Prep schools closing - worried my kids school may close with little notice

[ABetaDad]

I am starting this thread because I know a lot of parents on here have kids in private Pre-prep and Prep on here and I wanted to get a sense of just how bad things are financially in the Prep school sector and give you a heads up on what is happening to my kids school just in case it happens to yours.

My DS1 and DS2 go to a nice small prep school and we are very happy with it. I have been talking to other parents and am shocked to hear that so many of them are planning to take their kids out by September. I am not sure the school knows this yet but I estimate that next year they wil only have 2 kids remaining out of the current Year 1, they will only have 5 out of current Year 2. I expect very few to join as my DS1 was showing parents round at the recent open day and there was only 1 child visiting who was eligible for Year 1 or Year 2.

The nursery and Reception years will be fairly full as will Years 4, 5, 6 although a few are planning to withdraw on those years as well. However, I know that Year 7 in the senior school had a big drop off in numbers last year. It seems that at the key transition stages parents have already been deciding to take their kids out or not put them in. With the credit crunch now affecting jobs much more severely I can only see this getting much worse.

There was a very interesting article in the Financial Times Yesterday about a Prep school that had been forced to close in Sevenoaks. Read the article here:

www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3f4e835c-fc93-11dd-aed8-000077b07658.html

A key sentence in the article is this:

"I think we are only at the tip of the iceberg," said Sue Fieldman, an editor at the Good Schools Guide. "There's much more coming in the next six months . . . a huge number of private school parents are in financial services and banking."

All prep and senior private schools will know for sure by the end of March what their numbers are going to be next year and I know that many schools have closed in the last year and only given 1 term notice to parents.

There is possibility my kids school might merge with another local Prep and sell off one of the sites but that is not certain to happen and parents have certainly not been given any information.

I am trying to put together a plan just in case it happens.

Is anyone as worried as me? Do any of you have the experience of it happening? What are your plans if it happens to you?

I know a lot of people on here disagree with private schooling but I would like to try and keep this thread away from 'private v state' arguements. Having a school close and then being forced to move kids at short notice is very disruptive and stressful for everyone so I hope we can swap info on here as I am sure schools wil delay telling parents as long as possible.

Warning: Please please do not name schools directly or say where they are as we do not want to start unfounded rumours.

Yes I still have shares from my profit sharing. They were worth about £12k not so long ago; now worth about £1k

I do however see an upside to all this - our generation may yet profit long term if we can continue to invest throughout these stock market low years, we may profit in 10-15 years as those in the 80s did with their huge endowment profits.

And our children may benefit from lower house prices.

I hope so but we are also of the generation which suffered negative equity in early 90's and endowment shortfalls, due out in a few years.

If those pupils who are destined for Y7 of an independent school are suddenly diverted into a good state school (those living in catchment), then a prospective pupil who lives just outside catchment will lose out. If their alternative state school is not good, then they may be interested in moving into the independent sector.

If times are hard, and the real choices are outstanding secondary school or independent, then parents may chose the secondary. If, however, the choices are now sink school or independent, they may well choose the independent.

There are smug parents in the best state schools that have the wherewithall to afford school fees. If they find themselves on the wrong side of a places squeeze, they may just have to dip into their bank accounts if their state school values don't stretch to less desireable schools.

It has hit us as a family in that dh gave up a relatively secure (teaching) job in order to concentrate on our business. The recession hit and although we havn't lost that many customers our rent has increased to gigantic proportions. We have struggled to pay the fees on time this term.

However I think the school will be fine. They expanded several years ago, are now 2 form instead of 1 form entry and the school is round the corner from the local hospital. Parents Eveneing/Sports Day is like being in the consulting room, there are so many doctors who are parents.

We received a letter last Autumn telling us that our school was, in effect, closing. Absolute bombshell.

In practice, the Church board of our school has sold out to the Methodist church (they have the other private school in our town which is fairly grim) who will allow our school to finish it's GCSE and A Level courses. From September we are all meant to pitch-up at the Methodist private school and start there in a 'new' merged school.

All the teaching staff who mirror staff in the Methodist school have to re-apply for their jobs - it's all very grim.

What I will say is that there has been a lot of open consultation with the proviso that we can change nothing really. Our Head has been just fab at keeping things open and really involving the children so that it isn't a scary change. The first parents meeting was a real angry ruck. Things are progressing but many people are leaving.

It's a toss-up for us. I accept completely that paying to educate our children is a choice not everyone has, or would make if they could. We had a very bad experience previously at a school and loved the school that my children are at now. So, we can stay at the new 'merged school' or go either miles to the local 30% comp or miles to the next extremely high achieving but strict and stuffy prep. I really don't want an hour each way a day on a bus for my three.

The real bummer is that the the new 'merged' school has a £3million debt already. How, I do not know. I can't imagine that it will last long having to service that debt. I just want to keep the children with their friends and feel like I have really been forced into a corner.

scienceteacher and lizs I must be a couple of years behind you because I couldn't afford anywhere until prices crashed in the early 90s - we oubhgt our apartment for 50% of its value two years prior and could only just afford that on my income - DH subjcto timmigration restrictions at the time. But because I saw that happen - I was working in mortgages at the time - and because the bank I worked for would allow staff to have only repayment mortgages, I've tended to err on the side of caution.

I have been astounded to see 'financial advisers' and lenders encourage people to borrow and borrow against inflated house values so soon after such a spectacular collpase in house prices.

The investment we made to pay for DD's uni isn't looking so healthy - 12 years of payments, only another 6 years to go which I don't think is going to give it time to recover. I think we'll be funding uni through income and saving that for her 30th!

Two prep schools in Gloucestershire are merging in September

www.rhwestonbirt.co.uk/

Well, we've had a couple of mergers in my local area already - no doubt there will be more of this.

My DD and DS's prep school is thriving and has actually grown recently.

The local state primaries in our area are pretty poor and a few have changed to joint year group classes (year 1 and 2 together etc) My DD's reception class has had 3 new pupils start in January and my DS's class has grown by 5 pupils and the school has waiting lists for most year groups.

Even the cars in the car park have not down graded radically either, we still have the normal mix of old bangers, reasonably priced family cars and some families with the hugely expensive brand new cars!

All the prep schools in our area are well established ones unlike the one mentioned in the earlier post that had only been running since 1990, DD and DS's school is 90 years old and has a long tradition behind it, one prep that opened about 10 years ago a little way from us has started offering 50% off fees for children moving into reception and year 1 if they have attended their nursery, not sure if this is a sign of a desperate school or a wise move financially.

Ds's school offers a discount for those who go on to the attached senior school, I think to compete with neighbouring county's grammar schools (where most of parents seem to aim for).

Our school was thriving too but that didn't stop the Church body that owned it from seeing it as an asset and selling it. Very annoying.

I see that Rodean has stepped in today to take over St Mary's Hall in Brighton.

Rodean Takeover

"Hundreds of parents were considering their options yesterday as a cash-strapped independent girls school announced it would be closing - and one of the country's most prestigious schools launched a rescue package. "

As Rodean has much higher fees I suspect most will move to cheaper schools as the article says.

We were considering a very small nursery and pre-prep for DS. In fact, it is so small I struggled to see how it could be sustainable. We decided in the end to send him to a small nursery in the next village, and then to the local primary which has just got an outstanding in the last inspection.

What we will do is consider entering him into the excellent boys school, which takes pupils at 7+ and 9+. I don't want to risk him getting settled at a tiny pre-prep only for it to close suddenly, particularly with a good primary around the corner!

That Roedean takeover will have quite an effect for both lots of pupils. Also as a parent of a girl at either school I would be concerned/annoyed about the fees situation. Roedean have also had to waive some of their academic standard for some of the new intake - woul you be happy with this if you were a Roedean parent? How will it effect Roedean results in the coming year or two or three?? Will class sizes become bigger?

It just goes to show - even those who thibk the credit crunch wont effect them because their school is so steeped in history and people are fighting for a place - things can change drasticall overnight in our current climate!

oops apologies for my typos!!! Meant to click on preview but didnt!

Heard rumours today of 2 prep schools "merging" locally (one taking over other !)

Another argument in favour of state education..........

LIZS - are you in Surrey? That's happening here, and there's going to be a LOT of angry parents....

yup - possibly same ones . Have to say I wasn't entirely surprised though but I would n't be best pleased , regardless of which my dc attended. Presumably it will affect the staff too.

H and L? if so, local paper says both sites are staying open, with little ones on one site, and the older chidlren on the other. Presumably they'll still need all/most of the staff (have a friend teaching at one of them).

That's the one - which paper is it in , could n't find anything online. Can't see them finding both sites feasible long term tbh .

Surrey Mirror