Thetford Grammar College dates again to the seventh century.
Thetford Grammar is trying to merge with a faculty in Stowmarket (Picture: Norfolk Stay)
One of many oldest colleges within the nation is to shut after 1,400 years, blaming Labour’s VAT cost on non-public college charges. Thetford Grammar College in Norfolk traces its origins again to the courtroom of King Sigbert of the East Angles within the seventh century.
Mother and father on the unbiased day and boarding college, the place charges vary from £4,000 to nearly £7,000 per time period, had been informed concerning the closure in a letter from chair, Jay Liu, on Monday (April 27). He introduced with a “heavy coronary heart” that the imposition of VAT on college charges, elimination of enterprise charges aid, elevated employees prices, minimal wage rises and hovering utility payments positioned “unsustainable” strain on many unbiased colleges.
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Mr Liu mentioned after a “cautious” overview, the college’s board determined the monetary pressure meant Thetford Grammar was not viable to hold on independently.
He added: “This has been a particularly troublesome resolution. All through this course of the overriding precedence has been the continued training wellbeing and future alternatives of our pupils.
“With that in thoughts we have now labored proactively to determine the strongest potential onward pathway for our households.”
The chairman mentioned within the letter, reported by the Native Democracy Reporting Service, that Thetford Grammar would look to merge with a faculty in Stowmarket, which is a few 22 miles away.
Greater than 100 unbiased colleges have closed since Labour imposed VAT on non-public college charges.
A Labour manifesto dedication, the elimination of the earlier VAT exemption on non-public colleges was geared toward elevating income for the Treasury.
Personal colleges in England with charitable standing from April 2025 additionally misplaced the 80% aid on enterprise charges they beforehand benefited from.
Julie Robinson, chief government of the Unbiased Colleges Council, mentioned beforehand that the VAT coverage was a “bridge too far” for a lot of colleges. She warned in January that extra closures would come because the impression of VAT and different tax measures mount up.
Amongst Thetford Grammar College’s former pupils is radical thinker Thomas Paine, who’s believed to have been a pupil between 1744 and 1749.
The college has been owned by China Monetary Providers Holdings, an organization listed in Hong Kong, since 2017. It operates a nursery in Changsha, China, and says its pupils repeatedly obtain prime grades at GCSE and A-Degree.
Thetford Grammar College has been approached for remark.
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