Pupils and parents at Highbury Quadrant, and St Jude & St Paul’s primary schools staged protests

ON the last day of the summer term, dozens of children at two Islington primary schools closed by the council still have nowhere to go come September.

Councillors voted to shut Highbury Quadrant and St Jude & St Paul’s primary schools in April, on the grounds that there are not enough children enrolled to make them financially viable.

Despite the council assuring families that they would receive individual advice from school admissions staff and guaranteeing that siblings would be kept together, parents have told the Tribune they feel unsupported and may have to split their children between multiple schools.

St Jude & St Paul’s parent Jodie Eavis has three children who were at the school and still have no confirmed places for September.

She said: “The council really pushed this initiative of helping all the families if the school does close down, and actually nobody has heard from them since.

“I got a call from the admissions team a couple of weeks ago and all they said was they have noticed I hadn’t applied anywhere. We never got any advice, we weren’t told of any schools that had places. They were absolutely no help. I had no idea how to access the information about places in other schools, bar calling every school in Islington and Hackney.”

Particularly at St Jude & St Paul’s, where parents held off applying for new schools in the hope that a court case would overturn the council’s closure vote, many are still scrambling for places after a judge rejected their claim in June.

There are 26 children from the school without a place for next term, parent representatives have said, while Islington Parent Carer Forum, a volunteer group that supports families in the borough, said it has heard of at least 10 children without a place for September.

Ms Eavis added: “It’s almost like we’re being punished for [the court case]. We had faith in our school and now we’re just left high and dry because of it.

“It’s like the council are saying, ‘we’ve made this decision to close your school, good luck finding somewhere else’.”

Another parent at the school, Holly Stuart, is similarly looking for places for three of her children, one with special educational needs (SEND).

Protesters go to parliament

She said: “It’s not as easy as just going to the next-door school. It’s individually having to phone every school, go to the tours, take the kids. And closing two schools close together – did they not think that would be an issue? Because everyone is looking at the same local schools.

“The council base every decision on budgets and statistics. I’m a mother of six kids – my kids are not statistics, they’re not robots, they’re the next generation of people.”

After calling every nearby school, Ms Stuart said there was only one with space for all three children but found it would not be suitable for her neurodiverse child, who gets overwhelmed by large, busy environments and on public transport.

She contacted Islington admissions on Monday, who sent a list of five schools with availability for all her children. The closest, 30 minutes’ walk away, was unsuitable on religious grounds, and the others were 40 minutes to an hour and 10 minutes away.

“None of them are suitable – the distance is way too far,” said Ms Stuart. “We should have a choice. Now we either pick a school that isn’t right for one child, or we split them up. So when my child has a high absence rate because the bus is an issue, or we’re late every morning because I’ve got to drop kids at other places, it’s going to be a me problem. We’ve got a school that’s amazing where all the children are flourishing and we’re just going to take it away, for what?”

Islington parents are also free to apply to Hackney schools, something the council emphasised throughout the six months that they were seeking public input on the closures.

But, Ms Stuart said, Hackney schools are prioritising students displaced by the borough’s own closures – four primaries in Hackney will shut this summer – and existing pupils’ sib­lings, ahead of displaced Islington children.

From today (Friday), primary schools in Islington and Hackney will be closed for the summer.

This means that while parents can continue to make applications, they won’t be able to visit schools or ask questions, such as how the school would support their children with SEND.

Islington Council leader Una O’Halloran said: “Since we took the extremely difficult decision to close Highbury Quadrant and St Jude & St Paul’s primary schools, we’ve reached out to every impacted parent and guardian to support them and their children in securing places at alternative schools.

“We were clear from the outset that there are enough places at Islington schools within a mile’s radius and with a ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ Ofsted rating to accommodate every pupil from both schools.

“We’ve held workshops and offered face-to-face meetings with every parent or carer, and proactively contacted the small number of families who haven’t yet secured a school place so we can discuss their options, provide support and give information on schools with vacancies.

“Closure is always a last resort, and we listened carefully to all feedback from teachers, parents, carers and children to save these schools. We’re as determined as ever to make our borough a more equal place for everyone, and we will continue to work with our residents to achieve that goal.”