The private school money couldn’t save: why did Alderley Edge School for Girls close?

The parents at Alderley Edge School for Girls keep comparing their lives to a Netflix drama. “It’s like a Netflix Drama,” says Mike Ward, whose daughter started at the school in January. Or, “it could be a Netflix special,” Adam Gough – whose daughter until recently attended the school’s nursery – tells me.

So what would be the opening scene?

Would it be when, in one of the first meetings after the school announced its imminent closure, one parent stood up and matter-of-factly said: “if it’s just a million pound, I can write a cheque to keep it going”?

Or maybe this.

Gough is sitting front row of the nursery obstacle race when his phone goes off with a bing. It’s sports day here at AESG — a fee-paying institution that until last June sat on five-and-a-half acres in the leafiest bit of Cheshire, charged over £6k per pupil per term, and boasted results in the top 3% in the country. It’s the 19th of June, a clear day. About 60 or 70 sets of parents are gathered in the sports field. The email arrives at 9am on the dot.