'Real crisis!' Headteacher warns of 'alarming' shortages as thousands of private school pupils left without options following Labour's VAT raid

Park Hill School, which has 84 pupils aged between two and 11, cited the 20 per cent tax on fees starting in January as a key factor in declining pupil numbers that made operations financially unviable.

Falcons School, with 126 pupils, attempted to absorb the VAT levy and froze fees at £6,270 per term but still faced closure.

A spokesman said the school had been "loss-making" with "enrolment under 50 per cent over the last two years", adding: "This has been intensified by the recent Government changes such as VAT."

Headteacher Christine Cunniffe told GB News: "What we're going through at the moment is a real crisis.

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"To hear about two more schools in the Surrey area, where Surrey itself does not have any places for children, is alarming. Parents are being offered places far outside the county, which means additional transport costs.

"If the school is more than three miles from your home, the local authority has to cover transport costs.

"This is a very real crisis. Children are leaving private schools. These 11,000 are children who have failed to come to our schools. The census in January proved that.

The government’s own figures, published on July 18, 2024, said there would be an increase in secondary school pupils by 1 per cent a year. That might sound like only 1 per cent but it's thousands, and it's cumulative.

"There are 27 local authorities that do not have school places for children. This is the problem.

"When Labour first mooted this idea, everyone said, well, what do you do with the kids who then can't afford to go to those schools?

"You're going to have to have provision in the state sector for them."

Both schools will close at the end of the academic year, leaving 210 pupils seeking alternative education.

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Park Hill School's closure announcement shocked parents who had seen the school advertising open days for prospective pupils on its website.

The 75-year-old institution had attempted to retain families by offering a 5 per cent discount for early fee payments in March.

Government figures reveal the scale of the displacement, with private school pupil numbers in England falling by more than 11,000 - four times higher than official forecasts.

The Department for Education recorded approximately 582,500 pupils at English private schools in January, down from 593,500 the previous year.