Members of the team that fought to save Pooles Park, in the award-winning garden – back row, from left: Alan Bates, Paul Levy-Adophy, Catherine Galvin-Oates and Sophia Ioannou. Front row: Georgia, Uchenna and Leighton

A SCHOOL garden that was threatened with closure has been given an Islington in Bloom award by the council, which had previously taken it to the High Court in an effort to force it to shut.

Pooles Park Primary School had been facing a legal battle that extended for over a year before finally winning their case in May, with Islington Council later losing their right to appeal in August.

The ruling, handed down by the judge, declared that the school would be allowed to stay open as an academy, with The Bridge Multi Academy Trust set to take over at the beginning of November.
Parents had been campaigning against the council’s decision to shut the school for 18 months, with the “jaw-dropping oasis” of the garden being cited in court as a reason to protect the school from closure.

That same garden was handed an Islington in Bloom award in the Best Children’s Planting category on Wednesday evening.

Logan, 7, said he would have felt “devastated” if the garden had closed. “All the kids love it, you can have a fire, you can have a picnic, this garden is cool,” he said.

Uchenna, 11, added: “The school was saved twice, if it was closed I would not really be happy. I would be in rage mode.”

Parent Paul Levy-Adophy said there was an “irony” to the council handing out an award to the garden it had been trying to close. “Clearly the local authority are indicating that they understand the significance of environment on healthy living and mental health,” he said. “Yet, the very same council were aiming to close our school and take from children, in the poorest ward in the borough, daily access to the most biodiverse school in Islington.”

He added: “Pooles Park Primary School should be considered as Islington’s jewel in the crown and a learning space that should be an example to others throughout London.”

Mr Levy-Adophy also said that the award signalled a complete lack of the “joined-up government” idea that the Labour Party promoted when they were last in power.

He said: “The idea [was] that various departments would closely liaise with each other so there was consistency in approach. For example, not having one department sanction something that completely undermines the work of another department.

“It is clear… from the various awards that the school has and continues to receive that there is no ‘joined up governance’ within the London Borough of Islington.”

Islington’s schools chief Councillor Michelline Safi-Ngongo said: “We believe closing Pooles Park and therefore reducing the overall number of surplus and unused school places across the local area, would have improved the viability of nearby schools, boosting the educational experience for all pupils locally.

“Keeping it open under the control of an academy trust will increase financial strain on our remaining family of schools and make it harder to improve the quality of education for our young people.”

She added: “While it is great that the school has this garden, the quality of the education was our primary concern when planning to address falling pupil numbers.”