Alderley Edge school for girls to close

[Mushroo]

This has just been announced - the whole school from nursery to sixth form will close at the end of this academic year.

Such a shame.

We are contemplating prep school but all these closures make me very very nervous. Does anyone feel the same way?

An excellent state primary and tutoring now feels like the sensible option.

State schools are a sum of their catchment. Motivated parents and motivated kids. Labour is now looking to attack the the chances of people getting their kids into good state schools by making schools alter their entry criteria. So those crowing at private school parents may well get a taste of their own medicine in the not too distant future. Labour won’t stop at destroying the private sector.

That's certainly an interesting way of framing the principle that a child's parents' wealth shouldn't dictate that child's educational opportunities.

Just seen that Brabyns in Marple & Prestwich prep in North Manchester are closing. Small preps doing seem to be surviving do they!

Births rates are falling dramatically. This is starting to have a massive impact on schools. Many more will close because there just aren't enough children; this is a much bigger threat to private schools than VAT. I heard a stat on Radio 4 'More or Less' that even if every currently privately educated child moved to state, that still wouldn't make up for the reduction in rolls in 7 years time (when current reception hit secondary). State schools face an existential threat as well.

State schools face an existential threat as well.

Given the difficulty recruiting and retaining teachers, this is no bad thing. Schools will merge, needing fewer staff.

Reduction in U.K. births from previous year
With 15,542 less births in 2021
@5% usual attendance at prep
that’s
777 less prep pupils in the whole of the U.K.
This year is based on pre covid yr

2022 @19,359 less = 967 less at prep

2023 @14,447 less = 720 less at prep

2024 @ 3,605 more = 180 more at prep

2021 had 130,000 prep kids in just over 500 preps

2021 saw the 3rd highest number of private kids ( ISC schools ) across all years
despite a decrease of 1.3%

2025 saw an all years reduction in ISC schools of 11,000
assuming
777 less births for that cohort it does not equal
11,000 and the figures are more stark counting in the fact not all school are ISC

I would therefore disagree
declining birth rates clearly is not the major reason for declining numbers paying for education

It's not just the VAT but lots of schools closing say it is, very quick to blame . Most of the small middle sized schools have been struggling for years. A lot of the buildings cost a fortune to upkeep due to age.

@AndresyFiorella certainly in my city more state schools are seemingly under subscribed than previous years.
Cost of living generally is crippling people tho I think and often its fees that go.
Big old buildings and even slightly smaller numbers from a small start point and assume they become non viable.
That said, I would have thought AESG would have been big enough

Worth remembering that VAT on school fees remains Labour's most popular policy among voters. It's democracy in action.

And nothing to do with 'envy' ffs. It's about giving everyone the best chance in life, not just the 7% who happen to have rich parents/grandparents

They’re not polling too well so democracy could kick them out anyway. And take the poor policy with them.

I'm no Labour voter but it's actually strategically smart by Labour. There's a 10% or so surplus of state school places across the UK, and no easy way of reducing that capacity. The surplus is greater in London, where private schooling is over-represented.

Labour fills some of the state school places, which are already largely accounted for; raises some tax that can be invested in education; and equalises the playing field for hardworking kids from ordinary backgrounds. Layer on top that it's popular with voters, and everyone's a winner. The only loser is unearned privilege

So I guess the question will be whether state actually do see the benefit.
My main thought is that really what all kids need is smaller class sizes and ratios. More staff to support and improved extra curricular. Not endless sub teachers and bare min enrichment

Unearned wealth carries on regardless

As this thread very clearly shows it’s the working private school parents
eg gps etc
that are losing out on the additional choice

If you RTT it’s the less expensive Indis that are closing

A prep school near to me has announced it it beginning a consultation to close at the end of the year. It’s very sad. I know the school & my daughter was friends with various pupils from there & I knew the then head teachers wife. However it is a prep school and although each year they sent a few students onto boarding schools the majority went into either a state Catholic grammar school or a larger nearby independent school (the school my own two started at).

both of those senior schools gave priority to other children either a list of well performing Catholic primary schools (state grammar) or its own prep school (the larger independent. The other independent school seems to be growing each year.

from talking to other parents many also felt that prep was a waste of money when they had good primary schools they could send their children too. When local state schools are poor parents may be willing to make a sacrifice. When they appear to be good, it’s only those with specific reasons who go private.

I found this when I used to run children’s performing arts classes. Whilst state provision was poor we were booming with full classes. When a change of policy/ethos caused better state provision & a local high school started offering their own highly subsidised or even free versions then our enrolment dropped.

It’s all very interesting as I don’t have any massively political view on it. I’d love all state kids to have what the best private kids have but know that will never happen. Yes it irks me that private kids get advantages but not enough to send my own as I think local & state also big benefits. @Comefromaway that just shows a lot want it from somewhere so will pay a weekly fee for extra if state can’t provide

The opposite makes more sense. The burden on the state goes down and the education budget could mean more for each state student. If we didn’t have ridiculous Labour policy.

I’m really sorry for families affected, but talk of ‘London politics’ and ‘politics of envy’ is ridiculous.

The independent education sector is at the mercy of the markets and changes in government policy. This is the reality. An institution that can’t adapt accordingly will fail.

Much the same as if a change in the economy affected your ability to pay fees. It would be bye bye your child.

i can understand the disruption caused to individuals must be very difficult, but the fact posters think it’s unfair is…ironic, if I’m being kind.

In normal circumstances that would more or less hold true. But when the state is carrying surplus capacity that can't just be switched off without incurring enormous expense, dealing with damaging local parent protests etc etc, the dynamics are different.

Exactly.

The complaint that 'it's ordinary people like me - doctors and lawyers - and not people with even more money, who will be priced out' is a little, let's say blinkered, isn't it?

A smaller state sector can provide for each student better. It’s just the electorate here that don’t really get that relationship. So vote for an extra tax that brings more students to state instead.

The thing is that the state sector IS education for all without VAT. Private schools are businesses first and foremost. They were when they were set up, and always will be.

Yes, numbers are falling in MHSG so they are opening a pre school in September.

I think you are wrong. It doesn’t work like that .

State schools get budgets based on pupil numbers counted at a particular point in time. They don’t just get given a fixed amount of funding. So if state school pupils reduce, funding reduces. That makes each state school less efficient as heating a classroom, paying a teacher, is not a variable cost.

The primary state schools near me actively advertise when they are not filling classroom. One of them had huge banners printed stating “we have spaces in Y1” “we have spaces in F2” and so on, and they attach these to the school fence as needed arises.

If the overall education budget remains the same whilst numbers reduce then the amount per pupil could rise
Which it desperately needs to

A reduction in pupil numbers doesn’t have to mean a reduction in a schools budget if Labour want to improve education.

A reduction in pupil numbers means smaller class sizes
Meanwhile whilst private schools close class sizes increase. Most schools can’t accommodate additional classes so children are all being squeezed in to the existing ones
Extra money does little to help that
and we still haven’t seen the extra 6500 teachers