Amberfield School was a small private school in

Nacton Nacton is a village and civil parish in the East Suffolk district of Suffolk, England. The parish is bounded by the neighbouring parishes of Levington to the east and Bucklesham in the north. It is located between the towns of Ipswich and Felixs ...

, England, coeducational up to the age of 7 years, and for girls up to the age of 16 years, which was established in 1927 and closed in 2011 due to financial problems. The last headmistress was Linda Ingram. It was set in countryside with surrounding fields and wildlife. It won the Lego League Robotics UK Championships and the World Primary Robot Dance Championship held in Suzhou, China as part of

RoboCup Junior RoboCup Junior (RCJ), sometimes stylised RobocupJunior, is a division of RoboCup, a not-for-profit robotics organisation. It focuses on education and aims to introduce the larger goals of the RoboCup project (creating robots) to primary school, pri ...

in 2008. The school occupied the site of Nacton Workhouse, near woodland where the body of one of the victims of the Ipswich 2006 serial murders, was found. The school was a member of the

Girls' Schools Association The Girls' Schools Association (GSA) is a professional association of the heads of independent girls' schools. It is a constituent member of the Independent Schools Council. History The GSA can trace its history back to the Association of Headm ...

History

The school was founded by sisters Gertrude, Eleanor and Margaret Roberts in 1927 from their home in

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line r ...

. In 1951, the school moved from Crofton Road to the former site of the House of Industry

Workhouse In Britain, a workhouse () was an institution where those unable to support themselves financially were offered accommodation and employment. (In Scotland, they were usually known as poorhouses.) The earliest known use of the term ''workhouse'' ...

at Nacton where it remained until the school's closure in 2011. A

educational trust Charitable trusts in English law are a form of express trust dedicated to charitable goals. There are a variety of advantages to charitable trust status, including exception from most forms of tax and freedom for the trustees not found in other ...

was formed in 1962, with Margaret Roberts and Jean Horsburgh as joint headmistresses. Margaret Roberts retired in 1966 and Jean Horsburgh retired in 1972. Pearl Webb took over as headmistress from Jean Horsburgh, until she left in 1992. Louise Amphlett Lewis headed the school until 2005. Helen Kay, a mathematics teacher, took over but left unexpectedly mid-year in 2008. Linda Ingram was then headmistress until the school's closing in 2011.

Sport

The school was successful in tennis with the under-15 team reaching the quarter-finals of the national competition in 2007.

Notable former pupils

Maggi Hambling Margaret ("Maggi") J. Hambling (born 23 October 1945) is a British artist. Though principally a painter her best-known public works are the sculptures '' A Conversation with Oscar Wilde'' and '' A Sculpture for Mary Wollstonecraft'' in London, ...

, artist *Sarah Hugill, first wife of

Andrew Lloyd Webber Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber (born 22 March 1948), is an English composer and impresario of musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 21 musicals, ...

*Freya Holmes, model *Hannah Patrick, Entrepreneur

School closure

On 12 October 2011 the school website was replaced by a press release headed "Amberfield School to close". It stated that "Amberfield School will close on 31 October 2011 and go into liquidation thereafter due to unsustainable losses". BBC Look East that evening reported that the debts were over £1 million and that the school would in fact close on Friday 14 October 2011, which it did. At the time of closure there were 32 teaching staff and 23 non-teaching staff, also 157 pupils, 70 down on earlier levels. On Saturday 15 October 2011 a news report headed "Comeback hopes as school is closed in debt crisis"East Anglian Daily Times 15 October 2011 stated that given just 48 hours' notice a group of parents had tried to raise £200,000 to keep the school running until Christmas, but with parents concerned for their children's education seeking places at other nearby independent schools, closure of Amberfield was inevitable. The parent group subsequently stated it would not give up hope of seeing the school reopen in the New Year.

References

{{Schools in Suffolk Defunct schools in Suffolk Girls' schools in Suffolk Educational institutions established in 1927 Member schools of the Girls' Schools Association 1927 establishments in England * Educational institutions disestablished in 2011 2011 disestablishments in England Nacton