Exclusive
St Lawrence College has gone into administration with notice filed with the courts today (April 8).
It is understood staff were informed of the situation via a Teams call. The college shuts with immediate effect today apart from for students in Years 11 and 13 who will stay until exams are completed. The college has some 500 students.
Sadly 166 employees have been made redundant, with 44 kept on to support exam-year students.
A letter from school governors says: “It is with profound sadness that we write to inform you that St Lawrence College has entered administration, as of 8th April 2026. The school will close immediately for the majority of students, and at the end of this academic year for those in exam years.
“We recognise the distress this news will cause to pupils, families and colleagues, and we are committed to supporting everyone affected through this difficult period.
“Like many independent schools, St Lawrence College has faced sustained and significant financial pressure over a number of years. Declining pupil numbers, the introduction of VAT on school fees, rising operating costs and broader economic uncertainty have all contributed to an increasingly challenging financial position.
“Despite the tireless efforts of staff, governors and our school community, and notwithstanding the appointment of a new Head of College earlier this year with a clear vision for the school’s future, the financial pressures facing the College have ultimately proved insurmountable.
“Over the past year, the Board of Governors has explored every available option to secure a sustainable future for St Lawrence College. These efforts have included:
- A comprehensive review of our cost base, resulting in significant restructuring and reduction in expenditure.
- An extensive marketing process to identify potential partners, acquirers or merger
- Detailed discussions with a number of interested parties regarding the future of the
“During this process, we received and carefully considered a merger proposal from another school. After much consideration, the Board concluded that this particular offer was not right for St Lawrence College and its community. We also pursued advanced discussions regarding a sale of the school’s business and assets, which regrettably did not result in a viable transaction.
“Having exhausted all available options, and with no realistic prospect of continuing to operate on a sustainable basis, the Board has taken the difficult decision to place the College into administration.”
Insolvency practitioners from FRP Advisory have been appointed as Joint Administrators of St Lawrence College.
The 44 teaching staff, examination staff and essential support staff will be retained until the end of the academic year to support pupils taking exams. All other staff have been made redundant and will need to apply to the Redundancy Payments Service.
For all other year groups, the school will close with immediate effect.
The college says it is working closely with local schools, the local authority and other partners to support families in finding alternative places as quickly as possible.
The co-educational day and boarding school for youngsters aged three to 18 has been a fixture in Thanet since 1879. Originally known as South Eastern College, the name was changed to St Lawrence College in 1906.
In February it emerged that St Lawrence College planned to shut its Ramsgate site in July and move to Dover College from September as part of a merger under the umbrella of the Repton Family of Schools.
The news provoked a huge backlash with protests from students, families and community groups that use the college facilities. A fight fund to pay for a legal challenge and a petition were also raised.
In March Governors of the college announced a halt to merger plans with a view to reconsidering options for the independent school.
Financial issues have been running over several years. In June 2025 staff were informed of proposals to make 20+ redundancies at the school.
The letter to staff said the college was anticipating a ‘significant drop in revenue’ from the start of the academic year in September due to a downturn in recruiting students and added that “in order to avoid a cash shortfall in the next financial year, we will need to find substantial savings.”
According to Charity Commission filings (up to August 2024) the college deficit for the year ended 31st August 2024 was £1,327,353 (2023: deficit of £1,294,213). The deficit includes non-cash depreciation charges of £984,358 (2023: (2023: £975,687).
Graham Carter, Chair of Governors at St Lawrence College, said: “This is an incredibly sad day for everyone connected with St Lawrence College. For 146 years, this school has been at the heart of the Ramsgate community, and generations of pupils have benefitted from the dedication of our staff and the strength of our community.
“We explored every possible option to secure the school’s future, and I want to thank everyone who worked so hard to find a way forward. While this is not the outcome we wanted, our focus now is on supporting our examination-year pupils to complete their studies, helping families find new school places, and ensuring our colleagues receive the support they deserve.”
East Thanet MP Polly Billington said: “This is such distressing news for pupils, parents, and staff at St Lawrence, and unfortunately reflects a situation where the school’s finances have been prioritised over the welfare and education of young people.
“St Lawrence College has been suffering financial difficulties for years, so there is no excuse for declaring bankruptcy in the middle of the academic year without any prior warning to staff and families.
“My priority now will be working with Kent County Council and the Department of Education to ensure students’ education is not interrupted and they all get the support they need to find alternative school places as quickly as possible.”
How inept are those that were in charge? Shame on you.
Shame on this labour government
If you read the article it seems the school was running at a considerable loss over the last few years so it’s not down to VAT.
Maybe if the parents paid the fees,this might not have happened,I had a friend who worked there for many years and stated people not paying fees
Mrs Matterface -Labour Party assault on private schools not helped! Still you believe in What you wish!
Not sure labour are responsible for the school lossing a million pounds a year.
More like living beyond your means
They should pay VAT why should they not???
These schools raked in the money for years with staff and those running it making lots of money. Way more than those providing education for the “masses”
Another case of the usual elites convincing us that we should pay tax but they shouldn’t
And shame on Polly Billington
Whats it got to do with the Labour Government? Now would be a good time to bring private schools into public ownership if they go bankrupt!
Very. An unbelievable amount of money is wasted in that place.
100 private schools have closed since Labour’s policy of spite and envy was introduced. Charging VAT and restricting Business Rates relief. Now all those pupils have got to find places in state schools which increases competition. Not to mention all the poor staff who have been laid off.
Another financial attack on the middle class to shower even more cash on welfare claimants. Not just at St Lawrence College but across the whole country. Not saying it has been the sole cause of these problems but the college have certainly quoted it as being a major contributor.
Private school should pay VAT, they are a business after all. The school might claim to be a charity but they clearly arent its a private business.
Is there VAT on university fees?
No, they are zero rated. As is education in almost every other nation in Europe.
Exactly, but they are largely businesses making their money off either the taxpayer funded fee model or foreign students, vice chancellors earn massive amounts in some universities, so pretty much the perfect example of businesses that Mr. X wants to be liable for vat, yet the notion seems to escape him.
Well said. Part of a misdirected Parthian shot from a Labour government that will soon be consigned to history and hopefully never heard of again.
Public schools are not charities. They should not get any sort of tax break.
Thr college had a future if it merged with Dover, but all the middle class parents and students put a stop to this. Reap what u sow.
What does our MP Polly say about it? Have you asked for her views
AK
What is there to say ?
The school was living beyond its means. Nothing to do with governments just simple business rules. Spend more then you earn you go bust.
Spare us your crocodile tears, hypocrite Polly Billington. Your support for Lie-bour’s imposition of vat on private schools was the proverbial last straw for the college.
There speaks a classically educated member of the middle class? From what I recall the Parthians were excellent horse archers and probably wouldn’t miss.
The closure though sad for those employed there is not on the scale of the deindustrialisation of Britain in the 1980’s for all Thanetian Blinds protestations.From the 2024 general election we have had a litany of blame,slurs,and downright falsehood from TB and others like him, quite forgetting all the damage done in 14 years of Tory rule.Sure 24 months of gaff prone politics from Labour has not been a sparking performance, but neither has been the disaster of the Boris and Truss years, or the bone headed austerity of Cameron and May.Rebuilding takes time and patience, not slight of hand,and glib policies that n lead nowhere. All voting Reform does is repeat more of the past on a greater scale.
So Thanetian, you want to see benefits cut to the bone, a return to the hungry 30’s and more jam for the elite,because it is the elite that attends these classes, not the middle class.
You see it’s all a matter of perspective, yours is Dickensian, mine is progressive, which hopes for a future where everyone has sufficient to fund a modest lifestyle, with a roof over their head and plenty to eat.I want food banks and poverty charities put out of business because there is no need for them, and then once everyone is sorted,if others want to build enormous wealth,so be it.At the moment we have done the latter without doing the former and that’s where we differ.
Use the site to replace Manston immigration centre. At least it would stop the dinghy people moaning. I bet this would go down well by the locals.
For staff the difference between this and original plan is minimal – they would have lost their jobs poster merger, only the head secured his next job.
For students, those who can paying fees now have a bunch of schools to choose from, amongst them Dover was probably not their first choice due to distance.
The original asset strippers will probably still get access to the land, but those (insiders perhaps?) who may benefit from it may no longer do so.
So…
No Le Crunch next year!
It will be sorely missed by us at CCGS too!
Many of you want to believe that it’s only the super elite attending these schools, with staff who are paid a huge amount of money. You then have been led to believe that by charging VAT it’s the right thing (as it’s a business) and that that VAT money will be invested in state education.
In reality, many students in private schools do not come from elite or super rich families. Sometimes the money comes from a grandparent, or the parents remortgage their house, or the students get in on high bursaries. Not to mention many private schools have international students which brings money into the country.
On another one of your points, many private schools pay teachers worse than state. Private schools can hire unqualified teachers too, so bear that in mind when picturing that these closures will result in an influx of teachers in state schools… It won’t. It will result in an influx of students into state schools that are underfunded and understaffed.
Also, adding Vat to private school fees just means that now schools can claim vat back on all purchases (which they couldn’t do before) so the amount of money that will actually go to the government and towards state education is minimal. The Vat in many cases has been passed onto the parents by increasing fees, which has meant that parents who could just about afford it before, no longer can.
Stop picturing schools like Eton when you think of private school closures. Those huge well established private school with generations of donors will be fine, it’s the small and cheaper private schools that will close.
Finally, my last point is that we are the only country in Europe to tax education… Do you really think that this will have a positive net effect on the country as a whole?
I am all for improving state education as it needs a lot of improvement, but this is not the way that will actually work.
Perhaps the smaller private schools start living within their means or start charging more. They are a business after all.
I have never understood why parents are happy to pay and send their kids to be taught by unqualified teachers. These teachers as kids probably went to a private school, then university, then back to private school to teach. They have no idea of the real world
Given the amount of loss, they really should have acted sooner. The school could have stopped accepting new students and slowly scaled down – allowing relocation of pupils in a controlled way. Equally when they wanted to merge – why didn’t they make it clear that the merger was a move to offset administration as they must have known that this would be their only choice otherwise? Sadly the people paid the big money to manage these organsations often sail to close to the wind and end up crashing. It’s a shame Chatham and Clarendon couldn’t relocate thir entire site there – that would be an amazing school.
In terms of the school itself, I am not a supporter of private education generally as – at its higher levels – it often produces the kind of dimwits who go into Government and who are slowly wrecking the country, but as some comments say – not every pupil there will be from a rich family. Private boarding schools are often used by military families to avoid moving children around with postings and they are paid for by the military.
It’s not a real loss. Over 900k of the 1.1m loss was due to depreciation. Depreciation of what i hear some ask, when buildings and land! They have a book value od land and buildings of 29m however they are a balance sheet value of just 19m so there is a built in 10m at least. Ever think the plan was always to close and sell off the land for the profit. As to VAT why shouldn’t thry pay VAT? That VAT can be used to improve state education. In fact the number of actual pupils in Private education has gone up slightly since VAT was introduced. They still are all registered charities and get all the benefits that gives. I think it just shows the lack of interest the governors etc had I the school and education by announcing total closure now. Bad management? Or was it management to get the long term result wanted?
Why are private schools charities ?
They seem so far away from what a charitie is. To me charities help small groups like wateraid, hospices, food banks, RNIL, etc. Don’t charities rely on donates ?
Private schools charge per pupil, they might get donations. I guess other charities do charge for their services but it won’t be a large amount.
I dont see what help these private schools bring to the needy or those needing help. You cant be needing a charitie (private school) if you can afford to pay the fees ! So how does this charitie status work for private schools ?
The fees go onto the charity then the charity transfers it to the school. All private schools operates as charities even Eton, Harrow etc. Without the paper depreciation of 900k they would have been about breaking even.