Longacre School Closing

[AndreaKnowsBest]

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

Acknowledging perhaps however both our perspectives are indeed skewed if you are a Longacre parent and me KESW parent.We just see different emphasis.Just reflecting that it seems bizarre to take all the risks and potential blowback incumbent on deliberately tanking a school for an asset strip where there is limited disguise as that school never had a history of being a significant feeder and seemingly very little chance of becoming a significant feeder. Objective Longacre numbers had been on the slide.

All available evidence suggests that Bridewell is prioritising the sale of the Longacre site to the highest bidder, with little regard for preserving it as a school. While I understand that, from a financial perspective, such a decision may support the sustainability of King’s Edwards and Barrow Hills, it comes at a significant cost—namely, the loss of a unique and much-loved school community.

As a charity operating schools, this approach risks alienating families. Parents talk, and there is already widespread sadness and concern that a valued school is being lost at the hands of another educational trust.

What is particularly frustrating is the apparent lack of transparency. Parents are spending considerable time and effort engaging potential investors who are genuinely interested in continuing the site as a school. However, there is a growing perception that these efforts are not being seriously considered. If that is the case, it would be far more respectful and honest to communicate this openly, rather than allowing families—who are also fee-paying customers—to invest time and energy into proposals that may never be viable.

The explanation of “dwindling numbers” also raises questions. Compared to other schools facing similar challenges, Longacre appears to have reduced its marketing efforts, held fewer open days, and maintained higher fees. These decisions may have contributed to the decline rather than mitigated it.

From the perspective of the Longacre community, it increasingly feels as though the school has been allowed to fail in order to maximise the value of the land, and that alternative outcomes may not have been genuinely pursued.
This situation is deeply upsetting, and many of us feel that greater honesty, engagement, and accountability are needed. This is not over and I am sure the residents of Shamley Green will fight to keep this a school.

Have the parents engaged with the Parish Council / local councillors etc? I see Jeremy Hunt has posted about it. The prospect of a large housing development will not be welcome locally I’m sure.

its outrageous. King Eds/Barrow hills are asset stripping Longacre to fill the gap of their failing schools.

yes, but to little effect

In Longacres case it been down to mismanagement. No marketing no sales no open days. Apparently leavers have been tracked by the parent group and 95% have left to go to other schools.

End of the summer term it will close unless they find an investor to buy it in the mean time. King edwards / barrow hills may well look to turn the site into residential.

Why longacre merged with king eds and barrow hills in the first place is remarkable. Financial saftey....... apparently. Yet these two school are only a couple of years from running out of cash themselves. So dodgy. No these two school can sell off longacre having not paid a penny for it, to the highest bigger. It is scandelous.

Incompetence led to the merger. Greed will drive the sale to the highest bidder

The governors are thoroughly untrustworthy. I wouldnt touch king eds or barrow hills with a free ticket.

How do you know they are only a couple of years away from running out of cash??

You can see from the public accounts. Overdraft limit of £10m, 6.6m overdrawn and loosing £1m a year..... roll that forward 3 years......

Didn’t someone say on the thread that King Edward’s has just invested (the last couple of years) a huge amount of money into new buildings for the school? Wouldn’t that account for the overdraft?

As brutal as it is, all private schools are a business ultimately, there to make money. If most prep or junior schools are on the decline in terms of numbers, it makes sense to sell one (the one with lower numbers in the location that isn’t near King Edward’s) and focus on the junior school that is their feeder and push all people to that. Not saying it is not unethical or horrible for the families and kids of Longacre, but purely from a business perspective it would make sense.

I am a prospective parent BTW with no skin in the game so to speak.

We visited the school last year to see if it would be a fit for our ds. While I have no idea on finances of the school, we decided it wasn’t the right fit for our ds, for specific reasons due to Sen. I got the strong sense there were groups of kids who already knew each other from
previous prep schools and when we asked how would they ensure our dc could fully integrate knowing nobody first, I did not get a satisfactory response to that. Nor was I comforted his Sen needs would be met (senco didn’t even reply back to me, so a red flag 🚩 for me). For these reasons, I did not feel comfortable applying. However, I would say for a confident sporty kid, it could be a good environment, but you would need to visit and talk to the school. The head seemed very nice and welcoming indeed. Some other senior staff came across more pompous though which we didn’t warm to. But many other staff across the school showing their speciality classrooms were indeed lovely, and seemed inspiring.
you just need to visit and get a sense for yourself. It is boy heavy though. I think Good Schools Guide has the stats at 70:30 boys:girls. As for new buildings, they have a nice new reception / cafe and library and I believe the science labs seemed renovated. I don’t recall what else. Good luck

Where did you end up sending your DS in the end, if you don’t mind me asking?

More house near Farnham. There’s also Cranleigh which has a good reputation in the area with a linked prep. Might be worth a look? Frensham heights too (more alternative).

Thanks, I think Frensham is a little too alternative for us, and More House is a specialist school which we don’t need. I’ll have a look at Cranleigh 😃

We’ve been to look at a few alternatives. Pennthorpe is probably the one with the closest feel and ethos to Longacre. Small and nurturing. Partly depends where you live and travel time etc. but could be worth considering.

They merged with longacre on the proviso of helping them financially if they got into difficulty in return for being a feeder school. They shut longacre within a year and are now selling off its assets to pay for the fact that both of their schools are failing. Asset stripping should not be an MO for a charitable foundation.

So 3 schools should fail instead of 1? Again, not saying I agree with this, just playing devils advocate. Longacre must have been in difficulty before the merger, otherwise why agree to it? How do we know that this wasn’t the plan from Longacre governors the whole time too?

You are conflating several points. 1) king eds / barrow hills were failing. 2) king eds / barrow hills group agreed to a merger knowing they couldnt financially support longacre 3) longacre were cashed in asap. Longacre had shared their aspiration/rationale for merger being financial support - yet were obviously outvoted. Longacre were naive at best, the Bridewell Foundation were premeditated

Respectfully I think @KingEdsIsDreadful you are conflating the points? It’s apparent from your tagline and posts that you won’t be swayed from your point of view (and everyone is entitled to their view of course) - dealing with your points in turn 1. What’s the objective evidence that King Ed’s/ Barrow Hills are failing? The overdraft position is a snapshot in time (fee paying parents overdraft once school fees come out as opposed to other times are often chastening representation of that fact!) - look at the balance sheet position and movements and investments and your view might be different. On numbers (a good school) mentioned in this thread (and just as an example)is also in running at two thirds capacity according to latest filing (as are many schools in Surrey if you do a compare and contrast of the stats).On point 2, surely the pre merger Longacre governors would have had some information on the financial position of Bridewell - if it were as poor as you suggest why would they choose to merge with a weak counterparty (and it was their free choice)and believe any assurances were deliverable? If the position were poor but the pre merger Longacre governors chose to merge anyways does that not tell you a story re the condition of Longacre (was no other school or investor interested at that stage?)and/or the competence of those pre merger Longacre governors? It is completely normal (though horrible for parents/kids) that rescues are not always feasible in the sector.if the position Bridewell inherited re Longacre was actually worse than anticipated and not recoverable why should Bridewell then use resource to that situation and jeopardise the wider schools or throw good money after bad?That would make no sense at all. Was the financial picture at Longacre fully clear at the point of the merger? If I were an aggrieved Longacre parent I would be doing some sort of request for minutes of Longacre governor meetings in the run up to the merger as a starting point in terms of proper discharge of fiduciary responsibilities.3. As far as I can see there is no transaction to sell the assets of Longacre as yet? In any event like when you are selling any asset you own - like your house - I’m not clear there is any other responsibility- once you determine that is the course you will take - to do anything other than get the best price?If Bridewell were to “sell” at discount to an investor who says they will continue the school - (where was that investor/interest at original merger time (these exercises are usually run with the help of a financial advisor who will quietly ask the market for interest in order for the governors to get the best deal)? Who is to say the investor would not flip the real estate in these circumstances (ie school with declining numbers and hostile environment for small independent preps) - that has happened extensively elsewhere in the past and there would be no safety net of alternatives for parents/kids which Bridewell offered. Again I’m highlighting that there is a lot of speculation around this situation - it would be good to start from the beginning and figure out what has gone on by reference to documents and actual contemporareous evidence - that seems to me to be useful for Longacre parents?

Realistically Longacre as a school is now gone. Even if a new investor was found, kids have found places elsewhere and the other schools in the area have by all accounts been very proactive in admissions. Longacre was under threat merger or not. Lots of people choose the local primary over it and Cranleigh created massive competitive.

However, I think Bridewell has acted appallingly and there will be questions to be answered about governance. There was no proper advertising or effort re admissions compared to other local school. That said, I suspect it will be harder to sell the land for its full value than I think Bridewell has considered. There will be lots of objections and attempts to protect the land from over development. I don’t think it will be easy to cash in in the short-term.

bridlewell foundation have tried to close barrow hills on several occasions in the past ten years. Souce: precious teacher.
agree re competance of longace govenors however they made it clear why they were merging, financial stability. To then be closed by the asset stripping bridwell foundation, is truely astonishing.
If bridwell sell to a developer there will an almighty response to these money grabbing parasites.

Alot of what you say makes sense here/good points - i think you are one of the first persons here to also recognise the unhappy truth on Longacre numbers and competition - it is very tough out there for small preps - and all we are all trying to do what we think is best for our kids - I dont want to denegrate any school in the current circumstances of prep schools as, although folks should make their own decisions, I appreciate that threads like this are often influential and failures become self fufiling due to inaccurate rumour and gossip. On the facts, on marketing i honestly cant comment and that's a shame if no effort was made (but if a school is in the doldrums, is it responsible to market it hard when you dont know yet whether you can support it fully as you are still finding out the extent of the issues?). On the ability to sell the site easily I hear you and that is why I cant think that Bridewell be smart enough to plot and scheme in the way suggested but at the same time stupid enough to think that this is would be quick and easy risk free to flip the real estate and easy money without time (and holding costs), planning issues (and costs) (any real estate person can tell you its not easy given that site and/or in Surrey generally - look at the real estate situation re the Royal in Haslemere as a case study) and risk of PR blowback - against that backdrop why would they go down this road deliberately/as a machiavellian scheme when there is strategy execution risk and PR/reputation is so important to private schools? Perhaps there was a miscalculation but even without the benefit of hindsight would have clearly been simpler / far less risky to let Longacre fail without the merger and then be "proactive" in picking up kids from the school when/if it failed as other appear to be doing?