Exclusive
St Lawrence College in Ramsgate went into administration owing some £9.8m to some 180 organisations, businesses, individuals and former employees.
The private school, which entered administration in April, owes £5.1m to Barclays – which is expected to be repaid in full from property proceeds- £146.3k is owed for employees’ preferential element for arrears of pay, unpaid pension contributions and holiday pay – also anticipated to be paid in full.
HMRC ranks as a secondary preferential with a claim of £772K. It is currently anticipated this will be paid in full.
However, there is also a creditor ledger of businesses owed £1.6m and the unsecured element of employee arrears of pay, redundancy pay and payment in lieu of notice, of £2.2m. – which will likely receive a distribution but this may only be a percentage of what is owed.
St Lawrence College land and properties with a charge are estimated to bring in £7.7m once sold. However, £5.1m of this goes to Barclays.
Properties without a charge are estimated to be worth £2.6m
Consumer Creditors are owed £798k with trade creditors owed a further £872k
Among unsecured creditors are a number of Thanet businesses/organisations listed:
- Thanet council with a sum of £22,730 and another of £1,675
- Harvey Waste Management £9,275
- Andrew’s Taxi Service £5,982
- Ambition Sport £1,541
- Bookers £1,180
- Thanet Commercials £870
- Kent Technologies £654
- Trade Container Services £1,000
- P&G Cleaning £515
- Nelson Park Riding Centre £450
- Kent Workwear £358
- BP Drains £264
- Access Lock & Key Service £245
- Community window and door repairs £194
- WG Burbridge £131
- Jewson £96
- Youngs Nurseries £77
There are also a number of named individuals with Thanet addresses on the list.
Monies are owed to around 200 former staff.
Administrator documents say the college had small operating deficits in the financial years 2023 to 2025, that despite costing cutting measures being undertaken was forecast to rise to £1.4m this year following the reduction in pupils numbers from 508 to 403, which included the loss of 64 boarders.
The net losses after interest and depreciation amounted to approximately £1.2m to £1.3m in 2023-25, rising to a forecast £2.6m this year.
The school also had a £4m revolving credit facility and £500k overdraft with the bank.
A merger/sale process was launched by the school in early September 2025 with an initial teaser document being shared with 20 targeted interested parties that were thought could have an interest either in merging with St Lawrence College or acquiring the property.
Although five parties showed an interest they ultimately fell away or were not credible leaving the school to explore a combined merger with Dover College.
The plan was for the two schools to operate from Dover. In February 2026, the two schools signed heads of terms which included paying all liabilities, including repaying Barclays in full on the target change of control date of 31 March 2026.
An announcement of the intended closure was made on 24 February, which met significant backlash from parents, students and staff.
On 5 March the governors reconsidered their decision and pulled out of the deal with Dover College.
The Governors then entered discussions with an international education group that operates a network of independent boarding schools, international high schools and summer programmes across the UK, US, China and other locations. It is understood the group was CATS [Cambridge Arts, Technology and Science].
CATS withdrew from discussions on 1 April 2026 due to significant uncertainty on the number of returning pupils for both the summer term following the Easter holidays and the following school year.
The school was also in discussions with a “high net worth” individual to understand if they may loan or invest but this did not progress into a formal proposal.
St Lawrence College entered administration in April maintaining provision only for year 11 and 13 students undertaking formal examinations, including GCSEs and A Levels.
Documents say an additional funding requirement of circa £1.5m to £2m would have been required to fund the school to the last day of term.
Administrator FRP is owed unpaid pre-administration time costs, totalling £32,553 plus VAT. There are also unpaid pre-administration legal costs totalling £13k plus VAT.
How does a waste company get owed nearly a million pounds? That’s bad management on there part for letting the bill rack up to that, too trusting?
No, that was my fault, two numbers had gone on together, it’s just over £9k, I’ve corrected it
That sounds better🙂
But still for a business to loose 9 grand say you worked a 10% profit you would have to turn over 90 grand to be back even before they owed you the money, plus they most probably had to pay tipping fees etc. If they are only a small company that could still put you out of business.
Those responsible for this shambles should hang their heads in shame. Clearly, the degree of incompetence and mismanagement is breathtaking when you see the number of creditors involved. How on earth was the crisis permitted to spiral out of control to the point when a total collapse became inevitable?
Whilst still being a significant sum £9.8 m is a drop in the ocean in todays business world. The development value of the whole estate will be worth significantly more. Unfortunately government changes requiring VAT to be charged on tuition etc fee’s was the killer not only for St Lawrence but many more private schools
So you are blaming a private school for going bust on having to pay the taxes it should be paying and not the nearly 10 million pound debt lol
No it wasn’t.
Many private schools have been in financial difficulty for years and years prior to the VAT introduction.
I think that too many got over ambitious with their expansion plans and spent way beyond their means.
500 pupils and over 170 staff, hmm!
While we all burn alive from fossil fuel climate change, let’s all approve continuous destruction of our beautiful period buildings for condensed housing where overflowing bins from rampant Amazonesque consumerism will outnumber the students that once studied there.
Meanwhile the machinations of corporate overlords will continue to seek to pare down all building assets for personal gain and foster new families with inherited wealth that never goes away no matter how much is spent. But yes, unlike the generations that will be sold worthless identikit flats they will be splurging most of their hard earned monthly income for.
I truly worry about the endgame for the non affluent, asset poor societies amongst us.
Why did a taxi firm allow them to run up debts of that amount ,me I would stopped giving credit the first time they didn’t pay and demanded cash only ,that would be my rules to any company
How is business doing Ray?
Brilliant ,no debts unlike some private schools