Families send children to schools across Sussex after St Mary's Hall closure (From The Argus)
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Families send children to schools across Sussex after St Mary's Hall closure
3:00pm Thursday 2nd July 2009 in
Dozens of families have rejected the opportunity for their children to move to a prestigious rival when their independent school closes down this week.
It has emerged that a large number of girls from St Mary's Hall School, in Eastern Road, Brighton, will not be taking up places offered to them by Roedean when it completed a takeover in February.
Several parents spoke of their unhappiness at the offer at the time.
Many would have had to pay higher significantly higher fees, despite bursaries being offered by Roedean, and a number had reservations about the different ethos of the schools.
When St Mary's Hall closes its doors for the final time on Friday (July 3) a large number of the girls will move in different directions.
Brighton and Hove High School, in Denmark Terrace, Brighton, said it had given places to a significant number of children both in its junior and senior school, although it declined to give an exact number.
Moira House School, in Eastbourne, also declined to give figures but said it had taken on a significant amount of day and boarding pupils who were leaving St Mary's Hall.
Admissions director Eric Reynolds said: "It would not be right of us to go into numbers but what I can say by way of indication is that we have extended our minibus service to Brighton because of it. We previously only went as far as Seaford."
Both schools have fees closer to St Mary's Hall than Roedean. Brighton and Hove High has termly fees in its senior school of £3,100 and Moira House's termly rates start at £3,400. St Mary's Hall was charging from £3,286 per term, while Roedean's start at £4,725.
Brighton and Hove City Council said it had also allocated places at its schools to six pupils of the closing schools.
Parent David Wertans, whose 13-year-old daughter Emily will move to Steyning Grammar, said resentment remained at the handling of the closure. The news was broken to families by their daughters, who were told in an assembly.
Mr Wertans said: "The emotions have calmed but everyone is now trying to do the best thing for our children. A lot of parents have already taken their daughters out of the school."
Staff at St Mary's Hall said despite the exodus the majority of their pupils would transfer to Roedean, particularly the 100 in the junior school, which would be rebranded as Roedean Junior.
Eleven teachers have been made redundant by the merger, along with an undisclosed number of support staff.
St Mary's Hall had reported debts of almost £2million in was struggling with falling pupil numbers before Roedean's intervention.
The existing senior school building will be left empty while future options are considered.
Comments(4)
davyboy
says...
5:32pm Fri 3 Jul 09
idlebloke
says...
9:23am Sat 4 Jul 09
Are you mad??
This 'is' a story and The Argus has not even scratched the surface. 'We' put our children into private education for a good reason and have made many sacrifices to do so. If you know so much why didn't you involve yourself in helping out? The governors of SMH have failed in their duties and treated parents disgracefully and with contempt. Are you aware that at least one of them felt it would be "tedious" to even speak to us?
No attempt was made to look at other alternatives that would have kept the school alive. I'm sure that you are very happy with your selfish attitude, good luck to you and whoever you are. I sincerely hope that you are away from me and other 'genuine people' that we got to know during our many years at SMH.
The reality is that 'our' school was taken over by a competitor and 'we' were thrown out. You and others can use whatever 'other' terms you wish but that is what happened
argus97
says...
11:14am Sat 4 Jul 09
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Mutteroo says...
1:43pm Fri 3 Jul 09
There is a very valid reason why Roedean could not sustain the level of bursaries to SMH pupils. SMH had offered a huge quantity of discounts to ensure 'bums on seats'. Roedean sensibly are looking after the finances to ensure they do not face the same problems as St Mary's Hall. This school has been slowly going downhill for some time and we could see the financial meltdown. It was a case of when the school closed and not if. It was always the intention that our daughter would leave this summer (just in time as it turned out) and any parent who was shocked to hear of the closure must have had been living in cloud cuckoo land. SMH had practically all the warning signs and this is a lesson to all parents of pupils at private schools in what to watch out for. The best teachers were leaving and were sometimes replaced with teachers who were not up to scratch. There was of course some committed teachers who have stuck it out to the very end and most of these have taken retirement not redundancy.
Good luck to those who have lost their jobs. Most will have no problems finding work because most of them are excellent teachers, office staff, tutors, senior management, kitchen staff, cleaners etc. Happy retirement to those who have taken this option. Can't remember what the headteacher looks like but I suppose we wish her well in her retirement too. And good luck to all the ex St Mary's Hall girls whatever school/uni you will be attending next term.