Parents and teachers furious as council mulls more primary school closures

Parents and school staff have hit out at Hackney Council over plans that could see four more primary schools in the borough closed.

Under current council plans, Sir Thomas Abney, St Dominic’s, St Mary’s and Oldhill primary schools could each face full closure or merge with other schools, due to falling rolls and a yawning gap in the council’s budget.

The pupil census taken this year revealed there were 2,400 fewer children in the borough’s primary schools compared to January 2017.

Unfilled reception places have also risen by 20 per cent since May 2014.

These falling reception numbers are projected to continue, which could see the total number of primary school children in mainstream schools drop by another 2,000 or more in the next decade.

Right now, schools receive £28.5 million less in funding than they are entitled to if their classrooms were full, according to the council.

The Town Hall blamed falling rolls on the borough’s declining birth rate and families leaving the UK post-Brexit and amid the housing crisis.

New proposals could see the merging of Sir Thomas Abney and Holmleigh Primary, and Oldhill and Harrington Hill Primary respectively.

In a press statement from the National Education Union (NEU), St Dominic’s class teacher Carly Slingsby said the council’s plans had “pulled the rug out from under us”.

“‘As we have seen in the past, Hackney closes down schools without any proper medium or long term planning. With minimal consultation and little encouragement for the stakeholders to engage.

“We were recently taken over by new, competent management who have a solid debt recovery plan. This plan is not being taken into account.”

On Monday (30 September), Deputy Mayor Antoinette Bramble outlined the plans at a meeting of the council cabinet, while parents and teachers flanked the Town Hall urging them to change course.

Cllr Bramble said her pride in Hackney’s schools had made the decision “so difficult”.

“No school mentioned here tonight is because they’ve done anything wrong, [or] because they are failing or they have let the community down.”

“We are in this situation in Hackney and in London, because the birth rate has dropped, because of Brexit and children moving abroad, along with a little bit of impact on free schools and the cost of housing,” she said.

Despite the government’s new plans to drive housing supply, Cllr Bramble stressed that “we still don’t have enough children coming into the borough and taking up school places.”

“Even if the birth rate was to increase tomorrow, you still need school-age children.”

Her report stated that the council “[does not] underestimate the impact that such changes would have on the community, parents, carers, staff and pupils, if approved.

“However, the impact of falling rolls is being felt widely across many schools, and it is evident that over time it is becoming increasingly more difficult for them to continue doing all the fantastic things that families, children, staff and the community love them for.”

Bramble added that the council will work with schools and provide targeted support to “mitigate risks” around special educational needs and disabilities as a result of the closures.

Teachers and staff , angry at closures and the council’s treatment of looming redundancies, turned up to the gallery to grill the Cabinet.

Lisa Neidich, co-chair of governors at Sir Thomas Abney primary school, quizzed the cabinet on how closing her school—recognised for its special educational needs expertise—matched the borough’s strategy to support SEND.

“Sir Thomas Abney has the longest speech and language resource unit,” she said.

“The management of the school have the expertise, as well as the teachers, speech and language therapists etc.

“We’ve been told that all staff are going to be made redundant have to reapply for jobs. Why would they not go outside of Hackney if they’re treated like that?”, she said.

Hannah Gorzelak, class teacher at Sir Thomas Abney, also asked if the council could recruit staff for a potential new merged school from those at Thomas Abney staff being made rendundant.

Mayor Woodley acknowledged the flight risk of teachers from the borough, but stressed that the financial situation made closures unavoidable.

Deputy Mayor Bramble also clarified that legally, the council “simply could not” recruit certain numbers of staff from specific schools.

She also hit back in frank terms against accusations from residents that the closures were being forced through now for electoral reasons.

“Is the reluctance perhaps to hold this plan because council officials will be up for election in 2026, so there’s a need to get around closures done before then?” asked Lynn Willis of Sir Thomas Abney.

Cllr Bramble argued that if the school closures were being dictated by electoral politics, the “easiest” option would be to close schools after the next election.

“But we are trying to do the best that we can do  because we take our responsibilities as elected members seriously,” she said.

“We’re making those tough and difficult decisions even before we ask for your vote again, because we do care.

“Making those decisions mean you’re willing to stand up for your community with your community—even when those decisions make you unpopular.

“I know this isn’t going to make us very popular, but we’re doing it because it’s necessary.”

She insisted the council was not closing schools to fill the budget gap, but because they simply do not have enough pupils.

In an NEU press statement, union district officer Jamie Duff said the cost of housing in the borough was driving falling rolls, but school closures were not the answer.

“The lack of genuinely affordable housing for families in Hackney has contributed significantly to the changing demographic in the borough.

“Increasingly it is just too expensive to raise children in Hackney. Do we want the inner areas of London hollowed out with no families?

“Long standing communities will be broken up,” he warned.

“We demand the council keeps these schools open. We demand increased funding for schools, more access to genuinely affordable family housing and a strategy of long term educational planning.”

Ronnie Haynes, a parent of a St Dominic’s pupil, said parents were at the Town Hall this week “‘to show we are more than just a school—that we are a family and we stand united.

“We want to be heard – our school should not be closed down.”

“We also wanted to make it clear the … [council’s budget deficit] should not be taken out on our children and that the council and the government should look at alternatives rather than taking away from the next generation.

If proposals are approved, the council said it will consider how to make sure each school site is “steered into locally relevant and valuable uses”.

The report added the the priority is to “protect the future of the sites as far as economically possible”, and if possible, exploring options for the former school sites to add community value.

Four Hackney primary schools were closed at the end of the last school year, after over 20 per cent of reception places were left unfilled.

The council said the move would see empty school places fall to 18 per cent by 2025, though this is projected to rise once more by 2027.

Haynes stressed that closing schools would impact children’s mental health and development.

“Not only will they lose a school, they lose their teachers and their friends and the new family they have made.

“We like the classrooms sizes the way they are. We are smaller than the average classroom of 30 but smaller classrooms have proven to be better for tailored education.

“Our children are outstanding, and so is our school, they deserve this type of provision,” he said.