End of an era: Old Palace girls’ school moved out of its Old Town site last summer. But the Whitgift Foundation continues to fund some of its former pupils
The Whitgift Foundation’s ‘Impact Report’ for last year shows its two boys’ fee-paying schools among the country’s top 10% of independents, as the costs of closing its girls’ school will continue until 2028.
By STEVEN DOWNES
The closure of Old Palace girls’ fee-paying school last July is costing the Whitgift Foundation at least £2.5million, a report from the land-owning charity has revealed, while the impact of Westfield’s stalled town centre redevelopment continues to drain the organisation’s coffers.
Old Palace School is the most significant casualty of the blight on the town centre inflicted by Westfield, since the developers were invited to regenerate Croydon’s shopping district in what was promised to be a £1.4billion scheme as long ago as 2012. When those promises came to nothing, the Whitgift Foundation found itself unable to continue to subsidise pupils at Old Palace.
As was first reported by Inside Croydon, the Whitgift Foundation determined that “the sustainability of the school beyond the short-term [is] impossible”.
Step into another world: the Whitgift Foundation runs two care homes and operates the Almshouses in the ancient building in the town centre
The private Old Palace of John Whitgift School closed in July 2025 after nearly 140 years of educating girls on the Old Town site, using buildings dating back to the time of Queen Elizabeth I and Archbishop of Canterbury John Whitgift.
The Foundation announced its controversial decision to close the school in September 2023. It has since sold off most of the site, including the listed, historic buildings, though the sale price achieved was less than had been hoped.
But the Foundation, created in 1596 and Croydon’s biggest land-owner, has continued financial commitments to many of its former Old Palace pupils, as it pays their fees at other schools where they were forced to transfer because of the closure.
“The Foundation has committed £1.7million in further bursary support and £0.8million in scholarship support for former pupils through to 2028,” says the John Whitgift Foundation’s 2024-2025 impact report, published this week.
The Foundation’s reserve funds continue to reduce, with diminished income from its commercial property in Croydon town centre.
“The Foundation recorded a loss of £2.1million for 2024-2025, attributed to the cost of the Old Palace closure and a sustained decline in income from our endowment,” the report says.
According to the Foundation, its total funds held stood at £204.8million, with the value of investment-managed funds at £131.4million.
That’s a fall of £30million, or 12.8%, from the £234.2million total fund held in 2021. In the same five-year period, investment-managed funds have fallen from £140.5million.
The Foundation operates two care homes, as well as the Whitgift Almshouses in Croydon town centre, as well as owning the Whitgift Centre shopping centre and swathes of other commercial property around Croydon. They also run Whitgift and Trinity (mostly boys) large fee-paying secondary schools.
Rarefied world: Whitgift School (pictured) and Trinity are rated among the top 10% of independent schools for academic achievement
Its 2024-2025 Impact Report, the Foundation says, sets out “a year of strong educational outcomes, continued investment in care for older residents, and the operating context for the charity as it marks 430 years of service to Croydon”.
Indeed, the educational outcomes are indeed impressive – at least, if you go to a boys’ school.
Whitgift and Trinity Schools were awarded “Significant Strengths” by the Independent Schools Inspectorate in 2025. “This is a distinction achieved by only 10% of independent schools nationally. In particular, Trinity was recognised for its community work, and Whitgift for its co-curricular programme,” the Foundation says.
The Foundation’s property income is used to fund subsidised places at its schools (Old Palace used to have the highest proportion of bursary pupils of the Foundation’s three schools). In the past couple of years, there has been a change of policy away from using scholarships to lure talented rugby players and cricketers to benefit from the schools’ provision, shifting instead to subsidise the education of brighter children from poorer local families.
“More than £11million in bursaries and scholarships were awarded to 1,077 pupils during the year, with 318 pupils across its two schools receiving means-tested fee assistance,” the Foundation says.
“The Foundation’s total contribution to bursary funding amounted to £6.2million.”
The closure of Old Palace has prompted other significant changes in the Foundation’s schools approach, with Trinity implementing plans to become fully co-educational by 2031, supported by a £40million capital investment.
According to senior sources at the schools, neither Whitgift (£31,410 per year, or almost £62,000 for boarders) nor Trinity (£30,468) have yet felt much impact from the recent application of VAT on private school fees, with applications for 2026-2027 holding up. At Whitgift, where they used to have eight applicants for every available place, this year they were over-subscribed 5-to-1.
At the opposite end of the age spectrum, Whitgift Care supports around 100 older people across four sites, with both registered care homes (Whitgift House and Wilhelmina House) rated “Good” by the Care Quality Commission.
Party time: the Foundation’s care homes try to keep things lively for residents
“The Foundation provided £1.4million in financial support to its care operations during the year, while Whitgift Care’s income rose to £5million (from £4.2million) and costs fell to £6.8million (from £7.3million).”
According to one insider, “The change in management at the Foundation since the disastrous handling of Old Palace’s closure, do seem to have made a difference.” The Foundation has had a new chief exec since late 2024 in Roisha Hughes, a former City Hall boss under Boris Johnson, while the chair of governors is now Fiona Fletcher-Smith, the chief exec of one of the country’s largest housing associations.
“Key to the finances continues to be the failure by Westfield to develop the shopping centre,” the source said. “Westfield have still not submitted the revised planning application which was promised for late 2024… That situation will be a big test for the Foundation.”
Today, CEO Hughes told Inside Croydon that the charity’s Impact Report “reflects a year of real achievement for our schools and care homes”.
She said: “Our pupils and residents remain at the heart of everything we do, and securing the Foundation’s financial sustainability is central to our work, so that we can keep delivering outstanding education and compassionate care for generations of Croydon residents to come.”
According to an Inside Croydon interview with Roisha Hughes, the delays in delivering any development in Croydon town centre through Unibail Rodamco Westfield will likely now only be overcome by the contribution of tens of millions of pounds of public money towards the build costs of thousands of flats on the site of the Whitgift Centre
- Click here to listen to the interview in full on our Patreon page
- Click here to read the 2024-2025 Impact Report on the Whitgift Foundation website
Read more: Old Palace pupils deliver improved grades in school’s final year
Read more: Foundation sets £7m price tag on Old Palace’s listed buildings
Read more: Whitgift Foundation decides to close Old Palace School in 2025
Read more: Crumbling finances see troubled Foundation lose millions more
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The disastrous era of Gavin Barwell advising the Whitgift down the dead end of the Whitgift Centre Mega redevelopment is now starting to be felt. Despite the drastic action to shut a school and the huge losses realised it appears they are not out of the woods yet with the Whitgift Centre redevelopment stalled for the long distant future and commercial property income falling as businesses vacate the site.
Wonder if we will see further action as spinning the schools out of the Charity to enable the investment that is required for their expansion or looking for another provider to take over the Care Home functions of the Foundation. The only certainty for the Whitgift Foundation is uncertainty.