Almost 170 workers have been made redundant.
A personal college in Ramsgate has plunged into administration and triggered job losses (Picture: -)
A historic personal college has closed with instant impact for almost all of its 500 pupils after plunging into administration yesterday. Some 166 staff have been made redundant at St Lawrence School, an unbiased day and boarding college in Ramsgate, Kent, based in 1879.
The college taught youngsters aged three to 18, however solely Yr 11 and Yr 13 college students will probably be retained to allow them to full their research for GCSE, BTEC and A-Degree exams, with 44 workers stored on to help them. Managers stated it was hit by declining pupil numbers, the brand new Labour tax on college charges, rising operational prices, and broader financial uncertainty.
Rachel Reeves introduced VAT will increase for personal faculties in 2024 (Picture: Getty)
Governors’ chairman Graham Carter stated: “That is an extremely unhappy day for everybody linked with St Lawrence School. This college has been on the coronary heart of the Ramsgate neighborhood, and generations of pupils have benefited from the dedication of our workers and the power of our neighborhood,” reviews Kent On-line.
“We explored each attainable choice to safe the college’s future, and I wish to thank everybody who labored so arduous to discover a method ahead. Whereas this isn’t the end result we needed, our focus now’s on supporting our examination-year pupils to finish their research, serving to households discover new college locations, and making certain our colleagues obtain the help they deserve.”
Charges vary from £3,702 per time period for a day reception pupil to £17,178 per time period for a sixth kind boarding pupil, that means mother and father might splash out greater than £50,000 per yr on the school.
Lord Craig Mackinlay, the previous MP for South Thanet, blamed the “absolute tragedy” on Labour’s enterprise price insurance policies and the introduction of the usual 20% VAT price on personal college charges, as of January 2025.
Rachel Reeves estimated the VAT would increase £1.51 billion in 2025/26, and forecast it might set off 37,000 pupils leaving the personal sector, representing about 6% of the present personal college inhabitants.
The college had capability for 500 pupils, together with round 175 boarders. Regardless of makes an attempt to put it aside, together with a complete strategic evaluation and discussions with potential companions, bosses stated it was not attainable to discover a method ahead.
One plan was merging with Dover School, to open a brand new website referred to as St Lawrence Dover School and shut the present one, but it surely confronted large backlash final month after being revealed in February.
Managers defined it might permit the college’s id and historical past to proceed at one other website, and the college was dealing with “imminent closure” with out motion.
However mother and father staged protests on the college, citing a scarcity of session and planning, which led to governers reconsidering the plan.
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Philip Watkins and Philip Armstrong of enterprise advisory agency FRP have been appointed as joint directors, who stated they’re supporting workers with the Redundancy Funds Service.
The school stated it’s working with close by faculties and the native authority to assist discover various locations for his or her youngsters.
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