Sidmouth school to close unless teachers take a huge pay cut

A Sidmouth school, founded in 1914, that has survived two world wars and celebrated a centenary, could be closed forever unless its teachers accept a plea from its president to take a huge cut in wages.

St John's International School is a private school for day students and boarders, and has a long and proud history – but it has been brought to its knees by Covid-19 and its management says the only way it can survive is if teachers agree to cut their salaries by a quarter.

Even then, the school faces making a loss in the next academic year of a quarter of a million pounds.

The school, overlooking the sea on the picturesque hills above Sidmouth, is described as 'a small English school with a big international heart' - combining traditional, English independent school values with an international approach to learning.

But that learning could soon come to an abrupt halt.

Sidmouth Nub News can report that Dr Jorge Segovia, President of International Education Systems, a Bristol-based company with directors spread across the globe, which runs the school, has laid down a stark message to its staff. 'Take a pay cut or we close!'

Staff have until Tuesday, June 23, to reply. They received the letter on Thursday, June 18.

International Education Systems (IES) runs two schools in the UK, Sidmouth and The Grantham Preparatory International School in the Midlands. The school in Grantham is an independent day school for boys and girls between the ages of three and 11, while the Sidmouth school offers a wider range of educational options, from nursery aged children aged two to four, right through to students in their late teens who undertake summer educational programmes.

Its junior school runs for children aged four to 11 and its senior school for pupils aged 11 to 16. Local children qualify for a discount.

However, for some time the school has been run on a financial knife edge and the company, which runs three schools in South Africa and others in America, Hungary, Panama and Italy - and is planning to open another in Romania – says a decision on its future needs to be made now.

Dr Segovia has written to staff at Sidmouth – where parents pay between £6,150 and £9,540 for day tuition – to say it is "with great regret" that he has to give them an ultimatum.

He says: "St John's has been in a difficult financial position for many years. This has resulted in accumulated losses of over eight million pounds to date.

"Despite this, IES has continued supporting the school by covering these losses with confidence that this is a great school with so much to offer and an excellent team that will take it to success."

He then details how the school, because of the coronavirus pandemic, made the decision to close the boarding school for the 20-21 school year – which, with parents paying between £6,900 and £11,200 a term, has brought the school to crisis point.

He warns: "Next year we are facing losses over £500,000 pounds (without taking in consideration loan repayments or depreciation expenses). Unfortunately, our current day student numbers are not enough to even cover the full payroll of our staff.

"We have already asked the teachers to take a cut in their pension funds by moving to a less expensive option. We know this has been difficult to accept by many but I would like to highlight we are not doing for our own gain, but rather to find additional savings the school needs to make."

To emphasise his point, Dr Segovia says the school has only survived because it has drawn on funds generated from other schools in the group.

He continued: "Even considering all problems, our desire is to be able to continue operating St Johns and potentially be able to reopen the boarding in the 21-22 school year.

"For this reason I need you, all the staff members of St John's, to do a sacrifice of a 23.5% cut in your salaries for the 20-21 school year. I know this may be very hard for some of you but unfortunately, if we don't have the support of all staff members, we will not be able to continue operating St John's further. I ask for you to take this reduction only for the upcoming school year."