![\"Prenton](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/0_Prenton-Preparatory-School-in-Oxton.jpg\")
<\/p>\nParents were told that the Wirral school’s closure was down to two major factors<\/p>\n
The school is set to close down in the coming months(Image: Prenton Preparatory School)<\/p>\n
A Wirral school has told parents it will be closing in the coming months. In a letter sent to parents this week, Prenton Preparatory School’s headteacher cited a rise in VAT and insufficient “pupil recruitment” as the key reasons behind its imminent closure.<\/p>\n
First opening in 1935 in Prenton<\/a> before moving to its current location in Oxton<\/a> in 1974, the independent school<\/a> provides “outstanding education” to boys and girls aged two to 11.<\/p>\n A letter to parents from the school’s chairman, John Forsyth, and headteacher, Phil Soutar, and seen by the ECHO, reads: “It has always been our ambition to give children at Prenton the best education through our outstanding teaching and excellent facilities. In recent years, the school has benefitted from significant capital investment in infrastructure, resourcing and staffing.<\/p>\n “Despite this, pupil recruitment has not been sufficient to maintain a healthy pupil roll or offset leavers. In January last year, the introduction of VAT on school fees by the Labour government increased the challenges faced by independent schools across the country.<\/p>\n “The impact of VAT on the school’s income was significant and the past 12 months have been particularly challenging for the school.<\/p>\n “Despite the best efforts of the governing body and dedicated staff over many months, I am sorry to inform you that we have taken the extremely difficult decision to cease operations at the school at the end of summer term 2026. This is a letter I hoped I would not have to write. Not being able to find a viable way forward is a source of great sorrow.<\/p>\n “This letter provides you with a term’s written notice of the termination of the contract for educational services in accordance with clause 8.17 of our parent contract terms and conditions. The contract will come to end immediately after the end of the last day of the summer term 2026. Following termination of the contract, we will return to you any acceptance deposit held less any sums outstanding.<\/p>\n “In sharing this news with you today, we wanted to give families as much time as possible to find a new setting for the autumn term. To support families with this transition, Mr Soutar will be available for 1:1 parent appointments, to discuss each child’s transition.<\/p>\n “We shall also write to you further on options that Prenton Prep School has been actively exploring with another local independent school who share similar traditions with a focus on character and academic excellence regarding offers of places to pupils at Prenton Prep.<\/p>\n “I kindly ask that, during this understandably emotional time, any questions or concerns are directed to Mr Soutar, as head, in the first instance rather than to individual members of staff.<\/p>\n “This will help ensure that communication remains clear, consistent, and supportive for everyone, while allowing our staff to remain focused on the pupils’ wellbeing and day-to-day care.<\/p>\n “We would like to thank you for your support of the school and wish your family all the best for their future education.”<\/p>\n The ECHO has contacted Prenton Preparatory School for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Parents were told that the Wirral school’s closure was down to two major factors The school is set…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":856962,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8815],"tags":[748,393,4884,179,39241,78882,16,15,8881],"class_list":["post-856961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-liverpool","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-liverpool","tag-oxton","tag-prenton","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-wirral"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116309173310910845","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=856961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/856962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=856961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=856961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=856961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}