Independent prep school calls in administrators
AN INDEPENDENT prep school in North Yorkshire has closed after an aborted merger left the school unable to stop haemorrhaging money.
Malsis School, in Cross Hills, has closed its doors and appointed administrators to the charitable trust which owned it after enduring a torrid final 15 months at the end of its proud 95-year history.
Its alumni include England cricket’s chairman of selectors James Whitaker, screenplay writer of The Full Monty and Slumdog Millionaire Simon Beaufoy and Skipton Building Society’s chief executive David Cutter.
Mr Cutter was one of the trustees who was forced to call in Charles King and Hunter Kelly from EY’s Yorkshire restructuring team to act as joint administrators.
Although the last published accounts, to August 2013, showed a relatively small loss of £71,000 on income of £1.35m, the last five years had seen Malsis School Trust accumulate losses totalling £680,000. The last three sets of published accounts contained a going concern warning and net assets had dwindled to just £35,000 at the end of August 2013.
In the 15 months since then further losses of £480,000 were incurred, blamed on a fall in new pupils and pressure on school fees. Draft accounts for the year to August 2014 show losses of around £275,000 while there was an estimated loss of £205,000 from the current autumn term.
Fees, which were restricted in April as it sought to attract more pupils, ranged from £2,400 to £4,250 per term, with boarding costing an additional £2,000 per term.
The school’s final day was last Thursday, when it would no longer be able to operate as a going concern. 61 pupils have had to find new schools and 49 staff have been made redundant.
At the time the Independent Schools Inspectorate last visited the school, in May 2012, the school had 110 boys and girls aged 3-13, 43 of whom were boarders. Inspectors judged pupils’ achievement and personal development to be excellent and governance and management to be good.
Charles King, EY executive director and joint administrator to Malsis School Trust, said: “A fall in pupil numbers combined with pressure on fees impacted Malsis School Trust’s cash flow, and the school could not continue to fund the resulting substantial losses.”
Before the start of the school year, Malsis announced it was to merge with Giggleswick School, near Settle, but it was soon called off, with Giggleswick’s governors estimating they would need £1.5m more than they had initially expected to turn the school around.
Mr King added: “Despite efforts to secure a merger for Malsis School with another school, negotiations ended unsuccessfully in late October 2014, which left the trustees with no choice but to decide to close Malsis School in December 2014. The closure is a sad event for all associated with the school and the local community.”
The administrators will now begin the process of marketing the land and buildings. The land had received outline planning permission earlier this year for 50 houses across two separate sites in the grounds, although part of the conditions included investing money from the developments into the repair of the listed school building to allow its continued use as a school.
