A private boarding school in Melbourne’s north has let students out, announcing it has gone into administration and most classes will end this week.
Key points:
- A Victorian private school in Kilmore has been put into administration
- Hundreds of students will be forced to move when Colmont School closes on Friday
- Parents of students at the school say there has been no official communication about the sudden closure
The move will force hundreds of students to find a new place to study mid-term.
Colmont School, formerly known as Kilmore International School until July 1 this year, also operated as a boarding school for international students.
Grades 3-10 will finish on Friday, while Grades 11 and 12 will continue for a short period as families move to other schools.
The school is one of fewer than 25 institutions in the state to offer the International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma programme, transitioning to other schools offering the VCE challenge.
Students are “very scared” about the future
Year 12 student Tiffany Lamb was shocked by the announcement.
“I’m five weeks away from my mock exams, I’m almost there,” he said.
“I just finished everything and now I might have to look for another school.”
He said the IB was a two-year cumulative program and students’ final exams covered content they learned at the start of Year 11, making it difficult to switch programmes.
“It is impossible to go to VCE because we cannot do units three and four [year 11 subjects]we can’t complete a year 12 VCE because we haven’t been there,” he said.
Seniors Tiffany Lamb (left) and Grace Aldridge (right) say their cohort wants to end the year together. (ABC News)
Tiffany said some students had received offers of support from schools teaching the IB, but the travel requirements to get to the school campuses were not feasible.
Year 11 student Grace Aldridge said many of the students are scared of the future.
“My friends are really scared, I’m really scared,” he said.
Parents criticize the lack of communication from the school
Parents were notified of the closure by email on Wednesday from the state education body, the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority (VRQA).
One parent said they only became aware of Colmont School’s financial circumstances after hearing about it from their daughter.
A parent says there has been no official communication from the school. (ABC News)
“My daughter came running telling me to check my emails,” the father said.
“There was a flurry of activity on social media and then we heard there was apparently a meeting at Kilmore Town Hall that not everyone had been invited to.”
He said that while they had received a notification from VRQA, there had been no official communication from the school.
“I don’t know who was invited to the meeting and who wasn’t, so we haven’t heard anything from the school yet, just a couple of letters from administrators,” she said.
The school’s closure comes despite the school stating on its website that the campus was “almost at capacity”, with plans to acquire a new site to further expand the school to include students from the preparation until the second year.
The liquidator says the school asked for government support
Ian Grant, an accountant working to liquidate the school, said its financial problems were due to declining international student enrollments during the pandemic.
He said the school had tried several avenues to resolve the issues, including seeking support from the federal and state governments and applying for funds through private lenders.
“Because additional funding and funding has not been obtained, the principals have not been able to continue to run the school,” he said.
Liquidator Ian Grant says several attempts have been made to resolve the school’s financial problems. (ABC News)
Mr Grant said liquidators cannot afford to run the school until the end of the year, even for senior students.
“Our main concern at the moment is continuing the education of Year 11 and 12 pupils and the transition to another school.”
The Prime Minister, Daniel Andrews, did not rule out helping families affected by the school closure, but reiterated that private schools were outside the government’s remit.
“We’ve had several schools from time to time that are outside of our jurisdiction that have fallen on hard times and we’ve supported them and the school community. This would be no different,” Andrews said.
“But as they say it may not be our business, we may not be able to do much for them.”