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Crunch forces private Chapel Allerton school to close doors
The bell will be ringing for one last time at a private Chapel Allerton school that has been "forced" to close its doors to pupils and staff this summer.
The current economic climate has taken its toll on the Alcuin School, which is an independent day school for pupils aged between four and 11.
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Named after Alcuin of York, a ninth-century scholar and educational visionary, the Chapel Allerton-based school was founded in 1994 as part of a worldwide family of schools led by The School of Philosophy.
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The school, which is not a faith school but focuses on spiritual teaching, was accepted as a full member of the prestigious Independent School's Association in summer 2008.
Now pupils and parents, past and present, will be saying their goodbyes to the school at the end of term on July 10.
At the start of this term, the school, which charges 1,525 a term, had 34 pupils on its roll.
Headteacher, John Hipshon, told Chapel Allerton Today: "Obviously we are all very disappointed that the current economic climate has forced the school to close.
Fantastic
"It is a fantastic school and has achieved so much through the hard work of staff and support of parents.
"We intend the last few weeks to be happy ones. We are looking forward to a trip to Wales to play in the National Primary Schools Chess Semi-finals, playing in the city netball finals where we are the current champions and putting on the school play As You Like It on June 26.
"We will also be having a celebration for the pupils and ex-pupils in July. The annual Prize Giving towards the end of term should also be a very special occasion for everyone."
A spokeswoman for Education Leeds, said: "We have been working with the school and have sent information to all parents about applying for a state school place and we do not foresee any issues with allocating places."
Independent Schools Council chief executive David Lyscom added: "ISC evidence suggests that the independent school sector is not suffering from the recession in the way that large sectors of the British economy are.
"Around 25 per cent of parental inquiries to ISC come from the public sector which has yet to be hit by redundancies.
"Elsewhere, parents have seen their living costs come down as inflation has fallen and mortgage payments have dropped."
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