‘I don’t want my school to close’: Families from Dalston primary protest against merger plans for second time in a week

Colvestone families outside the Town Hall. Photograph: Julia Gregory

Parents of a much-loved Hackney school have again pleaded with the council to scrap plans to merge it with another primary.

Colvestone school in Dalston is one of six primaries facing an uncertain future because of falling pupil numbers.

Hackney Council is considering combining Colvestone and Princess May schools in September 2024.

The proposals could also see De Beauvoir and Randal Cremer primaries close for good, and Baden Powell primary merge with Nightingale.

Vacant places saw the borough’s primary schools lose out on £4.1m of government funding, which is handed out on a per-pupil basis.

The council blames the problem on a declining birth rate, Brexit, the cost-of-living crisis, and a shortage of affordable homes – all of which it believes have contributed to an exodus from London.

Each primary in Hackney is losing £6,484 in government per vacancy this year.

There are currently 634 unfilled reception places at council-run primaries across Hackney – the equivalent of 21 classes.

Cabinet member for education Cllr Anntoinette Bramble said the drop in finance means activities such as school trips and cookery classes could be at risk.

She told Colvestone parents: “If your passion, if your love, if your activism alone could save the school, we would not be here.”

Families staged a demonstration outside Hackney Town Hall for the second in a week.

Parents raised their concerns at a crunch cabinet meeting to discuss the next stage of consultation, accompanied by one seven-year-old pupil.

The discussion lasted an hour and a half and continued with senior officers and councillors outside the meeting.

One parent told councillors: “We really do believe closing our school is the wrong decision.”

He said it was a unique “village school” in the heart of Hackney.

Earlier, seven-year-old Cosmo said: “I don’t want my school to close. It is a good school and I am happy here.”

Dorothea Kanellopoulou, who is the representative for parents with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), said parents valued the small school as a place where their children can thrive.

She warned the council it could lose the children from the school rolls altogether: “Parents don’t want their children to go to Princess May and they might have to send their children to schools in Islington instead.”

Cllr Bramble sought to reassure parents that children with SEND are a priority in any decision.

Parent governor Julien de Rosée asked what was needed to reverse the threatened merger.

He said: “Would the council consider removing schools from the list and what would schools have to demonstrate?”

Cllr Bramble said more funding and more pupils, but stressed that the drop in primary places is a “London-wide” problem.

She said the council was putting forward the proposals reluctantly: “We never thought we would have to consider such a difficult thing.”

Parents also asked the council if it had looked at the medium- to long-term impact of 600 new homes to be built as part of the Dalston plan.

Cllr Bramble said projections suggest there will not be enough families in the timescale needed and there was no guarantee which school they might want to send their children to.

The proposals were also challenged by Dalston ward councillors.

Cllr Zoë Garbett (Green) said: “The way the consultation is framed is catastrophic for the schools involved – staff and families have already started leaving, feeling like it is a ‘done deal’.”

She wanted to know if the consultation is about how to close schools or whether to shut their doors.

Cllr Grace Adebayo (Labour) asked if the consultation will be open to all Dalston residents and wanted to know the plans for the building on Colvestone Crescent if the merger goes ahead.

Mayor Philip Glanville said that as the council is currently at an informal consultation stage, it is too early to look at the future of the buildings.

“There is no intention or plan to sell off schools to private providers for housing,” he said.

Hackney’s cabinet agreed to start an informal consultation in June on the future of the school.