Rudolf Steiner School is closing: The background

In the end, it may have become inevitable.
Rudolf Steiner School ENGPNL00320130312133708Rudolf Steiner School ENGPNL00320130312133708
Rudolf Steiner School ENGPNL00320130312133708

It was in December 2016 that Rudolf Steiner School Kings Langley (RSSKL) was first told by Ofsted inspectors that it had serious problems with safeguarding of students.

There had been 39 formal complaints from parents in one year, and the school needed to solve that issue.

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In the 18 months since then there have been four more visits from Ofsted, and the same issues kept being raised.

Despite this the school was optimistic. The government had threatened to close the school because of these Ofsted reports, but it immediately and confidently began the appeals process. But two more major issues then arose.

Last month the school was struggling to secure insurance for the next school year. Without insurance the school could not legally operate.

At the same time parents were pulling their children out of the school. 280 is the minimum needed for the school to be viable, and the school’s total roll call had already fallen from 351 at the start of the current school year to 318 today.

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By this month even the school’s leading figures were signalling defeat. Despite the school’s best efforts to present an optimistic tone, one parent trustee told others to “hope for the best but prepare for the worst,” and only last week the school was offering information on how to transfer children to new schools.

Now the school is set to close this summer. An email to parents on Saturday referred to the announcement being a “non-binding resolution”, and promised that the new board of trustees would “seek to nourish and support... as much as possible”.

But the simple fact was the Rudolf Steiner School Kings Langley had announced that it was set to close.

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