The Issues

Please let us know if there are any more issues that need to be addressed. This is a living document and needs to reflect the general consensus of views.

Overall issue: have the Parsons Mead Trustees really been acting in the best interest of Parsons Mead School?

Or is there a conflict of interest by having the same people sitting on both the Vernon and the Parsons Mead Educational Trusts? Is it not in Vernon ’s interest that the school is closed? Is that why they the Trustees do not want to discuss any options to save Parsons Mead? 

Official reason for closure: Trustees say pupil numbers have dropped below 200 which will lead to unacceptable losses.

Number of pupils as of 1 August 2005 : 211
Number of pupils at time of school inspection March 2006: 230
Number of pupils as of 1 August 2006: 197

How can the Trustees of the Vernon Educational Trust believe they can turn around a school that had gone down from 270 to 211 pupils in a year, only to completely lose confidence in their role as Parsons Mead Trustees when the number is 14 pupils lower at the end of the first year? And why did the school numbers rise from 211 to 230 during the Autumn term of 2005 only to drop back so much in the period between the inspection and the decision to close the school, especially given that some more girls joined the school at the beginning of the summer term?

How can the Trustees expect a school that has lost a lot of pupils to poor communication and uncertainty in 2005 (but is still a very good school!) to turn around within a year? 

Dame Angela herself is quoted in the Independent of 1June 2006 as saying "You can't walk into an inner-city school and turn it round in five minutes. It's a five-year job." 

 
Cognita’s 4-year business plan from 2005 stated an initial drop to 195 pupils at the end of this term, after which numbers would start to pick up. This plan had been approved by the bankers. Is there a Parsons Mead business plan based on the partnership with Danes Hill? If there is, what numbers is this plan based on?

Why has no attempt been made to save the school?

Cognita has again expressed their interest in buying Parsons Mead. However, the Trustees refuse to talk to Cognita. They say if a private company would buy the school and would subsequently close it, assets would have been retained by them and their shareholders. This was no major problem for the former Trustees when they started negotiations with Cognita in Spring 2005; why is it a problem now?

 Pupil numbers in the Junior Department were in fact picking up. Why have they not considered saving the healthy part of the school (and the Parsons Mead name and 109-year history)? They could have continued as a prep school (up to year 8) with a substantial lower cost base.

  
Many parents will now have to pay £500-1000 per term more at another independent school (no places available at state schools in the area), and would have been willing to pay a substantial increase in fees to keep Parsons Mead open. Why have parents not been given this option?

 
Parents have offered to guarantee the loan for the ICT investments that seems to be the main problem at the moment for the bankers. Again, why are the Trustees not willing to discuss this?

 
Closure was announced on Tuesday 6th June during the exam week, literally minutes before senior girls had to sit their exams

According to the contract between parents and the school, parents have to give the school a full term’s notice if they withdraw their girls. The school has the obligation to provide education and can change the terms and conditions of the contract, but only with a full term’s notice. Why happened to our rights as parents?  

Announcing the closure so late in the term, in the middle of exam week, what happened to important Parsons Mead values as “caring environment, taking the best interests of the girls at heart”?

Since we have to give a full term’s notice, the minimum numbers for September were known in April on the first day of term. If the low pupil numbers are the main reason for closing the school, why did it take another 6 weeks to announce the closure?

For a year, parents have been led to believe that the Vernon Educational Trust and Parsons mead Educational Trust had merged. This is not the case.  

Why have the Trusts not merged and why is Parsons Mead School not owned by the Vernon Educational Trust as parents had been told?

Why did the former Parsons Mead Trustees hand over all control to the Vernon Educational Trust members without any contract or a business plan that guaranteed that the school would remain open for at least a few more years?  

Why do the Trustees want to merge the Trusts now that the school is going to close? Application has apparently been submitted only weeks ago. What are the consequences of such a merger?  

What is going to happen to the school’s assets (grounds, proceeds from land sale, brand new ICT equipment, etc.)? Can the Parsons Mead Trustees (who are the same people as the Vernon Trustees) give everything to the Vernon Educational Trust? 

Why did the Trustees force the school to get expensive loans for ICT equipment they could not afford? Staff had told the school it was not really necessary. Again, was there a business plan supporting this investment?

Comments should be addressed to issues@pmparents.co.uk