An historic boarding school is set to close next month after it ran out of money, the BBC reports.
Ockbrook School near Derby was founded in 1799, but trustees have said they were unable to find any financial backers for the 2 to 18 school and it is “significantly loss-making”.
The news comes after a number of independent schools have been forced to close during the pandemic, a situation made worse by a cooling of relations between the UK and some Chinese investors.
In a letter to parents, Roberta Hoey, chair of trustees, said:
“Following the consideration of a number of options, it has become clear that the school is significantly loss-making, a situation exacerbated by the Covid pandemic, and we have not been able to find any backers willing to take on the scale of those losses.
“As a result, the school has become insolvent and we therefore have no choice but to close Ockbrook School at the end of the 2021 summer term.”
The independent school, which had 377 pupils in 2018, was first founded more than 220 years ago by the Moravian Church as a girls’ school and became fully co-educational in 2017.
The school will close its doors on 9 July.