#Old Palace of John Whitgift School

[insidecroydon]

Three large private schools will cut fees to reduce sting of VAT

Education correspondent GENE BRODIE on how one of Croydon’s biggest eceonomic sectors is adjusting to the horrors of having to charge tax At least three of Croydon’s largest private schools plan to reduce their fees from next January, to take some of the sting out of the Labour Government’s plan to introduce 20% VAT on independent school fees from 2025. Doing their sums: Croydon’s large private…

[marmorada]

By Ewan Somerville, Fiona Parker and Alex Barton

A private school pupil was stabbed to death by a teenage boy in south London after she rejected flowers from him, The Telegraph understands.

Witnesses said the 15-year-old girl, named locally as Eliyanna, was travelling to school in Croydon when a row broke out between herself and her friends and other pupils from a local school.

The argument is said to have spilled out of the number 60 bus and onto the pavement outside a shopping centre, where the schoolgirl was attacked by a young man “wielding a sword-like knife” and “wearing all black” at around 8.30am on Wednesday.

Paramedics rushed to the town centre to treat the teenager, who was described by locals as having “a fantastic future ahead of her”, but she died at the scene.

One girl was seen being held back, screaming: “That’s my best friend” as she tried to push past the crowds to reach the wounded teenager.

Police arrested a 17-year-old boy nearby around 75 minutes after the attack took place. The suspect and the victim are understood to have been known to each other.

Chevanice Thomas, from Croydon, told how her friend Apple witnessed the girl being attacked. Relaying her friend’s account, she said: “He gave her the flowers and she threw them away. Her friends all dispersed when she went down. After that the boy apparently stabbed her, blood gushing out and the police put pressure on it. She died on the spot.”

Staff at the Leonardo Hotel on Wellesley Road, where the incident took place, rushed to the scene. Beldine Kutima, who works there, said: “One of our duty managers went to get the bus, but she came back in screaming and grabbing towels from the back room. She ran out there with bin bags and towels. She was crying and in shock.”

Michael Fyffe, an estate agent who was on his way to work when he saw the aftermath of the attack, said: “Two of the girl’s friends were there. One of the girls wastrying to get past the crowds to the body. Everyone was trying to hold her back to let the ambulance crew do their jobs.”

James Watkins, a youth worker, said friends informed the teenager’s family, who were unable to get to their daughter before she died. “They were unable to say goodbye,” he told The Telegraph. “They were in shock and devastated. It doesn’t feel real to them.”

[....]

The teenager was a pupil at Old Palace of John Whitgift school, a 134-year-old girls’ school that charges fees of up to £19,350 a year.

Anthony King, from My Ends, an organization that aims to reduce violence, told The Telegraph he had spoken to her family in the aftermath of the attack.

He said: “The family and extended family are widely devastated, heartbroken. I cannot articulate the sound, the tears and the genuine heartbreak at what took place this morning.

“She had a bright future ahead of her, she was in GCSE year, Year 11, and she was an absolutely incredible young lady, very articulate, really had a fantastic future ahead of her.”

[cdnzine]

#oldpalace #school #architecture #London #ldn #Londonlive #londonlife #aauk #maybeLDNer #cronx #Croydon #htconeM9 #oldtowncroydon #oldtown (at Old Palace of John Whitgift Senior School)

[insidecroydon]

New company to rise from ashes of Whitgift Sports Club failure

It’s ‘business as usual’ at Croham Manor Road, where four old boys’ clubs are set to take over following the collapse of their sports ground’s management company. EXCLUSIVE By STEVEN DOWNES Like it never closed: people behind the new company to run the Old Whits sports ground say they had been organising the move for some time A new lease for the Old Whitgiftians’ sports ground and clubhouse on…

[insidecroydon]

Whitgift Sports Club goes into liquidation owing £300,000

Fields of dreams: the Whitgift Sports Club grounds and clubhouse. The company that manages it has gone bust CROYDON IN CRISIS: Another small business in the hospitality sector appears to have gone under – with a large charity, private school and old boys’ association carefully distancing themselves from the debt-ridden company. EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES Out of pocket: the Whitgift Sports Club,…

[insidecroydon]

Boris Johnson's former aide given Whitgift Foundation top job

It was an intervention 12 years ago by the then Mayor of London that got Croydon’s biggest landowners into a disastrous £1.4bn gamble with Westfield. Now they are turning to BoJo’s ‘revered’ aide to get them out of the mess. EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES Full in-tray: Roisha Hughes, announced as the Whitgift Foundation’s new chief exec Roisha Hughes, a career-long civil servant who worked closely…

[insidecroydon]

Crumbling finances see troubled Foundation lose millions more

CROYDON IN CRISIS: Official figures show the borough’s biggest landowners saw their funds fall by 5.5% in the latest trading year – and that was before incurring any costs from closing Old Palace girls’ school. EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES Shaky foundations: Archbishop Whitgift, the charity’s founder. How might he have seen the loss of £11.4m in just one year? The Whitgift Foundation’s annual…

[insidecroydon]

Houlding's decided not to hang on at the failing Foundation

CROYDON IN CRISIS: The man behind the closure of one of the Whitgift Foundation’s three large schools will be standing down from the troubled  property developers’ governors. EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES On his way out: Christopher Houlding has presided over rapid decline in Whitgift Foundation finances Christopher Houlding is to step down as the chair of the “Court of Governors” at the troubled…

[insidecroydon]

Girls and teachers in tears as school prepares for closure

At Old Palace of John Whitgift, the fee-paying girls’ school, there’s an ‘end-of-term’ feeling the like of which has never been experienced, by pupils or staff, in its 135-year history. By CAITLIN CLIFFORD Having been at Old Palace since Year 7, I was shocked when I was told last September that the school would be closing in 2025. We were horrified that the Whitgift Foundation, the registered…

[insidecroydon]

School site to be sold off as pupils finish their final term

Education correspondent GENE BRODIE on the latest move by the borough’s biggest landowners in the slow, death throes of one of Croydon’s best-known schools The final bell, on the final day at the end of the school’s final year has not yet been rung, but the money men (and women) at the Whitgift Foundation are already hustling the remaining young pupils out of Old Palace’s prep school in South…

[insidecroydon]

Charity Commission alerted to problems at Whitgift Foundation

CROYDON IN CRISIS: No chief exec in place for 12 months, accounts later than usual to be filed, and £50m wiped off its funds in five years. Now the borough’s biggest landowners are subject to a formal complaint to regulators. EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES Formal complaint: the Whitgift Foundation has effectively been accused of sexism over its decision to close Old Palace School Croydon’s biggest…

[insidecroydon]

Teenager pleads not guilty to murder of Elianne Andam

The 17-year-old boy charged with the murder of Elianne Andam outside the Whitgift Centre last September this morning entered a not guilty plea at an Old Bailey hearing. Killed in the street: Elianne Andam He pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter. The boy, who cannot be named because he is under 18, also pleaded not guilty to possessing a blade in a public place. Andam, who was aged…

[insidecroydon]

Foundation brings forward Old Palace prep closure by a year

CROYDON IN CRISIS: Early closure of the fee-paying primary school will speed up sale of the site in South Croydon – probably to a profit-hungry housing developer. EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES Moving on: girls at Old Palace as young as four will need to find a new school sooner than planned The financially troubled Whitgift Foundation is seeking to accelerate the selling off of one of its school…

[insidecroydon]

Another Whitgift shock as second head teacher decides to quit

Head-less: Whitgift School in South Croydon, which uses the house and grounds of an Elizabethan admiral, is looking for a new headteacher CROYDON IN CRISIS: To lose one head teacher in a single academic year is unfortunate. For Croydon’s biggest landowners to lose two from their private schools is beginning to appear worrying. EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES International challenge: Christopher Ramsey…

[insidecroydon]

Croydon in 2023: Murder, school closures and Westfield blight

Crime scene: aerial shots from the Whitgift Centre bus stop on Wellesley Road show the crime incident tent following the deadly attack on 15-year-old schoolgirl Elianne Andam THE YEAR IN REVIEW Part 3 – September to December It’s not like there’s ever any shortage of stories to cover in Croydon. But even by this area’s usual standards, the news that Inside Croydon reported, often exclusively, in…

[insidecroydon]

Chief exec stands down from struggling Whitgift Foundation

CROYDON IN CRISIS: The borough’s biggest landlords have been hit by another blow. EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES Resigned: Martin Corney ran the Whitgift Foundation for 20 years Martin Corney has resigned as the chief executive of the Whitgift Foundation, Inside Croydon can reveal. The Whitgift Foundation, which traces its origins back more than 400 years, is Croydon’s largest landlord and operates…