TOWN HALL MEETING (1445; 16/05/25)

SUMMARY: Kingscourt was not only viable in the long-term, but FoKC had received a serious offer and several expressions of interest from prospective partners. Hope to have greater clarity by Friday, and in the meantime to secure a delay to any offer acceptance deadlines to alleviate any perceived time pressure.

DETAIL:

 1.⁠ ⁠FoKC had engaged with PWC's education division, who were providing pro bono advice, and exploring and conducting due diligence on potential buyers for Kingscourt.

 2.⁠ ⁠In light of the interest expressed by potential partners and investors, FoKC had shifted its focus and business planning to facilitate a potential acquisition of Kingscourt.

 3.⁠ ⁠The revised business plan FoKC had prepared was based on very conservative assumptions about pupil numbers, in order to elicit only serious offers and expressions of interest (e.g. no Y5 or Y6 in September; 15% attrition across younger years).

 4.⁠ ⁠In the past 24 hours, FoKC had received a serious offer from a prospective partner (not able to share details lest it prejudice matters), and several serious expressions of interest from schools and investors, who would be taking the matter to their boards this week.

 5.⁠ ⁠Once PWC had completed its due diligence, FoKC would take to Grant Thornton (who were acting on Cognita's behalf) those offers that: a) were most viable; b) had the greatest chance of maintaining the ethos and educational outcomes of Kingscourt; c) had the landlords' backing; and d) were likely to be attractive to Cognita.

 6.⁠ ⁠Cognita could be trusted to make a decision based on what served its business interests best. FoKC expected Cognita to look favourably on any offer that secured it a speedy exit from Kingscourt, especially if it were to prove less financially and reputationally costly than continuing with closure. The offer already received met these criteria.

 7.⁠ ⁠FoKC would continue to engage all relevant parties this week with the aiming of having greater clarity by next Friday.

 8.⁠ ⁠In the meantime, FoKC would contact schools to ask for an extension of any deadlines in order to alleviate any time pressure that parents might feel under to accept offers before the future of Kingscourt was known (Churchers had already extended deadline for current Y5 offers to 2 June).

 9.⁠ ⁠FoKC intended to survey parents next week in order to get an up-to-date picture of parents' sentiment, and likely pupil numbers come September '25.

10.⁠ ⁠Negotiations remained delicate so FoKC would urge all parents to refrain from speaking to the media for now. However, FoKC was giving active consideration to how best to use media and parliamentary pressure to ensure that Cognita continued to engage seriously once PWC shared the offers made.

11.⁠ ⁠Please feel free to send any questions, suggestions, offers of help to [email protected]