Leweston School Closed

[ArtHistory]

Devastating for the pupils and staff. The letter says that the operator (Concept Education) was trying to close a cash shortfall through discussions with people willing to support the school but they don't have the cash to pay the staff this week. They blame falling pupil numbers - DfE website said they had 577 pupils with a capacity of 725.

It really feels like the private education model is broken. Looking at the website, it does look like they invested an awful lot in big capital projects in the last ten years (the new riding school, new music centre, expanded prep) - so it's hard to tell if that's mismanagement or was investment that was needed to keep up with the private school arms' race.

I don't understand how private education has got so expensive - I was at school with the sons and daughters of teachers, doctors (GPs), small business owners, high street solicitors etc, many of whom were putting 3 or 4 kids through boarding all the way through. We didn't have the most luxurious of facilities, but we had the music rooms, the sport (albeit playing hockey on grass not astro) and the small class sizes so why do they need such luxury now?

Well yes it does. The fees for teachers used to be marginal and now you’re lucky to get a £40k a year salary and 50% off astronomical fees (for 2 kids max) unless you’re at a major player. Abbotsholme before they shut offered very experienced, qualified, shortage subject me £38k and The Mount in York was identical in the same year. Both said that was as high as they could go. So teachers are now priced out of sending their kids to the schools where they serve and paid less than state counterparts for the same experience level. They are expected to take out fees loans which they will be paying for the rest of their lives or send their kids to state. Oh and a lot of private schools are taking teachers out of the teacher’s pension as well. Absolutely shitty treatment of teachers all around. Did it force us back into state? Nope! We emigrated last year. It’s all part of the bigger picture of enshittification.

Yes but in our area it isn't a particular community benefit. No one would really notice or care if it wasn't there. That's my point.

The state schools all use the leisure centre for swimming, not like your area by the sounds of it.

I left school 25 years ago and in my final year at school the annual fees were just over £5000. It wasn’t a boarding school I was at, and I never claimed a teacher would have been able to send 4 children to boarding school on a teachers wage at the time. But it is just a fact that my friends from when I was at school have parents who worked as teachers (state and private sector), university lecturers, GPs, accountants, vicars, small business owners etc.

One of my best friends is one of 4 and all the siblings were all at private school on one wage - it would have been rude to have asked what the earning parent made so I don’t know that, but I know (as we are still friends) that they weren’t fabulously wealthy. Of course there may well have been bursaries, grandparents helping, fee reductions in the case of teachers’ children where the teacher taught at the school etc etc, I don’t know all the individual circumstances. My point is that the affordability of independent schools was objectively different 25 years ago and that that change in affordability has had an impact on the kind of families that could afford it and/ or see it as good value.

Affordability was definitely different when I went to private school - I left sixth form in 1987.
Many of my friends’ had just one parent working (the father). Their parents were GPs, dentists, opticians, small town solicitors, bank branch managers, teachers, small business owners, civil servants etc. very few city banker types or big CEOs.
Compared to my day school fees now are twice as expensive in real terms.
Interestingly, most of my old school friends went on to send their own children to private school. I think they wanted to give their children as good a start in life as the one they got. But they were not all twice as rich as their parents used to be, I’m sure, so a lot of people have been very stretched financially for a while.

@OneDayIWillLearn , no, I agree with you! I also went to independent school depressingly slightly longer ago than that and my annual fee was £3k. Most of my classmates were the children of doctors and teachers and most had siblings at private schools too. There were also assisted places in those days!
I now teach in a private school and most of the parents are not professionals, but rather have been successful in business.

Other stuff got more expensive too. My cousin bought a full house in Shoreditch on an artist‘s salary back in the days and is now a paper millionaire. I reckon the inflation on the house beats even the poshest private school.
Also, it’s all relative. Even the most expensive boarding school here is good value compared to Aiglon. It’s also why we still get international students- still good value compared to the US.