Private school will close due to crippling debts

Lucy Cork • Published 9 Feb 2011 09:30 9 Comments

See also:

A POPULAR private school will close in the summer because of crippling losses and debts of almost £1m.

Shell-shocked parents wept this week after hearing The Highlands School in Tilehurst will not survive beyond July and, with its bankers calling for immediate action, governor Rick Mortlock told a PTA meeting on Tuesday: "This is the worst decision we have ever had to make."

Up to 50 full and part-time staff will lose their jobs when the Wardle Avenue school shuts and anxious parents are facing the dilemma of fighting to save it or securing their children's futures at other schools.

PTA co-chairman Claire Hunt told the audience of nearly 60 parents and staff: "If there is going to be a rescue it needs to happen quickly. We basically need to raise £250,000 and recruit 27 pupils to stay open. We have raised a lot of money before, we can do it again."

Finance governor Rajkumar Subraniam said: "In 2009 the accounts show a loss of £197,000, in 2010 a loss of £78,000 and we forecast a loss this year of £107,000. We haven't been able to increase pupil numbers so we had no other options."

Over four years the school incurred £400,000 losses and borrowed £900,000

This article appeared in Reading Chronicle 09 Feb 11

Have your say. Post a comment on this article.

ST_Tilehurst
Unregistered User
Feb 10, 11:26
Report comment

It is such a shame that a non-profit organisation such as this should fall victim to the current economic decline. Although a private school, the Highlands is a registered charity (No. 309147) and as such grants bursaries to families who would not normally be able to afford schooling with this much care, exceptional teaching and small class sizes.

There are active campaigns to save the school being launched by the PTA over the coming days and I (for one) can only hope that they are successful.

Further information on the campaigns can be found here:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Save-The-Highlands-School-Reading/100307223381814?v=wall

http://www.twitter.com/savehighlands

Recommend? Yes 0 No 0
HighlandsMum
Unregistered User
Feb 10, 15:38
Report comment

As a Highlands parent who is very keen to see the school remain open and thrive I welcome publicity on this sad news. It is important to stress though that the losses reported in this article are attributable to both the Highlands and its brother school - St Edwards, which is situated on the Tilehurst Road in Reading. I was appalled to learn this week that £450k of the reported losses is solely attributable to a capital investment at St Edwards! The forecast loss for the Highlands this year is a mere £100k! This article also reports that the Highlands needs £250k and an increase of 27 in pupil numbers. The school actually needs to make an additional £250k which is the equivalent of 27 pupils - not an insurmountable target given the school hasn't benefited from a professional and proactive marketing campaign for some years now.

Recommend? Yes 0 No 0
ex-highlands-boy
Unregistered User
Feb 10, 15:57
Report comment

@ HighlandsMum - If it is true that, in effect, the Highlands site has been mortgaged to pay for developments at St. Edwards, this is a clear breach of how a charity should be run.

My thoughts are to get the Charity Commission involved to identify what is going on. The commissions website clearly states they want to be made aware of any charity that has made a significant loss - and/or are bringing the ethos of charities into disrepute. Both appear to have occurred here.

The Governors need to "come clean". Specifically :-

- share the detailed accounts across both schools and the costs of each separately

- explain why a significant loan was taken out in 2009 and on what charity property it was secured

- the above article states Mr Mortlock as saying "the bank is telling us to do something serious"....why? Has a loan payment been missed? Are they trying to foreclose on the loan early? Which bank?

- explain what has been done with those funds. Did it go on capital projects or plug a hole in the accounts?

- feel, as a group, they should continue as Governors/trustees at all. There seems to have been a fundamental breach of trust and duty of care.

Recommend? Yes 0 No 0
HighlandsMum
Unregistered User
Feb 10, 16:29
Report comment

Ex-Highlands Boy - if you haven't already done so please join our campaign http://www.facebook.com/SaveTheHighlandsSchool and encourage other former pupils to do so. I have only repeated what parents were told by the Governors on Tuesday night.

Recommend? Yes 0 No 0
Common Cents
Unregistered User
Feb 10, 16:33
Report comment

There is a core of St Edward's parents who are extremely vociferous. Having attended a meeting there that concerned both schools several years back, I was horrified at the agression aimed towards the Highlands. If what HighlandsMum says is true then I have to admit to not being surprised, the pressure from St. Eds' parents to support their school to the detrement of Highlands seemed to be their overriding concern.

I know there are many St Edwards parents who support the campaign to keep Highlands open and their continued input is very welcome so I have no wish to alienate anyone, but my comments are based on on what I witnessed at that meeting.

Recommend? Yes 0 No 0
Very sad mum
Unregistered User
Feb 12, 07:57
Report comment

I agree with common cents.

I attended a meeting some years ago (just before the new principal was appointed by the governors) and it was obvious the then parents of St Eds did not want it to be co-ed but my question is - is this still the case? I wanted to see the detailed accounts back then - answer not available. I wanted them to consider co-ed - answer not possible.

I am afraid to say I have always viewed the Highlands as being the poor relation to St Eds and it is obvious this is true now. I said to my husband returning from that meeting back then that The Highlands was not going to survive and that the site would be sold to developers. I did not realise that this comment would come true and it saddens me that it may happen.

My son loved the school. It has formed him into the young person he is - caring, loving, funny and happy.

I believe that the mismanagement of the finances of both schools is one that has not happened over night but over a period of time. I dont believe the current management are at fault I believe they inherited something quite big and ugly and with the recession biting it has not helped.

Recommend? Yes 0 No 0
Happy Mum
Unregistered User
Feb 17, 12:37
Report comment

I was at the same meeting referred to by "Very Sad Mum", the St Edwards parents found the Highlands parents and the Governers there to be very rude and arrogant and therefore the majority now feel we don't want to support the Highlands and we certainly do not want a co ed school for St Edwards. We sent our children there because it's a boys only school and it is a fantastic school! The Principal has done his best with the resource and finances available for the girls school. The Vice Principal at St Edwards is an inspirational man as are his colleagues and they will always have the support of the parents at St Edwards. I feel for the children at The Highlands though. If John Madjeski feels that strongly why doesn't he offer financial help!

Recommend? Yes 0 No 0
ex-highlands-boy
Unregistered User
Feb 18, 11:58
Report comment

@ Happy Mum - I think you have demonstrated the key thing that everyone wants to have..... "the best education possible for their children". What "best education possible" actually means is very personal and individual to each family. My own parents felt it was to send me to Highlands then Hemdean House - then 10 (happy) years at Presentation College.

Their decision, as with all parents, was based on any number of variables :-

- fees (and the sacrifice associated with that)

- subjects taught

- location

- atmosphere

- teaching style

- recent results

- reputation

- co-ed or not co-ed

Where we send our children is a balance of all these, and probably many other factors. Unfortunately, we are not all multi-multi millionaires.....so Eton and Harrow are not viable. So we make a decision based on a balance of all these factors and how we prioritise each of them.

What you may consider to be rude, is probably them showing the same level of passion you are showing for the education of your own child. It is instinctive (almost biological!!) that we want whats best for them, so will fight, argue, persuade as much as possible on their behalf. In addition, if you are paying a significant amount of money for education - you want the best for it......

Out of curiosity, how did you find the Governors of Highlands rude? I was under the impression that the same board/trustees managed both schools?

That is why I think the St Ed's parents need to be as "eyes open" as possible going forward. There is no real reason why Highlands should be in this situation. When I was at the school over 30 years ago, the Tilehurst area was relatively small - but the school was fully subscribed. Today, Tilehurst and the nearby villages are literally three times the size of then, with a very sizeable, affluent commuter population - yet the school is undersubscribed?

In addition, I still feel (as per my comments above) there has not been full disclosure as yet. Looking at the Charity Commission website - the accounts used to provide a breakdown of costs by School.....however for the past two years, they appear not to have been reported in this way. Any business will know how the cost structure of their operations run......its just they have decided not to show them (for whatever reason.......).

Speaking as someone who went to an all boys school for 10 years, I fully understand why you would not want St Ed's to go co-ed. However, the financial viability of running schools this way is getting more and more difficult. There are many examples of (private) schools across Berkshire that have closed due to numbers or finances - Presentation College/Elvian, Doai Abbey etc. Going co-ed is a financial lifeline for many of them - Crossfields, St Josephs etc.

There are many pressures on these fee paying schools now - some of these have only appeared in recent years. For example, parents are more wary about the costs of private education, given tuition fees are now increasing at Universities and the costs they will have to support as a result. The transport infrastructure around Reading is creeking - so travelling to the private school on the other side of town is becoming an impossibility. Many state funded schools, particularly in Reading, have been improving - mainly due to better regulation, monitoring and visibility. Would a parent really prefer not to send their child to Reading School just because it wasn't fee paying??

I think Highlands does have a market and there is no reason for it not to be successful. How a loan could have been taken out of the trusts property two years ago - and no justifiable reason given as to the purpose of that money - is very wrong. This school should not fail. The teaching staff are very good (parents and ex-pupils testify to that). Head teachers may be excellent at managing a school........however the governors/trustees appear to have a flagrant disregard for the basic laws on managing a trust. They are shielded by a clause within the Articles of Association (of the company that runs Highlands and St Edwards) that limits their personal liability to £1.

Recommend? Yes 0 No 0
Highlands Mum
Unregistered User
Feb 26, 19:21
Report comment

@Happy Mum, your comment "the majority now feel we don't want to support the Highlands" REALLY saddens me. These two fabulous schools have a long & shared history, and not so very long ago, when the situation was reversed, The Highlands propped up St Edwards - indeed, it has been propping up pupil numbers every year by transferring the boys there. There is no argument that St Edwards is a great school, and there is no call for it to become co-educational. What we want is to ensure that both schools continue and since Highlands parents have shown unanimous support towards becoming co-educational, why then has this proposal not been seriously expored by the management ? St Edwards does not need to follow suit - parents who choose a single sex education for their boys (as you did) wouldn't consider Highlands anyway, so what's the problem ?

The fact is, the charitable trust under which the schools are run has a duty of care to the provision of education for both boys AND girls - and neither school should be thrown under the bus to save the other - which is exactly what is happening.

Perhaps the time has come to set up a separate trust for each school and allow them to go their separate ways since there is clearly a lack of "all for one and one for all".

The Vice Principal at St Edwards clearly has the unanimous support of the parents at St Edwards so maybe he is the man to take the school into the future.......

As for the Highlands, we will continue to fight to save our school, with or without the support of the St Edwards parents.

Recommend? Yes 0 No 0

Return to the main index, get more from this section or browse our News archives.

Follow @rdgchronicle