Prestigious Sunderland independent school to close

We have reached the point at which any further cost savings would now directly impact on the quality of education on offer. In that context, we cannot justify continuing a long-term subsidy of the school. As a charity, our only source of funds is from our other schools and ultimately fee-paying parents there. While we are very prepared to invest in schools for as long as there is a realistic prospect of them breaking even, we cannot justify doing so when there is no longer that prospect.

I deeply regret that we have had to take this decision, which I know will come as a shock and considerable disappointment to parents, pupils and staff. It has become necessary because we have explored all other avenues for keeping the school open without success.

Once we concluded that all other options had been exhausted, we wanted to give everyone as much notice as possible so that over the coming weeks and months we provide any assistance we can to ease the transition for pupils into other schools and staff into new jobs.