SCHOOLS BITTEN BY THE CREDIT CRUNCH

Graeme Paton analyses the impact of the crunch on the independent sector

Wispers school, set in the Surrey hills near Haslemere, looks the very picture of an inviting, independent education. A solid red brick building, flanked by striking greenery, it has been home to girls for more than 40 years, providing a stepping stone for many en route to Oxford, Cambridge and high-flying jobs beyond. But today, it is empty. A victim, it seems, of the dreaded credit crunch.

Wispers was forced to close last month citing the economic downturn coupled with a decline in the demand for single-sex schooling and a boarding education as the reson for its demise.

And Wispers is not the only school affected: in the last few months alone, at least half a dozen schools have been forced to shut and more are struggling.

The 96-year-old La Sagesse school in Jesmond, Newcastle, closed this summer when its rent tripled and another school opened nearby. Four preparatory schools - Westbrook House in Kent, Worthing's Sandhurst School, Dorchester Preparatory in Dorset and Green Hill School in Worcestershire - all shut citing a fall in numbers. St Peter's school in Burgess Hill, West Sussex, a family owned school charging up to £2,600 a term, closed after 43 years, leaving only its nursery open. This grim roll-call underlines the precarious life led by many small independent schools, many of which have only 100 pupils or less and no endowments to fall upon in hard times.

Rising costs
The rising cost of fuel, food and teachers' salaries forces owners to keep fees relatively high to cover out-goings. Yet similar financial pressures on its customers - the parents - heightens the risk that they will walk away from the independent sector altogether.