Parents bid to take over school after raising millions

> St Clare's School, Porthcawl

- ABBIE WIGHTWICK Education editor [e-mail]

ARENTS fighting to save their children’s school have formally submitted a bid to run it themselves after raising millions of pounds.

St Clare’s School in Porthcawl will shut at the end of this term but a trust set up by parents would see it reopen from September 2026 if their bid for the lease is successful.

The St Clare's Independent School Trust (SCIST) has raised around £3m to keep the fee-paying independent school open. It has now formally lodged a bid to take over the lease from education company Cognita UK, which announced the closure in May.

Staff, pupils and parents were left in tears when Cognita announced proposals to close the 190-pupil school at the end of the Christmas term in December. The company, which runs schools across the UK and beyond, blamed “economic volatility” a falling birth rate and factors it said were beyond its control.

The school then went on to post a 100% GCSE pass rate in August with 50% of grades at A* to A, 80% at A*to B and 96% at A* to C.

Parents bidding to run St Clare's say they are confident they could make it viable to stay open and that there is a market for an independent, non-selective school between Cardiff and Swansea. New VAT payments on school fees which came in to force last January would not make it unaffordable, they believe.