Provisional liquidator appointed for troubled private school

A private school in Lanarkshire has closed for good a day earlier than scheduled after a provisional liquidator was appointed.

Fernhill School announced in February it would shut at the end of the school term, following a charity regulator raising "misconduct" concerns over how it had been run.

Donald McKinnon, of accountancy firm Wbg, said the school had come under "enormous financial pressures" in recent years.

He added that he decided to shut the school 24 hours earlier than planned and cancel a planned fun day for the end of term to "safeguard pupil welfare" and enable security professionals to begin work looking after the site.

One pupil from the school told BBC Scotland News that agents for the liquidator quickly started removing valuable items from the building.

She claimed that teachers were kept in the office and were visibly upset by the latest turn of events.

"Teachers were completely distraught. They were standing outside crying. It was completely ridiculous," she said.

The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) previously said Fernhill - a Catholic institute in Rutherglen with primary and secondary pupils - had not submitted accounts to the watchdog in several years.

The school opened in 1972, after a group of parents raised funds to keep a primary school operated by the Sisters of Notre Dame open, and charged up to £20,000 a year for pupils.

Wbg said the school's two directors Giuseppe 'Sep' Marini and David Equi decided to close Fernhill due to "rising costs and VAT on school fees", as well as what the company described as "many challenges".

A provisional liquidator typically focuses on preserving the assets of a company but does not begin winding up a business or charity in the same way a liquidator would do.

Wbg said an investigation into what caused the school to go bust would be launched once a liquidator is appointed at a later date.

McKinnon was appointed after Marini and Equi petitioned the court for his appointment.

He said: "My primary duty in this role is to safeguard the wellbeing of the pupils and the staff. Once the liquidator has been appointed, there will be an investigation into what led to this predicament.

"While the school had been due to close at noon tomorrow, I have taken the practical decision to close it today to avoid any further distress to the pupils.

"To that end, I considered it appropriate and necessary to cancel the planned fun day to safeguard the pupil's welfare, regarding an obligation to appoint professionals on site to deal with security and other practical matters at hand."

In February, it was revealed Fernhill's board of trustees had lodged unaudited dormant accounts with Companies House last year, covering 2023 and 2024, but the OSCR said at the time it was unable to find out why the school had done this.

Dormant accounts are usually filed by companies that have had no significant accounting transactions - such as paying salaries - during a financial year.

The school's then accountants Bell Barr and Company resigned in October 2025, stating this was over the same unaudited dormant company accounts that were lodged with Companies House.

The OSCR said earlier this year it believed there had been "misconduct in the administration of the charity".

School accounts published in 2022 stated the school would be able to continue as a going concern until 2026, but there was "material uncertainty" beyond then.

The school had nearly closed back in 2014, but was saved after the parents of pupils raised money to save it.

McKinnon added staff had undertaken "tremendous efforts" to ensure pupils could sit exams as scheduled at the end of term.