Mount St Mary's & Barlborough Hall: School goes into administration after fundraiser fails to meet target
Following a hard-fought battle to save a school, leaders have made parents aware that they will now be entering administration.
The board of governors at Mount St Mary’s College and Barlborough Hall School have released a letter explaining that the school will now be entering administration.
It comes just over a week since parents and communities near to the school in Spinkhill first learnt that the independent Catholic institute would have to shut due to debt problems.
The school’s closure would leave as many as 600 children with nowhere to go, despite the September return date being only a number of weeks away.
An ‘urgent’ GoFundMe was started as people made a desperate, last-ditch attempt to save the school, though it fell short of its £400,000 goal.
In this latest letter, Shaun Whyman, the chair of governors, writes: “It is our very sad duty to confirm that the board of governors has formally decided that it is now essential to sign-over Mount St Mary's College and Barlborough Hall School to administration.
“This final decision has not been taken lightly and was ultimately reached only when all other viable and potentially sustainable options were ultimately exhausted. This is a sad responsibility, reluctantly enacted.
“We acknowledge that this outcome will cause deep upset, significant distress and uncertainty to everybody concerned. It has been heartening that, despite the turmoil and uncertainty of events in the last week, so many of you were willing to engage with generosity and imagination in attempts to see if a coherent financial model might emerge to rescue the school.
“The crowdfunding of the Parents Action group was just one example among many of various individuals, groups and organisations offering to try to be part of a solution.
“However, it has proved impossible to put together a mosaic of funding proposals that would support the schools in the short, medium and long term.
“We are very aware that a greater danger than the present plan for closure would be if the Mount and Barlborough were to be subject to a short-term rescue which kept the schools artificially buoyed-up - only to find that they became unviable in the middle of the academic year, with all the additional and repeated uncertainty that would ensue.”
The announcement marks the end of an era, bringing a close to an institution which has facilitated the education of countless generations.
The letter continues: “The Mount and Barlborough have been able to provide a high-quality education and faith-filled community for nearly two centuries.
“The Jesuits in Britain have been very generous in financially supporting Mount St Mary's and Barlborough Hall through grants and loans and resources for many years, but in the last year-or-so it has become increasingly clear to all-concerned that that the financial model presently underpinning the schools was no longer tenable in the increasingly challenging independent educational milieu in Britain today.
“For the medium and long-term security of the schools, in order to continue with confidence, the schools had need of a new owner who (as well as being sympathetic to the history, aims and ethos of the Mount and Barlborough) would have been able introduce a substantial injection of liquid assets and a sustainable financial model to work from.
“The governors have undertaken a myriad of discussions about a solution for the school, but unfortunately all interested parties for a sale eventually withdrew. We have always tried to act in the long-term interests of the school community with careful attention to evolving obligations in this changing landscape.”