St Bees School to close

Governors of St Bees have announced that the school will close this summer.

The decision follows an eight hour meeting over whether to accept a £2 million rescue package to save the school.

They say the fund, collected from supporters of the school, does not address long-term problems faced by the institution.

In a statement released this morning, the Governors said that they recognised and understood the "huge pain" felt by those affected by the closure.

However, they argued that issues such as "the School's distance from a large centre of population" and "the uncertainty of the international market for fee-paying education in England" left the continued running of the school unfeasible.

A short-lived hope, they argued, would have been a bad outcome, and so they have decided to continue with an "orderly closure" this summer.

A campaign to save the school was supported by pupils and parents - both past and present - from around the world.