuinely competing with for top candidates will be offering months after they've collected deposits from parents getting places through the ballots.

@MomFromSE so are they trying to get them in ahead of that?

@Socialworkerburntout yes Loreto.
Why is it harder to get in from a prep ? I'm confused. I thought forest / Alty prep and others were popular to get you into the grammars

Look at the admissions policy for Loreto - priority (number 3) is to those at a partner school, which are all state catholic primary schools.
If you attend a prep you will be category 4.

St Ambrose is the same.

I think (but I’m not sure) the non-catholic grammars don’t stipulate either way, but if you’re not religious I don’t see why you’d choose a religious prep school over a non-religious, hence why Loreto prep struggled.