Recession Batters Britain’s Smaller Private Schools

LONDON, September 8, 2009, The New York Times — Freya Hogan would love to return to her school in Ashford, near London, this month after her summer break, but Freya, 16, and about 240 fellow students from St. David’s School for girls have been forced to find another school.

After 293 years, St. David’s, one of Britain’s oldest independent schools for girls, closed down in July after it ran out of money. “There were lots of tears and temper tantrums among the pupils and anger among the parents,” said Freya’s father, Chris Hogan, who runs his own technology company. “It was a sad sequence of events and traumatizing for the girls who had to scatter to the four winds.”

Read more about Britain's small private schools' struggles.