What do others say?

Well, 160 or more staff, 400+ parents - not many of them have anything to say. (At least not on the Bolitho forums - though some do email here...)

Regarding GEMs I really hope they do change the 'business model' otherwise we are in trouble!. The question is will it adversely affect the educational model. I don't think so but whatever it has to be a better chance than where we are now. I'm looking forward to it.

Mike

Comment: Read through all the posts here about GEMS. Look at the articles in The Times and The Independent, quoted here. Read about how parents reacted when GEMS bought their school. For some, GEMS will change Bolitho for the better – especially if you are an international student. BUT if you have enrolled your son/daughter in Bolitho for the ‘nurturing aspect’ that Bolitho offers then that will soon go – as Sunny Varkey says, he offers cut-price, no-frills schools!

does nobody have any concerns about the long term future of our school run by Gems. I am struggling to see any resemblance between the Bolitho we are fighting to keep and Gems schools. The bolitho Phoenix blog really concerns me. We are currently a church of England school, will we remain so?

Also concerned

Comment:Sunny Varkey is a Christian – though it is claimed (read through the posts here) that he was/is involved with Muslim extremists. What is certain is that he is a very successful businessman – and by success, I mean ‘profits first’. He is a money machine and whilst he lives in high luxury some others lose. Who are they likely to be? In the short-term it will be the teachers in terms of pay and numbers. BUT if it is the teachers that you value so highly, then you as a parent/pupil will also lose. However if your main concern is organisation which clearly if you look at the communications debacle, Bolitho are poor and then you will gain

I dont feel that we are in a position to question the changes, if any, that GEMS will make to our school. They are offering us a future. When we have financial security and a school, of which we wish our children to attend, we can look at the final details. As it stands we have nothing, why bite the hand that feeds us?

Phillips

Comment: Selling your soul, I see.

There were other bids.

Mark was quoted by the BBC as saying that even without the bid from GEMS, the school would still open. So – why not discuss and consider the other bids?

At the meeting the Business Plan and forecast profit/loss and income statements were not given out. In the crowded, hot, standing-room only atmosphere it was difficult to have cold rational debate – but why wasn’t everyone given extra details (as listed in the questions here) for them to consider at home.

170 teachers or so at the school – why have so few posted on the Bolitho forum?

I am a parent and totally understand that all we currently want is to get our children back into the Bolitho we love next week. However I feel we are acting out of such desperation that we are not taking a breath to consider what we are running full pelt into with open grateful arms, once it's done it's done and what if the consequences of our actions now still lose us the Bolitho and teachers we are trying so desperately to keep. I anonymous because I feel I will be classed as negative. I am not negative I think I am just voicing an opinion many may share but are trying to ignore in the hope they will have a say later. We won't, once it starts there will be nothing we can do.

Also concerned

Comment: Other bids were not made public. GEMS have a lot of money – but that does not mean their employees will. It depends on what you actually value at Bolitho. If it is the personal attention, the caring – then you may still get that, but this time it will be charged for.

"Alsoconcerned", I certainly do not see you as negative. However, I am much more cheerful about GEMS. Anders yesterday said several times that they are interested because Bolitho is "a good school". So I ask myself, "What makes it good -- to an objective outsider?"
Clearly not the finances, which are a dog's dinner. The physical premises and equipment are an OK mixed bag, but that is as far as I can go. All that remains are the school's good name, its staff, and its parents. These are the reasons a company like GEMS would acquire Bolitho, and these are the assets it would work hard to keep and enhance. With a new financial base, with maybe in time some improvement to premises and equipment, and with our current matchless staff, Bolitho can be even better than the school we already hold in such high regard

Dolly

It is the finance that makes Bolitho a good school. It is their POTENTIAL for huge profits. It’s quite simple, really, to increase the profits of the school as detailed in this blog. Here’s how GEMS have increased profits in the past:

• increase class sizes
  
• reduce total wage costs for teachers
  
• raise process
  
• raise prices of ‘extras’
  
• improve marketing website in particular
  
• bring in more students from overseas

Now, maybe that will be a good thing – but not for everyone. An alternative is to move school, to go to a free school and spend the money saved on private tuition. This would vastly increase the grades of the pupil – but the social aspect would suffer.

As in fact it will anyway as the balance between locals and international students changes.

alsoconcerned, I am hoping that you were at the meeting yesterday and you would have heard the cold, hard facts. Without a buyer the school closes. Fact. If we do not get sufficient support for the contingency plan, our children have no school to go to on the 5th. Fact At the moment there seems to be a very good deal close to being finalised. What do you want the Administrators to do? Sit and wait for the Church of England to step in and buy the school? Dismiss GEMS potential offer for fear that the school will change? To me it is obvious there needs to be change otherwise we wouldn't find yourself in this situation. You have the choice regarding your child's education as does everyone else. I will not judge anyone on making the decision they think is right in their own circumstance. But it is your choice to remain anonymous. I believe in freedom of speech, but I also think if you have something to say, no matter how unpalatable it may be to others, at least be open enough to stand by your convictions and be honest with your identity. Too many people on this forum are hiding behind false identities when the whole idea was for this to support the future of the school. If individuals want to discuss other issues, feel free to set up your own forum and vent there. On another note, I would like to publicly thank all involved at Bolitho, especially the teaching staff, at what has been a most exceptionally difficult time. Also, to Steve Litherland for your hard work in organising the contingency plan. Let us not lose focus of what needs to be done. Fact Nick Hipkin

Nick has got it totally wrong here – or he is simply calling Mark a liar

“Headmaster Mark Shere said even without a buyer the school could open if parents committed to paying fees.” - BBC

To any one who is concerned about Gems, please go and look at their website. They strike me as a solid and decent organization with many schools very similar to Bolitho. They are also clearly a moral organization as they have agreed to honour the debt to Friends of Bolitho and the Forward feees scheme which, as they are buying a business in administration, they did not need to do. BUT they will not buy an empty school, so if we do not support them the school will close.

Fanlack

Comment: Clearly a moral organisation? Yes they give a lot to charitable causes – but this poster clearly has not read through this blog!

I was greatly impressed at the Wednesday meeting, by all in attendance but, I have made my decision and it is that I feel the time has now come for me to concentrate on providing my daughter with a stable, long term, high calibre educational career, something she had been enjoying at Bolitho School. But, and this is a personal view, I feel that even if a buyer is found the fundamental reasons that I originally chose Bolitho will not be there for whoever buys it will have to change its business model, what has been happening simply cannot continue, change, and the subsequent unrest, are inevitable, she only has a few years left in education. To those of you who wish to remain you have my utmost support for I truly hope that Bolitho School continues its wonderful traditions? However, for me, I must move for I only have one shot at getting my children’s education right, no one can give us a second chance. As a parent it is my choice to do what I see is in the best interests of my daughter, no emotion has been involved it is purely a business, and personal, decision.

Simon

This seems to be the absolutely right conclusion BUT the deal has not yet been done. Mark said the buyer was not essential for the school to open. There is still time. There are other bids – whatever they are. Could the parents not buy the school?

What will happen in the short term will be instability – read what happened to other schools! Look through this blog. Parents in revolt. Lawyers threatening the parents…

looking at the GEMs website one can see that Bolitho would be an asset to their portfolio, our strengths come in the form of education from pre-school to year 13, and of being international already. And they can't possibly disregard the enormous good will from all sectors. Their benefit to us is in being part of a larger network. They'd been daft to squander the assets! And we all gotta recognise we need to make some changes.

Xponsford

Comment:The goodwill will go when people realise the ’special relationship’ they have with staff and the ethos of the Christian Bolitho school, has gone, to be repackaged and sold.

““We’re very cost-focused,” Mr Varkey said. “A parent paying $15,000 to $20,000 is very specific in what they want, whereas the parent sending [their child] to a mid-market school is not concerned about their child speaking five languages or learning the cello. They want a good education and for their kid to go to a good university. It’s very aspirational.”

http://prayatna.typepad.com/education/business_of_education/

Finally, from elsewhere....

"It would be a tragedy if Penzance were to be deprived of its social and educational contribution to the area, even if the majority of children are prevented from benefiting. What is more difficult to understand is how the financial management of the school could be allowed to get to this parlous and critical state, without steps being taken earlier to balance the books and why large and much needed sums will now be diverted to the newly appointed administrators? Parents and teachers appear to have good reason to be dismayed. Hopefully the adminisatrators will prove their worth by identifying wealthy charitable or government institutions, prepared to support the school, maybe in return for greater community involvement and inclusion for those of limited means, who might benefit from the style of rounded and balanced education it has to offer.

TimV, Pz"

If a Company takes money whilst the owners/senior managers know (the teachers may not have known if they were being paid to their contract) that they are insolvent then that is illegal.

Notify the receivers immediately and take legal advice. You may find that you have first call, even before the banks, on the assets.

Colin McNamee, Baltonsborough, Somerset

Am very upset as my son is a new pupil at the school, we paid a whole year up front, surley the teachers knew it was in big trouble? Why did they take our money?

vicki rogers, penzance

Grant Thornton will make money and be be paid in full for their 'services'. . Now there's a surprise. . It's a bit like being in government. Charles Henry 1945-(diuturnity), Somersetshire

The school principal and governors would have known they were trading at a loss...for a very long time. As phoney as MPs.

Alan, plymouth devon uk

I am a parent and have heard nothing from the school or administrators. First I knew about it was from the media today so I am sad and angry to say the least.
Kathryn

Kathryn, Cornwall

Prestigious?Since when?Bolitho was nothing of the sort,it was a very average private school,the sort of place "Daily Mail" readers sent their children so they didnt have to mix with "common children" Its exam results were average,its facilities poor by comparison to other schools,it had boosted its sixth form by an influx from abroad,it really wasnt even on the radar of people that wanted a really good private education.

Why were people still sending children to it,it had closed once before,the banks wouldnt let it have an overdraft,the teachers took a pay cut,all the signs that this was not an establishment that had a future.
Truth Teller, penzance

Sad news, however lack of information is always the problem. We removed our child due to this reason a long time ago, I hope things can be saved and lessons learned.
l andrews, cornwall

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