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

Thankyou @Mushroo
I get it totally now. The RC schools have feeder schools and I'd missed the fact that the RC preps didn't count. I know people who went to StA prep to help get in StA seniors so that's what's confused me

I’m often seeing threads on people looking for small nurturing prep schools for children who are neurodivergent and have difficulty coping with large state primaries, so perhaps one or two of these schools will gradually change their raisin d’etre and serve that market instead. There will always be parents prepared to pay fees if their child is simply not coping in state school for personal and individual reasons.

@Marchsnowstorms yes, Wimbledon High will be offering in October now while the other major 4+ academic schools that are their real competitors won’t be offering until January. Until this change Wimbledon was end of Jan like Putney, Jags etc

@user1477391263 that would make some sense but those parents of ND children often want them still in a mainstream class setting. The extra TAs etc to really make it work would increase the fees also and I'd assume catchment areas would need to be quite big. I suspect if the marketing was 'we attract a high % of ND children' then NT parents would run a mile. Sad but true. (I have a ND child)

It's a shame it is closing but it's not a disaster. The prep my son currently attends held an open evening for Loreto parents just last week. The one he is going to attend in September has reached out. I am sure other schools will be doing the same.
We've chosen a bigger school for Reception because we were worried about small schools closing

@FrodisCapering yes I've noticed 2-3 advertising to loreto parents. Made me wonder why they weren't full lol. They are a bit of a distance from Alty

Bury Convent Prep has now declared its closing too! Not sure there's many alternatives except BGS

This is why I would avoid small ones. I am going for one with a three form entry.
Alternative would be an all -through school.

@FrodisCapering tbh this is only one form entry I think but assumed busy intake and progression to grammars. The associated free grammars went many moons ago tho in Bury La