Dorset MPs are calling for answers after Leweston School – a 135-year-old private school near Sherborne – shut without warning, leaving staff unpaid, hundreds of children with nowhere to go after half term, and questions over a loan taken out on the £8m site only months ago.
In a move described by local MP Edward Morello as a “shock and a travesty”, the school put an announcement out on its website and social media that it was closing immediately.
A charge on the company, Leweston School (Sherborne) Limited, thought to be a mortgage on the entire site, was taken out by trustee-directors Martin Stephen and Hugh Dickinson in March. With no income now coming in from the school HSBC bank is likely to call in that loan.
Hugh Dickinson, left, and Martin Stephen, right
Mr Stephen joined the company in December last year, when Concept Education bought the school. He left the company in September this year but remains on the board of Concept’s other school, The Marist School (Ascot) Limited.
No one among parents, teachers and the community appears to have been aware this was coming. Staff living on site now face an anxious wait to see when they must leave.
A promotional video for the prep school was posted just five days before.
North Dorset MP Simon Hoare says local MPs are co-ordinating with each other, but that “this whole situation just doesn’t smell right.”
Mr Hoare says neither Dorset Council or Ofsted were informed and a shortage of nursery places in particular would badly affect working parents. Other schools have rushed to offer places.
Though the school said children have been offered places at other schools, it would be difficult for working parents to simply switch schools with a few days’ notice – particularly as their upfront payments could take time to be refunded.
New staff were due to start this half term, having quit jobs elsewhere.
Mr Hoare added: “I have seen an employment contract entered into just a few days ago which seems ‘strange’.”
And he said: “Reasons for closure given to parents (I have seen the letter) are VAT, running costs and declining boarding numbers. NONE of those arose this week of half term so why make the announcement now?”
Leweston was named Best Co-Educational Day & Boarding School 2026 – Dorset at the Lux Life Private Education Awards and was a finalist in the Independent School of the Year Awards, in the category for SEND Provision.
The school said: “We are very sorry what this means for our pupils, their families and our staff, and for how little notice we have been able to give.
“Families and staff have been contacted directly.”
A Zoom call between the school and parents this afternoon proved frustrating as the meeting reached its maximum participants straight away, leaving concerned families unable to get answers.
According to a report from the trustees dated April this year and signed by Mr Dickinson, the Catholic Schools Trust (formerly the Leweston School Trust) owed more than £6.5m in its annual accounts made up to July 2025. £3,865,253 was at that time secured on its land and buildings, at the time valued a little over £8m.
But that loan was renegotiated in December last year over a much longer 50-year period, with a redemption date of 2075. The loan was to be paid by the school renting the site from the trust. The trustees’ report also said the school aimed to raise £25m from donations.
Following the sale to Concept, a new charge was added to Leweston School (Sherborne) Limited on the Companies House website in March 2026. It is not yet known how much money was raised with that loan – whether it merely refinanced the existing debt or whether more money was raised.
NB: The Catholic Schools Trust is a charity which holds the school’s land and buildings; Concept Education operates Leweston School.