Former pupils, past and present teachers and parents have rallied together to salvage a school that is set to close for good at the end of the summer term.

Moreton Hall Preparatory School in Bury St Edmunds is “unsustainable,” its bosses have said, adding coronavirus had “unravelled plans for future growth”.

MORE: Prep school to close for good after coronavirus ‘unravels plans for growth’But a core group of former pupils and past and current teachers and parents are now working to “make something new out of the ashes of the Covid-19 crisis” - and one of the ambitions is to turn it into a free school.

The Moreton Hall 2.0 team, as they call themselves, was established in response to the “devastating” news about the impending closure.

Rory Watts, past pupil of Moreton Hall Prep and founder of the Moreton Hall 2.0 team, said: “One of the ambitious plans is to make the school into a free school servicing the Moreton Hall area with some great plans with regard to eco-friendly ventures and projects taking place in the Easter and summer holidays which focus on health, wellbeing, creativity and arts and community projects which include filmmaking and language schools.

“Mostly, we hope that the people of Bury St Edmunds will join us in supporting this wonderful school which can now be opened up for everyone to enjoy and which can nurture generations of children to come after us.

“The ethos of the school was that education is the lighting of a fire not the filling of a pail and we aim to light up Moreton Hall with our new school.”

The current Moreton Hall school, which is fee paying and situated in Mount Road, was established after the ravages of the second world war in 1948.

A parent, whose daughter attended the school until three years ago, said: “The types of parents who choose to send their children to Moreton Hall are those who value a great education. They are not looking for a return on investment. Just happy, well-educated children who can go forth into the world and achieve their best for the benefit of society.”

The Moreton Hall 2.0 team put together a brochure of their ideas for headmistress Lorna Wakerell and the governors to consider at the board meeting on April 27.

The group have also launched a crowdfunding page with a target of £20,000 to maintain the building and open its doors to the public “whilst we work on winning government funding to start providing free educational services to the children of local families”.

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