Covid ‘aftershock’ dents Lincolnshire school’s reserves

A 450-year-old Lincolnshire grammar school racked up hundreds of thousands in losses after parents decided not to bus their children 30 miles to the secondary at the height of the pandemic.

Reserves at Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar Alford have dwindled in the five years since intake figures were cut by more than a fifth in lockdown.

The government has issued the school with a notice to improve amid concern over its “weak” financial position, despite leaders’ insistence that they have weathered the worst of the storm.

Matthew Morgan, the chief executive of the Grammar School Heads Association, said the case showed how heads were “still feeling the aftershocks” of Covid.

“This includes changing patterns of attendance and disrupted cohorts.

“Grammars, along with all schools, are using all their funding to support the children in their schools whilst absorbing rising costs for energy, staffing and essential services.”

Queen Elizabeth’s was issued with the notice at the beginning of June, on “financial governance and management grounds”.

Despite acknowledging the school’s progress in recent months, concern remained over its “weak financial position and financial management”.

Surplus drops £220,000

Latest accounts show it ended 2024-25 with a £40,000 surplus, down from £260,000 the year before.

Energy cost hikes and “higher than anticipated pay settlements” are said to have contributed to the drop.

However, accounts noted that the size of the previous year’s year 11 cohort played a “significant” part.

When the cohort joined the school in September 2020 it had 20 fewer pupils than every other year group across the secondary. The dip followed parents in Grimsby, which is across the local authority border, deciding against bussing their children 29 miles to Alford.

Glen Thompson, the school’s head, said they instead chose to remain in the town, which does not have a grammar.

“During that one year they didn’t get on the bus because they were doing their option choices during the pandemic. You can understand it,” he said.

“It was too few students to run a financially viable three-entry requirement and too many to get into two forms. It chucked us into a bit of a problem.”

The drop-off equated to “a combined £700,000 loss of income across the five years of their secondary education”, accounts noted.

Because school funding has a 12-month lag, 2024-25 was “the final year of impact” as the cohort was the only one to have been dealt the Covid blow.

All year groups now full

Thompson said all year groups were now full. “By the end of next year we’d have basically recovered our position. [Receiving the notice] is a bit harsh.”

Government figures for the 37 local authorities with grammar schools suggest Queen Elizabeth’s issues did not materialise elsewhere.

In 2020-21, 7.9 per cent of year 7 pupils nationwide attended secondaries in another council area.

The figure equalled those of 2019-20. It has remained broadly the same through to 2023-24 (7.5 per cent), the last year figures were collected.

The notice to improve, published last Friday, also ordered Queen Elizabeth’s to “draw up a plan setting out what future [multi-academy trust] options could look like for the school”.

The grammar, which was founded in 1566, has been told to work with the DfE to identify potential MATs to join.

Another condition was to “provide evidence it is expediting efficiencies to bring in-year savings, including staff restructuring to secure future efficiencies and budget stability”.

Thompson said the school “will be following all aspects of the notice to improve”.

A Schools Week investigation last month showed that of the 19 trusts with open notices against their names, seven – running two schools on average – were told to weigh up joining another MAT.

Meanwhile, three were ordered to cut staff.