News: Convent School Closure?

"I SAW THAT JEANNIE BROWN!" My Physical Education teacher, Miss O'Niel, shouted across the tennis courts. During the lesson we had to run around an open space twenty times before we could stop. Each time we passed one of the girls on the sidelines (who wasn't doing P.E that day because she had conveniently been on her ‘womanly time of the month’ for four consecutive weeks) they would draw a dot on our arm so we could prove how many times we had run around the courts at the end of the lesson. Miss O'Niel's remark was in reaction to seeing me convince one of the girls to draw five dots instead of one in one go on my arm, to speed the process up a bit...I was never a big fan of jogging.

This memory was made at The Towers Convent School, a school situated in the countryside in Upper Beeding. This is near Steyning in West Sussex. The establishment now faces closure despite boasting an impressive 98.6% GCSE pass rate in 2019 and 65.5% of these resulting in 7-9 (A-A*).

The Towers is a Roman Catholic school which caters to the needs of female pupils aged 4-16 and boys 4-11. The school was founded by the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament and there are a group of nuns who still live there today and remain at the heart of the school community. The school has been active since 1903. Numerous Facebook groups have been set up in recent weeks by past pupils to inform each other of any updates made by a focus group of business professionals who are looking at various ideas to save the school.

A summary of one of these focus group meetings was published on the social media site by Katherine Lumsdon:

"The fact is that our school's product is enviable with excellent results and exceptional pastoral care. However, we realise that these achievements should have been better promoted to maintain a steady student intake. It is true that a proposed merger with another independent school fell through and there are near-term financial issues to address.

In summary, we need to recruit student numbers to previous levels to sustain the longer term viability of The Towers and we need some financial help to see this school beyond this academic year. The response and support from those close to the school has been overwhelming. This depth of feeling demonstrates that no alternative solutions should be discounted in trying to keep the school that we love open. We understand that you need surety sooner rather than later, but rest assured work is underway to assess all potential options for recovery."

While the Towers community waits to hear what these plans to save the school are, other attempts to raise the profile of the school and their dilemma has been made by one of the teachers, Sam Nixon, who went on BBC Radio Sussex to talk about the school's issues.

Last night crowds of people brought in the New Year, the future for the Towers for 2020 definitely seems uncertain at the moment.