A parent of two children who attended a private school that announced its closure last week has said its leadership team has “dropped off the face of the earth”.
Our Lady’s Abingdon (OLA), in Oxfordshire, closed after 160 years citing “a range of economic pressures” including the introduction of VAT on private school fees.
In a post on social media, parent Eamon Devlin described the letter announcing the closure as a “masterclass of avoidance” and criticised a lack of support for families.
OLA has not responded to requests for comment.
Announcing its closure the school said it had been “under financial pressure for some time” and it had been left with “no viable way forward”.
It added an increase in fees had become “unaffordable” for some parents and had led to a decline in pupil numbers.
At the time of its closure, the school had 368 pupils, despite a capacity of 540.
In its last accounts filed in August 2023, the school said it faced “challenges” and predicted budget deficits for the years ending August 2024 and 2025.
It said the school’s governors acknowledged its circumstances represented a “material uncertainty that may cast significant doubt on [its] ability to continue as a going concern”.
Mr Devlin has one child at the school and another who was due to begin in September.
He said there had been high levels of staff turnover in recent years, but no indication from the school that its immediate future was at risk.
At the time of the closure the school’s board of governors said it would be “supporting families in securing alternative school places in Oxfordshire”.
But Mr Devlin told the BBC: “When the notice was issued, we had no offer of help from the school.
“There’s been no communication from the governors… it seems like the people responsible for running the school have dropped off the face of the earth”.
He added that he had attempted to enter his daughters into local state schools, but was told they were full. They will begin at a new private school in September.
A woman with grandchildren at the school, who did not want to be named, told the BBC the lack of prior notice was “a betrayal of trust and confused children when [the] school was seen as a predictable, trusted, nurturing environment”.
Debbie Watson, regional organiser at teachers’ union NASUWT, criticised the school’s leadership for giving no warning of its closure.
“Our members had only recently been forced to have a reduced pension benefit with the governors citing that it was one of the measures they were taking to protect the future of the school,” she said.
“At no point in our discussions with them did they highlight just how perilous the state their finances were in.”
Ms Watson added: “We are very disappointed that the school has not been transparent and open with us.”
Teachers at the school went on strike in January in response to the governors’ proposal to cap the school’s financial contribution to a pension scheme.
At the time, the school said it was considering withdrawing from the scheme due to “unsustainable cost increases” but were “committed to resolving the dispute and maintaining the well-being and education of [its] students”.
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