At Old Palace of John Whitgift, the fee-paying girls’ school, there’s an ‘end-of-term’ feeling the like of which has never been experienced, by pupils or staff, in its 135-year history. By CAITLIN CLIFFORD
Having been at Old Palace since Year 7, I was shocked when I was told last September that the school would be closing in 2025.
We were horrified that the Whitgift Foundation, the registered charity that operates our school, would be so blatantly careless of our feelings as to announce the plan to close Old Palace in an email to parents, not in person, not even in an email to pupils.
Archbishop Whitgift: the Foundation’s founder, whose statue stands in the almshouses he founded, would be ‘ashamed’ of what has happened to Old Palace school, says Caitlin Clifford
I hadn’t even seen the email before one of my friends texted me.
And it was hardly any better for the teachers. Although it was held in person, the “emergency staff meeting” was last-minute, and no more than 10 minutes long, further showing the Foundation’s true colours as it insensitively announced the teachers’ effective redundancies.
Being in Year 13, the Upper Sixth and the final year of our A levels, my year group knew that our education would not be too disrupted, as we would be able to finish our time at our school – something of which younger girls have been robbed.
I recall that in lessons the following day, each of my teachers selflessly promised us that they would see us through to the end of our A levels, but that they couldn’t make the same promise to other years.
We did lose some staff before the end of the year, too. Having seen the list of staff leaving at the end of this year, only one of my current teachers will still be there for the next, and final, academic year at Old Palace.
Pupils were completely empathetic to the difficult situation the teachers found themselves in, understanding that they have their own bills to pay and their own families to provide for. Seeing our teachers treated like this, with several of them crying with us at the time, only made us angrier with the Foundation.
A short while later, Christopher Houlding (the chair of the Whitgift Foundation, who wrote the letter announcing the closure) visited the school to answer questions from the staff. They told us the next day that he barely answered any of their questions, leaving them even more frustrated and upset.
Did a runner: Whitgift Foundation chair Christopher Houlding
For that meeting, there were some parents and their daughters outside with signs, waiting for the chance to speak to Houlding, who had been avoiding parents since his announcement. But he left the school using a back exit, to continue his avoidance of them and of any sense of accountability, “sprinting across the road, literally running away from our girls” according to the newly-formed Old Palace Parents Alliance.
While I have found this closure greatly unsettling, knowing that reunions will simply not happen and I’ll never have the chance to return as an alumnus to speak to pupils, it has been worse for those who have been at the school their entire lives, from the time that they attended the Old Palace pre- and prep schools.
My friend who has been at the school for 14 years “found that this year was not quite the final finale of my secondary education as I would have hoped – the school being so quiet and school life never quite returning to ‘normality'”.
She said that the cancellation of valedictory suppers, annual dinners in our houses where sixth formers would say goodbye, “Also meant my final year was not as I was expecting after attending those very suppers since Year 6 but being unable to speak at one myself.
“However, it has in some respects helped to bring the community closer together.
Final days: Old Palace prep closes at the end of this summer term
“The closure does make it easier to leave school since we all have to leave in the immediate future, but at the same time it almost feels that this is going to damage the Old Palace community – not being able to have reunions with friends or teachers in a traditional way.”
A Year 10 pupil, who has been at the school for four years said, “I’ve found the past year hard as a lot of my friends have left the school, and so have teachers. It’s super quiet now and nobody is around. My classes have dropped in size, some halved.
“I’ve lost a few teachers and it has been hard because of me being close to them. I was planning on staying into sixth form, but now I have to leave the end of next year.”
Another Year 13 pupil recognised the closure of the school as “devastating”, but said that Old Palace was able to give a two-year notice and in “offering to pay for some of the school fees in the next part of the journey…” showed “…how private schools are treated more graciously than state schools”.
She also praised the school for how it “has made sure we are prepared to leave” and “has set us up for nothing but success, in its duration and how it leaves us”.
It is not only current pupils affected by the closure, but also some forced to leave before they were intending to.
One Year 8 pupil forced to leave years before she expected to told me, “I found the transition hard at first as I was with a bunch of new people. It was pretty easy to find another school for me, but lots found it hard. At first, I had a lot of interruption in my education as we were learning a completely different curriculum.”
Sad farewell: there are few pupils remaining at Old Palace School, in Croydon’s Old Town, as it approaches its penultimate end of school year
By the end of this sad school year, there were just three pupils left in Year 7, with the school’s corridors quieter and emptier than I have ever seen them.
And while the senior school will close its gates for a final time in July 2025, the Prep School – for three- to 11-year-olds – shuts in just a week, despite the OPPA’s efforts.
Pupils agree that the school and its staff have been admirable and fabulous in attempting to give us the smoothest transition out of Old Palace and being there for us when we needed them. They will have made Mother Emily Ayckbowm, who founded the school in 1889, proud.
In contrast, the Whitgift Foundation has shown it could not care less about the futures and feelings of the girls displaced and affected, and has prioritised its boys’ schools over a girls’ school that undermined the stereotypical private school model by giving enough financial aid to allow students of all backgrounds to attend.
Through such behaviour, the Foundation has completely disregarded the charitable legacy of Archbishop John Whitgift, its founder, and ought to be ashamed of its decision.
- Caitlin Clifford has just completed her A level studies at Old Palace of John Whitgift School, and has been undertaking work experience with Inside Croydon
Read more: Whitgift Foundation decides to close Old Palace School in 2025
Read more: Falling rolls and rising fees: how Old Palace got squeezed
Read more: Charity Commission alerted to problems at Whitgift Foundation
Read more: Foundation abandoned new school plan after taking £70m loan
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I feel so sad for all the pupils and teachers involved in this. I can only imagine what they are going through. My own school, Dorton House School for the Blind, closed long after I left it in 1995, but I still felt rather sad. I can only imagine how I would have felt if I had heard of it closing down during my penultimate or final year there. Good luck to all concerned!
For an institution that has been run as a charity for 420 years, it is astounding how much of its extensive legacy has vanished in the past few years. First the disaster that is the Whitgift Centre and now the shameful closure of Old Palace. These are only the first manifestations of the death spiral it appears to be in. Having to sell school land to shore up finances only underscores how desperate the situation must be. One wonders what state the finances are in at the two remaining boy’s schools?
In any other walk of life, those managing the Foundation would have been seeking alternative employment years ago. How bad must things get before a competent Court of Governors and management team are installed? This is important for all residents of Croydon, not just those who receive bursaries at the Foundations schools.
Refusing to meet and explain your decisions to parents and running away via a rear entrance? Is this really the expected behaviour of the Foundation’s Chair? Unbelievable.
A well written piece which is factual and yet manages to give the personal angle. Thank you for reminding us again of the uncharitable behaviour of the Whitgift Foundation which flies in the face of equality. When the Whitgift Foundation took over the school we all thought that at least it would secure its future. How wrong can you be? As you say JWF should be ashamed of themselves.
I also fear for the future of the buildings. They may be Grade 1 listed but that is no guarantee that they will be looked after properly.
Very sad. Given the way the foundation has managed its estate of late, I would think it’s time to sell off some of their commercial assets and restructure their strategy to ensure they’re able to continue the organisation. Also sounds like a change at the top is required as it would appear Christopher Houlding isn’t up to the job
Reading from outside of the UK and I feel so disheartened, especially regarding this school is one of the most surest monumental remembrances of dear Elianne Andam “R.I.P.” to her dear friends, classmates, family and the entire Old Palace and Croydon community. It’s a shame!