Longacre School Closing

[AndreaKnowsBest]

Is it true that Longacre is closing? Wasn't it literally just bought by a group?

I have heard the same from a staff member. Very sad

Just saw it on another Facebook Group too. Very sad for pupils and staff. The sector for indi prep schools, and smaller senior schools, especially those in 'less busy' / out of town locations or off public transport is getting tough right now.

I see their mini bus picking up in guildford most days, and always thought why would you do the bus journey two ways every day when there's closer options. I guess its a great fit for some kids, but clearly wasn't enough of them to fund business rates, employer NI, etc.

VAT on fees is having a terrible impact on smaller prep schools in particular- parents deciding not to enter the private sector from the bottom as opposed to sucking up the additional cost for kids already in school

Its true, and will effect these 'countryside' or the less connected schools the hardest.

Those in commuter belt towns, larger towns/cities that are to an extent, 'well off', with rail links to London or close to the main motorways will do ok I think. I live there, so its my prime example, but towns like Guildford, or others like StAlbans, will remain popular, due to their positioning.

Especially, as the market for independent schools contracts, and is less saturated, due to the closures of remote or smaller school, those that remain will prob be able to sustain and do well.

The sad thing is, it's a spiral, once parents see a school not seemingly 'prosper', I.e. small number, slightly tatty round the edges, not perceived to be doing well, no investment, etc. Then they steer clear in favour of the financially stronger institutions.

I’m not convinced on St Albans. The boys school is going completely co-ed and the state schools are brilliant

Is this confirmed? I can’t see anything on their own website or Facebook.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002pqgv

Staff got redundancy notices yesterday

Have they said when - end of the academic year? Have parents and children been told or just staff?

To respond to the thread derail: most of the St Albans state secondaries (the ones which prospective indie parents would consider) are heavily oversubscribed with small catchments. Though there has long been a trend of wealthier families buying a second home in Beaumont catchment, rather than sending kids to an independent school.

I wouldn’t dispute that St Albans School is facing strong headwinds, but they expanded from three Y7 classes to four both this year and last, and this year they had a record number of applicants, no doubt boosted by the girls. They’ve gone co-ed from a position of relative strength, rather than waiting for the falling birth rate and VAT to really kick in.

They also own huge amounts of land.

If I had to rank our local-ish indies according to most at-risk, they’d be at the bottom of my list!

My understanding is that they had less applicants than in precious years and the girl numbers were low. Taking on a connected prep school too doesn’t scream confidence. I agree it’s probably the strongest but it is having to change its model to thrive. I’m interested to see the impact on the girls high school once co-ed kicks in properly. Am also sad it didn’t go co-ed earlier. Would have suited my DD perfectly as we are very anti single sex girls schools and wouldn’t have considered them so went for one of the co-ed state schools in the area instead

Which school going co-ed @christmassytimeagain ??

BACK TO THE TOPIC - Longacre Closing .....

Back on topic - There is a consultation with staff at Longacre, as is legally required in respect of redundancy, consulting on closing at the end of the school year 25/26 (ie end of summer term) so absent a miracle it will close. A letter went round to all parents of Bridewell Schools (Longacre/Barrow Hills/KESW) to inform them. Longacre was merged into Bridewell last year but like many of the "mergers" of small preps these are in fact rescues to stabilise one of the subject schools in the immediate circumstances. A strategic/viability assessment would have been done re Longacre with a view to seeing how it could work within Bridewell and this was the conclusion. The head of Longacre will become head of Barrow Hills and the Head of Barrow Hills will become VP of Bridewell and there are likely to be other measures to ensure some degree of continuity for folks who want to transfer to Barrow Hills. Longacre already has a tie up with KESW at 11+ per the "merger". Bridewell remains pretty financially resilient in my view through Barrow Hills and KESW and they remain good options in Surrey (again IMHO)

My children are currently at Farlington and we have similar concerns. It is such a terrible thing to see all these schools close - thanks Labour. At least you now have time to work out what next. My biggest fear is that Farlington closes in the same way Belmont closed a few years ago. At the end of a term with no notice and everyone scrambling for a school place but schools were shut as it was the holidays.

Farlington doesn’t seem in such a bad state, does it?

Owned by Bellevue group I believe... So secure enough until they decide it's worth more to Taylor Wimpey, I guess

I hope so but I’m not sure it helps. I believe lots of the schools closed were owned by larger groups. The Royal School over in Haslemere was owned by United Learning and they still closed. All of these groups seek to make a profit. So school is fine when making a profit but ….

According to bellvue management last year farlington were making profit and considered the jewell in their crown. That could of course change. We are watching closely and have same fear as surreyfoxmum.

Ah, that does make sense. As you say, being part of a group is slightly more ambiguous than it first appears! Didn’t Bellevue sell off Sherfield School a while back? It is at least still operating.

This spiral is happening at Duke of Kent at the moment. We are seeing Numbers dwindling in various year groups and fear it might not be long before it closes.

Hi, I am a long time parent at Farlington and have seen many changes. But one constant is that the Head is very open to discussion about the future.
I have spoken to him fairly recently and feel very confident the school is actually in an excellent financial situation. The fact that they only passed on 9.5% of the VAT speaks volumes I think. This shows they are financially stable enough. We have just heard that they are expanding year 3 by adding another class. Not the actions of a school about to close. The school is definitely not about to close!
I think if you have concerns, you should speak to the Head, rather than posting unfounded rumours on here. I certainly feel very confident after speaking to him, listening to his plans for the future.

It is sadly true, despite merging with Bridewell (which manages King Edward’s Witley and Barrow Hills Prep school) only one year ago.

Parents were told the merger was to protect Longacre from VAT, NI pressures etc and were told Bridewell would be investing in infrastructure, new buildings etc. Only one year later with no new buildings / significant infrastructure investment they have gone to consultation to close the school.

To many parents it seems like Bridewell merged with Longacre (which lets face it is geographically no where near the other two schools) to sell off to provide stability for their other two schools. Longacre is on 9 acres of prime development land. There were concerns posted here two years ago about the financial stability of King Edward’s Witley / Barrow Hills.

All Longacre pupils are being offered places at Barrow Hills with a term free fees, free bus service for a year and free uniform. They are obviously keen to acquire more pupils / revenue and clearly have plenty of spaces to accommodate a whole school full of children. There are no positions for Longacre staff at Barrow Hills / KEW (aside from the head who will be the new head at Barrow Hills) unless there is an existing opening. Take from that what you will. It’s a terrible decimation of a lovely school and there are many questions to be answered.

I didnt see anyone saying they were going to close, i think it was someone expressing a concern going forward, in the context of rural schools generally. I have no doubt its doing just fine in a group!

Are you the head? Lol

Only joking.

I'm answering Surrefoxmum who wrote "My biggest fear is that Farlington closes in the same way Belmont closed a few years ago. At the end of a term with no notice and everyone scrambling for a school place but schools were shut as it was the holidays." So yes there was mention of closing.
And no, I'm not the Head - his grammar would be much better than mine 😃