Dunottar Reigate are they stable now?

[Thematic]

We're considering Dunottar for our son (please, no criticism of the school itself, we're happy with our decision for academic and pastoral care so I'm really not looking for opinions on this) and have to accept the place by the middle of next week so I'm just making sure everything is as it seems.

I was just wondering if anyone knew about their stability these days? I know they were going to close and then joined United Learning and went co-ed about 10 years ago, but having seen Belmont and now The Royal School Haslemere (another United Learning school) close in the last couple of years, I just want to be sure they are stable and not likely to fold in the next few years as I can't imagine anything worse than having to find a private school place mid way though GCSE's! They certainly seem to be thriving and I hear on the grapevine that they are planning on expanding, but it's hard to find any information about their finances etc online and I can't actually find anything reported that says they are expanding so appearances can be deceptive. Thanks

I’m not familiar with the school directly but it will be really hard to tell from the accounts as to whether United will be looking to close this one like they have the Royal school. From what I understand the Royal school had
half its expected student numbers over the last few years and was predicting only 100
or so enrolled for next academic year.

Looking at the previous ISI reports it looks like pupils have risen at Dunottar from 400ish to 480 from 2019 to 2024 which is a good sign (and a decent amount of pupils inline with other smaller privates) but that doesn’t mean that United will continue to keep it open if the numbers drop again.

United aren’t going to fold, and it’s in their interests to keep as many of the fee paying schools open to prop up the group itself so it will be down to economics and a rising or stable pupil base will be key. Not sure though how much comfort you can get over and above what you’ve been given but maybe check with school to see how many students they are taking this year and whether that’s inline with expectations? If it’s lower that MAY indicate that long term of school could be at risk. But these days with vat, TPS, business rates, increase in NI and general costs nothing is certain. Good luck - it’s been a consideration for us too as no one wants to move a happy child especially at GCSE time!