Best Schools - Chinese investors ready to snap up struggling private schools

More elite private schools could end up with Chinese owners as investors prepare to swoop once the dust has settled on Brexit, experts say.

The Achieve Group, which owns Chase Grammar, a boarding school in Cannock, Staffordshire, and Abbotsholme School in nearby Uttoxeter, has said that it has “exciting plans to make further acquisitions over the next few years” and is appointing an admissions director to recruit more pupils at home, in China and elsewhere overseas.

Mainland China is the largest source of foreign-born pupils at British boarding schools, with numbers rising 10 per cent last year to just over 9,000.

British independent schools have also opened 47 campuses in mainland China, educating 10,500 pupils, with many more in the pipeline. These include Harrow, Wellington and Dulwich College. There are many more in the pipeline, with an estimated 14 new campuses opening up this year.

Loretto win Independent Schools Home Internationals in Wales

Loretto School retained the Independent School Golf Association Home Internationals title with a 16-shot victory in an event played at Bryn Meadows and Celtic Manor.

The impressive success at the two Welsh venue was secured for Scotland’s representatives in the four-cornered tournament by a quartet compring of Cameron Gray (Dumfries & Galloway), Greg McCaffer (Glasgow), Joseph Cookson (East Lothian) and Timothy Chan (Hong Kong).

The ISGA Home Internationals are held every year in a different country and gather the top Independent Schools' Golf teams and players from all across Britain. This year, the event took place in Wales, at the Bryn Meadows & Celtic Manor, and was organised by Rougemont School.