School Closures: Bruton & St John’s Southsea
Bruton School for Girls in Somerset will close at the end of this academic term due to low student numbers. The day and boarding school for girls aged nine to 18 will close after after 122 years.
A statement from the school said student numbers had fallen from 199 in 2018 to just 45 pupils signed up for the next academic year, September 2022-23.
The Somerset school had only just joined The King’s School, Bruton Foundation in March 2022 and launched a new development plan, raising hopes for its future. Other schools in the Foundation – King's Bruton, Hazelgrove and the BSG nursery - will all remain open.
The Foundation said:
“The Governors have reluctantly decided that these low pupil numbers are not educationally or economically viable, and have therefore decided to permanently close the school at the end of this academic year.”
The news follows the announcement days’ earlier that St John's College, Southsea will also not re-open in September 2022 due to low admissions.
The day and boarding school for students aged between four and 18 was founded in 1908, and has seen the number of students fall from 630 in 2010 to 256 this year. Head of college Mary Maguire said that the current intake was not enough to make the £13,000 a year school viable.
