At least 11 teachers have lost their jobs following the closure of a cash-strapped private school.

St Mary's Hall in Eastern Road, Brighton, is being taken over by Roedean after governors admitted it was struggling financially.

Both the 100-pupil junior school and the 200-pupil senior school will continue until the summer.

From September, Roedean will rebrand the junior section as its own.

The redundancies at St Mary's emerged at the Association of Teachers And Lecturers 's (ATL) annual conference in Liverpool.

The union's national official for independent schools, John Richardson said the union was concerned that some schools were only offering statutory redundancy packages.

He singled out the Roedean and St Mary's merger, saying five ATL members had been given compulsory redundancy and a further six had taken voluntary redundancy.

He said: “Independent school employers, certainly the well-known ones, ought to be setting a good example and paying more than the statutory minimum.

“Roedean should pay higher than the absolute legal minimum. After all, it's a people business.

“It's the staff and teachers that make the school. They're committed, loyal and hard-working.

“A redundancy policy is the minimum you would expect because it gives clarity in difficult situations where staff are in shock at losing their jobs and want to know what will happen.”

Mr Richardson said there had been quite a considerable number of redundancies in the independent sector over the past year.

Conference members psssed a motion today calling for a campaign to ensure all fee-paying schools planned for the future to mitigate any risks from the credit crunch, and to put proper redundancy policies in place to help and protect staff.

In a statement on its website Roedean said it had been overwhelmed by the support from St Mary’s Hall’s parents and pupils since the announcement was made earlier this year.

It has held several year group meetings at Roedean for all parents and pupils, tours of the school and taster days plus individual meetings.

After Easter a series of informal teas are planned so Roedean teachers can get to know future young pupils better.

An open day is also being held on the May 4 Bank Holiday.

Roedean School were unavailable to comment when The Argus went to print.