The future of a former school that controversially shut down in just weeks leaving dozens of pupils without anywhere to go is once again uncertain – as the government reveals it will likely be sold off.
Earlier this month, the Bucks Free Press reported that Penn School – which the government wanted to turn into a free school - could be listed by Historic England, protecting the iconic buildings from unreasonable development.
The Church Road day and boarding school shut down within weeks of a shock announcement that it had suffered a “considerable drop in student numbers and income” in July 2015.
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- Historic former school buildings could be listed
- Former Penn School site on Church Road, Penn, sold to Education Funding Agency for £11m
- 'Children were crying': Staff and parents react to heartbreaking news of Penn School closure
- Penn School to shut down in less than two weeks after "considerable drop in student numbers and income"
- Penn School trustees tell of 'great reluctance' to put school in administration
Devastated parents fought desperately to save the school – which catered for children aged between 11 and 18 with communication difficulties – by setting up a campaign group and aiming to raise £1 million to keep it open.
But administrators Deloitte were called in to wind the school up – leaving staff without jobs and 74 students without a school place – and it was eventually sold to the government for more than £11 million a year later in 2016.
The government’s Education Funding Agency – now the Education and Skills Funding Agency – had plans to create a new free school on the site, but the plans have so far not materialised and the Department for Education (DfE) has previously rejected three applications to develop a free school on the site.
Now, the DfE’s Free Schools Unit has told the Bucks Free Press that the department has “declared the property as likely surplus to requirements” – meaning its future is once again uncertain.
Their statement added that it will “will probably be commencing disposal of the property with vacant possession once the current English Heritage listing process has been finalised”.
The former school is also known as Rayners, a country house that was built by solicitor and businessman Sir Philip Rose, a friend of Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, in 1847.
What would you like to see the site become? Email stephanie.wareham@newsquest.co.uk
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