The only Scientology school in Europe, Greenfields, is an independent coeducational private school with students of ages 3 to 18. As of March 2024, they have 176 students, including 30 boarders. They had 181 students in 2021.

So much for Scientology’s claims of being the “fastest growing religion” and of having “millions of members” worldwide.

Greenfields, already expensive, had recently announced a 30% increase in fees. Here are the current fees:

There are 3 terms per school year, so the fees range from £12,600 (US $16,622) up to £43,200 (US $56,994). So what level of academic attainment does all that cash and dictionary use buy?

Not a lot, seemingly.

Art and music are apparently the exception to paralleling L. Ron Hubbard’s own scholastic track record.

A twin crisis has struck.

A flap from Hell for Peter Hodkin, Scientology’s legal terrier in the UK and director and chair of trustees of the Greenfields Educational Trust, has suddenly appeared.

Prong One

On 29 July 2024, the newly elected British government outlined its plans in a written statement to the House of Commons. It said it would bring forward measures to introduce 20 percent VAT (Value Added Tax) on education and boarding services that private schools provide for a charge across the UK from 1 January 2025.

20 percent VAT will also apply to pre-payments of fees for terms starting on or after 1 January 2025 made on or after 29 July 2024. The plans also include measures to remove private schools’ eligibility for charitable rates relief in England.

This means an automatic 20% hike on Greenfields’ fees whose recent 30% price hike pre-VAT was already the subject of discord for some parents, our sources tell us.

Prong Two

The second and virtually simultaneous prong is the announcement that Greenfields will no longer qualify to sponsor foreign students, per a ruling by UK Visas and Immigration.

In late March of this year, the ISI (Independent Schools Inspectorate) carried out their regular inspection. Multiple standards were not met. Boarders’ accommodation was found to be merely adequate. Safeguarding standards were not met.

The safeguarding standard was already not met in 2017. Here is page 18 of the 2024 report –

This is scandalous in a school where one member of staff was jailed for 5 years for sexual improprieties with boys and in a Scientology school, given Scientology’s long track record of protecting offenders – see the Danny Masterson case, among many others. The cavalier attitude to their duty of care should not surprise.

In response to the latest inspection, Greenfields Headteacher Andrew Hodgson wrote a letter to parents that said “the inspection team noted in their report that we successfully safeguard all students in the school, and it is one of our highest priorities. In order to fully address this area of the report we have recently purchased and put into use a secure web based recording system for safeguarding, behaviour (both good and bad), and to note important information that parents share with us.”

The loss of foreign students may well prove a fatal blow to Greenfields, as those are the students who pay the highest tuition and boarding fees. Already, Greenfields, which had 27 EAL (English as additional language) students in 2017 and had 30 boarders in March, 2024, has run into headwinds with the 30% tuition hike and the looming 20% VAT. While they represent a little less than 20% of students, we understand they account for perhaps as much as 2/3 of school income.

The school’s leadership will have some very interesting times to navigate ahead. 

At least their accounts show the £200,000 “grant” that the school received as a pandemic interest free-loan has been paid back early and in full.

More pressing will be their difficulty in getting enough UK parents to sacrifice their children on the altar of Hubbard’s hubris. Our sources suggest 80% of the students are Scientologists and the children of Scientologists, a shrinking UK demographic.

And dictionaries are readily available for a great deal less than Greenfields’ fees. 

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