Two Midlands independent schools to close, citing VAT policy as a contributing factor
Loughborough Amherst and Maidwell Hall schools plan to close due to financial challenges, including the introduction of VAT on school fees.
Loughborough Amherst School in Leicestershire has informed parents of 284 pupils it is proposing to permanently close at the end of the academic year on 4 July. Loughborough Schools Foundation, which runs the co-educational Catholic school, said a final decision would be made following a staff consultation, which is expected to end in March.
“Despite significant financial support and sustained efforts to grow pupil numbers, the school has been unable to sustain a surplus throughout its 10 years,” wrote Roger Harrison, the foundation’s chair of governors, in a letter to parents.
“We face a situation now in which operating costs continue to rise, further exacerbated by the recent Autumn Budget announcements,” he added.
Harrison said if the closure was confirmed, over 80% of the pupils would be offered a place at one of the other schools within the foundation.
Meanwhile Maidwell Hall School, near Market Harborough in Northamptonshire has also confirmed it will close. The school, which was once attended by Earl Spencer, has hit out at the “unrelenting” economic pressures it is facing. The school, which is part of the Uppingham Group of Schools, has said the Government’s introduction of VAT on school fees in the Autumn Budget is one of the reasons why it can no longer operate.
Barbara Matthews, chair of trustees at the school, also said the trend towards parents choosing to send their children to school as day pupils rather than boarders had also forced the trustees to “recognise that the economic consequence was unavoidable”.