{"id":9928,"date":"2026-04-09T03:31:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T03:31:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/9928\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T03:31:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T03:31:23","slug":"private-school-st-lawrence-college-in-ramsgate-closes-after-going-into-administration-with-loss-of-170-jobs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/9928\/","title":{"rendered":"Private school St Lawrence College in Ramsgate closes after going into administration with loss of 170 jobs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A historic private school with 500 pupils is closing with the loss of nearly 170 jobs.<\/p>\n

St Lawrence College, an independent day and boarding school in Ramsgate, has already shut to most pupils with immediate effect after going into administration today (Wednesday).<\/p>\n

\"St\"StSt Lawrence College in Ramsgate has shut to most pupils now. Picture: John Leonidou<\/p>\n

However, arrangements have been made to ensure that pupils in Year 11 and Year 13 who are due to sit GCSE, BTEC and A-Level exams can complete their studies.<\/p>\n

Teaching and support staff have been retained to support these pupils through their exams this summer.<\/p>\n

Management explains the school, which was founded in 1879, had faced sustained financial pressures in recent years. It has the capacity to teach around 500 children aged three to 18, including around 175 boarders.<\/p>\n

But declining pupil numbers, the introduction of VAT on school fees, rising operating costs and broader economic uncertainty contributed to an increasingly challenging position.<\/p>\n

Despite extensive efforts to secure the school\u2019s future \u2013 including a comprehensive strategic review and discussions with a number of potential partners and acquirers \u2013 it was not possible to find a viable way forward, bosses said.<\/p>\n

\"Parents,\"Parents,Parents, pupils and alumni gathered outside St Lawrence College last month in protest over the proposed closure<\/p>\n

It comes after plans for a merger with Dover College were halted<\/a> after a huge backlash last month.<\/p>\n

Philip Watkins and Philip Armstrong of specialist business advisory firm FRP have now been appointed as joint administrators of St Lawrence College.<\/p>\n

The college says it is working closely with local schools, the local authority and other partners to support families with children in other year groups to secure alternative places.<\/p>\n

A total of 166 employees have been made redundant, with 44 kept on to support exam-year students. The joint administrators are supporting affected staff with claims to the Redundancy Payments Service.<\/p>\n

Governors\u2019 chairman Graham Carter said: \u201cThis is an incredibly sad day for everyone connected with St Lawrence College. This school has been at the heart of the Ramsgate community, and generations of pupils have benefited from the dedication of our staff and the strength of our community.<\/p>\n

\"Ian\"IanIan Brockman, 66, at the protest over the merger last month<\/p>\n

\u201cWe explored every possible option to secure the school\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lord Craig Mackinlay, the former MP for South Thanet, described the closure as \u201can absolute tragedy\u201d and blamed the Labour government\u2019s VAT and business rate policies.<\/p>\n

The merger plans, revealed in February, would have seen St Lawrence\u2019s site close and a new school called St Lawrence Dover College become part of the Repton Family of Schools.<\/p>\n

Bosses said the school was facing \u201cimminent closure\u201d without action, and that the merger would allow the school\u2019s identity and history to continue at another site.<\/p>\n

But parents criticised a lack of consultation or planning, and largely objected to the decision, staging protests on the school grounds.<\/p>\n

Last month, governors halted the merger and said they were reconsidering the plan, promising a revised scheme would be announced as soon as possible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A historic private school with 500 pupils is closing with the loss of nearly 170 jobs. St Lawrence…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9929,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[28,309,1084,5,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-9928","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"tag-education","9":"tag-kent","10":"tag-thanet","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116372641085808607","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}