Many private schools might close

[Jockolgy]

Have been thinking today after conversation with friend who teaches at a top prep school in SE. The school has lost third of their pupils since half term because the Russian children have left ! Is this happening at other schools?

@Viviennemary well it will bother the teachers who work at those schools. And the cleaner, catering staff, site staff. And the uniform suppliers. And the people whose children attend those schools…

I doubt it. Certainly not outside London.

Our school doesn't have any Russian pupils. We have 7 overseas pupils out of 600, and three of those are from an American military family on secondment with the British army.

Bad management on the school's part to leave themselves so vulnerable to one market. And to have so little in reserve.

If one third of all parents suddenly withdrew their children in the space of six weeks, I'd suspect some very serious problem in the school.

I don't think Leeds Grammar school has many Russian kids so I'm not going to worry 🤣

If some schools close then that might be a good thing. There's lots of low quality ones that need to shut down anyway. It's a good process.

I can’t see schools closing due to the Russia issue but I was wondering recently how there can be so many people in my local area earning enough to send their DC to private school as there seems to be loads of them around here and they’re not cheap ones either. I wonder if the cost of living crisis will impact uptake. I did notice two boys’ schools have gone co-ed so maybe there wasn’t enough demand from just boys.

Not true and I wouldnt give a shit even if it was

@Chaoslatte
Lots of top boys schools have gone co Ed over the last 30 years. Or more. Stowe, Wellington, Oundle, Rugby, Uppingham and many more are co Ed but didn’t used to be.

I think you will find grandparents pay, mortgages are taken out, saving schemes entered into etc to pay fees. Some people earn a lot and others have family money. Others scrape the fees together. Boarding parents tend to have plenty of money, day parents are variable.

I also meant to say that for those scraping fees together. Inflation will start to bite. School fees always go up above the rate of inflation so the next fee round could be eye watering.

Not here. No Russian pupils at our day school at all. As someone else said, if the Chinese pupils didn't come then some of the boarding schools would take a hit, but not Russian pupils.

The Independent Schools Council covers most independent schools. Their census last year showed that the 1,337 schools in membership had 532,237 pupils. Of these, 2,327 were Russian, less than 0.5% of the school population. A school where one third of the pupils are Russian is therefore highly unusual.

@prh47bridge
Yup. Numbers of fee paying students were down in the latest figures from ISC but that was economy hitting hard not war with Russia.
It’s going to be a very tough few years for indies with their offering being affected by rising staff costs, the private school pensions crisis and general inflation. Losing Russian students won’t begin to compare with these massive problems.

Some of the smaller ones really do need to merge. They are almost certainly borrowing to survive and some schools are poorly run. Some schools are not offering the TPS to new recruits too.

@TizerorFizz

Some of the smaller ones really do need to merge. They are almost certainly borrowing to survive and some schools are poorly run. Some schools are not offering the TPS to new recruits too.

Merging only works if they are schools with similar ethos and intake.

School my friend's dc was at merged. Their school was aimed at children who would benefit from smaller classes, with academic potential.
School they merged with was based around performing arts.

Neither set of parents were happy and both groups started withdrawing their children asap.

School closed about 2 years later.

Before they merged one of the schools was definitely gaining in reputation and the other was doing okay. They thought merging would mean they could offer more.

I think the small class ethos will definitely put some schools in financial jeopardy. It’s hugely costly. Ten years down the line, parents won’t remember the past ethos. Having neither school might be a bigger problem! Existing parents never like change. It’s a given!

Good. I hope they all close down.

I’ve also seen small village state schools merge too. Infants on one site, juniors on another. Saves on salaries and thinking differently is important to save money.

Nope the reverse round here - massive long reserve lists around here.

@TizerorFizz
I think you are right about the unsustainability of small classes with rising staff pension costs. Interestingly all the research shows the benefit is negligible anyway.

@Chocalata

I agree. It’s high quality teaching that counts. Poor teaching and a poor curriculum isn’t made better by a small class.

@TizerorFizz the problem with the teacher pension crisis is that the indies are going to lose the best teachers who can teach those lessons wells

Only school round here ( think North) that might be affected is along the lines of she who must not be named
But half of their kids are boarding, and of those the vast majority russian or chinese
However i no longer no anyone with dc there, and only vaguely know one member of staff there now ( at one stage i knew lots but they have all left/ been laid off)