Longacre School Closing

[AndreaKnowsBest]

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

I also can’t imagine being a child who is told they’re guaranteed a place, only for that to then be removed. I hope that hasn’t happened, I really do.

Yes - sorry of course you are right… Barrows hills are navigated by Bridewell, and I also agree they can’t take on SEN children if they can’t facilitate them, but as you say the situation is unethical. I do massively appraise this Longacre parents for not backing down, I wish them every success on their mission and I hope this puts an end to such grotesque behaviour….There’s no way I’d want to be part of this ‘umbrella’ but respect other people’s choices

100% it has

This is not speculation on Barrow Hills it is fact. Barrow Hills was meant to be part of the same group of schools as Longacre. They had data to hand on the numbers of SEN children who might want to transfer to their school.

On the first meeting regarding the consultation for Longacre staff they marketed the school very heavily to parents and said there would be a free term, buses and uniform.

We didn't start this we really didn't ask for them to offer open days and lead parents and children a merry dance only to be rejected. You talk about uncertainty well the children at Longacre have experienced this for the last 4 months. First there school might close then (some) are rejected by the school that promised them a place

Great news on your production but when our drama teacher retired they were not replaced and drama was cut from the curriculum (when under bridewell). Shame that the merger didn't mean we shared a drama teacher or got to use the King Eds stage as well.

We don't want to damage the schools reputation we want Bridewell to sell to one of the investors that parents of Longacre have worked hard to source, attract and introduce to the Bridewell trust. If they shut the school and sell the land there will be heaps of bad press heading their way.

You should tell the management to rethink.

Existing Bridewell parents are welcome to share their views and concerns with the Bridewell Court. Surely selling Longacre to an educational investor is the ethically and morally right thing to do and would have thought is closer aligned with their fiduciary duties as charity trustees?

All we can do is speculate what the 'court' actually think..... they wont issue a price, conditions or strategy that they require to be met before they will sell Longacre. Transparency is key. Wasting everybody's time frankly does not reflect well on them, the bridwell foundation. No wonder they are so disliked locally.

I drove past Farlington earlier this week and was surprised to see the mini roundabout outside their entrance, has been sponsored, by Pennthorpe which seems a bit tasteless to me and looks like they are advertising quite aggressively 👀

When BH played Pennthorpe a couple of years ago when my son was in year 5 they didn’t even have enough boys for a full rugby team. At the (excellent) tea afterwards a couple of the parents were saying a few kids had left (for things like going overseas etc) and the year numbers were tiny.

So it would make a lot of sense for them to be advertising heavily.

Having lived in that area and kind of done the vague maths, I’m amazed that these tiny prep schools manage to keep open at all.

Actually when Bridewell Royal Hospital took over Longacre - only a year before it decided to close it - Longacre was financially sound despite being a small prep school. It was Bridewell (which runs Barrow Hills and King Edwards Witley), and Bridewell’s poor management, lack of marketing and innovation which has put Longacre in the position it is in.

Was it deliberate? Or just incompetent?

What Bridewell Royal Hospital does next will be very telling. Will they sell the site to an educational investor (parents have sourced two) so the site can continue as a school (benefiting pupils, teachers, the local community and future families)? Or will they sell out to the highest bidder for residential development (despite receiving Longacre School and all its assets for free only one year ago and to-date having spent none of their own money on it). We are all watching 👀!

Yes we are all watching. The members of the Bridewell "court" we saw were very slick, I don't believe it's incompetence.

If they don't sell (it should be given...they obtained it for free!) to an educational investor or do everything in their power for it to remain a school for local kids - we'll know their true motive.

Surely this would be a great site for Wonersh & Shamley Green School? They are oversubscribed and could go to 2 form entry....

That would be fab as WSG primary is bursting at the seams and is super oversubscribed whilst Castle nursery wanted to expand and were denied planning. Parents investigated the free school route and spoke with Surrey CC and WSG. We have the current administration to thank for the lack of support for free schools and the council having no money to spend on education (but they do for traffic calming measures and pointless consultations on this, the results of which they then ignore…!)

Weirdly Longacre seems to have stepped up its social media in the last couple of weeks. I find it really bizarre for a school that is closing.

I don’t know anything about SM campaigns but I’d assume it was something they planned and paid for ages ago, and couldn’t/didn’t bother to stop it going out.

Any updates on any of this? Have BH responded to the allegations that they have rejected Longacre children with SEN needs?

Also - without giving away any personal information - can anyone confirm the reasons given for rejection? Was it a generic ‘we can’t meet need’, or was it a reason such as the child was behind academically and wouldn’t have been able to keep up / cope with the year group?

No update but I believe at least one family are pursuing legal proceedings against Bridewell Royal Hospital/ Barrow Hills.

Also these aren’t allegations - Barrow Hills have refused SEN Longacre children places despite a letter going out to Longacre families when the consultation was announced stating that there would be places at Barrow Hills for Longacre children. Despicable behaviour.

Do you know the circumstances around the rejections - was it a generic ‘can’t meet need’ or based on something like being too behind academically to keep up with year group?

The reason I’m asking is because I can’t understand why BH would reject children, when as others have pointed out, they are struggling for numbers. Unless the SEN needs were so significant that BH truly couldn’t meet need and it wouldn’t be fair on the child e.g a child that is working several years behind their peers. This absolutely does not excuse the rest of it - the promise of places etc - but this point about rejecting SEN really doesn’t add up unless the children are quite high needs. Prep schools in the main are crying out for people.

It doesn’t make sense. Hence why parents at Longacre are incredulous and one is pursuing legal action. Longacre is not a specialist SEN school. These children don’t have significant SEN need. Their needs are comfortably being met at Longacre, a small mainstream prep school. Why can’t Barrow Hills meet their needs? Is their standard of SEN provision so poor? Or are Barrow Hills looking to build a certain demographic of pupil? Are they worried about current parents and the balance SEN children joining from Longacre?

There is a also a report of a Longacre child being asked to come back to Barrow Hills for a second ‘taster day’, which clearly was actually an assessment (despite parents not being told this), because their reading level was not up to scratch - the child is five years old. That doesn’t make sense either.

I am pleased the parents are questioning this and trying to get answers from BH.

I’ve spoken to several families in the area, with past and present children at BH and KESW, with varying degrees of SEN - none were rejected unless the needs were fairly significant. One did report her child with autism had been rejected from KESW a couple of years ago because they were several years behind peers academically. I’m baffled as to what is happening, but I can’t imagine it is personal against the Longacre children - BH must have felt they couldn’t meet need - perhaps they already have a good proportion of SEN and don’t feel equipped to take on more children that may need specialist support.

Lots of children are in mainstream school with varying needs of SEN, it’s tricky to say without knowing the children’s profiles or the specific reasons BH rejected them. The child who is 5 and their reading level ‘wasn’t up to scratch’ - is that the whole SEN profile or one aspect of it? What does ‘wasn’t up to scratch’ even mean? It’s impossible to know without having all of the information to hand.

If Barrow Hills do not have the capacity to take on / do not feel they can meet the needs of children with mild SEN needs - I understand that these children do not have EHCPs - why on earth were places offered to all Longacre children at Barrow Hills by Bridewell?

Bridewell own both Longacre and Barrow Hills, both heads are on the board, or rather ‘court’ of Bridewell. They are both ‘Bridewell’! They do not operate in silos. When they were hatching their strategy to offer places to all Longacre children, didn’t they first look at Longacre’s pupil roll to see if they could accommodate their needs before making promises to families and children?

If they could not meet the known needs of all children at Longacre why did they go in so heavily with a marketing campaign to parents offering places for all children? So hard was their marketing push that they didn’t even allow parents time to process the shocking news - the hard sell for Barrow Hills came in the first breath - in the letter parents received announcing closure, and it took up more than half of the explanatory webinar that followed, with the BH head present to ‘sell’ the school to parents.

I agree with this, it seems completely short-sighted, ill thought through and ridiculous. I’m not sure it is nefarious though - it seems more that this is born out of incompetence.

There are lots of children in the private sector without EHCPs, that’s not to say they don’t need one or don’t qualify. It also often takes years to get an EHCP, with parents having to take the local authority to tribunal. If your child is being supported in a private setting - let’s say through a class LSA - you wouldn’t necessarily bother applying for an EHCP. Then that child goes to BH without the class LSA and falls apart. That’s not to say that did happen, but it’s plausible.

I hope Bridewell / BH provide a thorough explanation for all of this, hold their hands up and apologise.

As much as I hate to admit it, and I have clung on as long as possible, even if there was a miracle and Bridewell did the right thing, so many teachers have found work elsewhere and so many children have secured places elsewhere I don't see how there is a viable school for September. KES Whitley have unashamadly tried to secure as many children as possible and I think it has backfired. Many other schools seem keen to help and, having met a number of Heads they are keen to support. I was shared this webpage for Pennthorpe which specifically reaches out to us families that are still looking: Supporting the Longacre School community - Pennthorpe

It’s not really about retaining pupils now, it’s about retaining the site and legacy. This is such a unique place, under the right leadership it would definitely rebuild, if not as a school there are other well worthy candidates who want to do better things …never have I ever seen such an asset grab, truly is just so gross….

Weirdly, this is still looks like picking at the bones. No decent school would need to actively advertise as "supporting the community" of a closing school, parents would simply know of it and choose it. All these support messages aren't classy and can be seen for what they are. Adverts.