After strike action, parents, teachers and pupils march on

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SCHOOLS fighting closure marched to the Houses of Parliament yesterday (Thursday), calling on government to invest in education as falling rolls and shrinking budgets lead to classrooms closing across London.

Chants of “Keir Starmer we’re no fools, you rob from the old and steal from schools” echoed down Whitehall as parents, pupils and striking teachers from Highbury Quadrant and St Jude and St Paul’s – Islington primaries facing closure this summer – joined with two other at-risk schools from Hackney and Lambeth to protest their councils’ plans.

While it is councils that decide on the future of schools, it is central government that funds them – at around £6,000 per pupil – meaning schools with fewer pupils get less funding and find it harder to balance their budgets.

Councils have said that it is therefore too expensive to keep smaller schools open.

Speaking in Parliament Square, Highbury Quadrant teacher Phoebe Oakley said: “Today we’re standing outside one of the oldest government buildings in the world, a place where we elect people to represent us as part of our democracy. But is democracy working if communities are forgotten and left behind? I don’t think so.

“The council says we have deficits but what have they actually done to address that? All I see is that they’ve hired an expensive consultant to write a report that isn’t even factually accurate. And how is that democratic? It’s not.

“We are our communities, and we’re standing up for our communities. We’re fighting back against something that doesn’t need to be inevitable.”

The two Islington schools are currently in the midst of a four-week public consultation process before a decision by councillors in April on whether to proceed with the closures.

St Jude and St Paul’s is Islington’s smallest school by number of pupils while Highbury Quadrant has shrinking pupil numbers and a 10-year trajectory of expensive building maintenance works. These are the council’s stated reasons for choosing these schools to shut.

Islington’s co-secretary of the National Education Union Terry Sullivan told the Tribune: “When people send their kids to private schools they look for smaller class sizes – smaller class sizes are not a problem. That’s what we want, let’s find a way to pay for it.

“In small rural schools you can sometimes have just 50 people but you want to keep a school in a village, it keeps the heart of the village, keeps it alive.

“Why can’t we do that for inner city schools as well? It would be very simple – you’re a primary school in London with less than £150,000 so you don’t have the economies of scale. We just give you some additional money to make that work.

“I don’t see it as a real problem.”

Council urged to find alternatives

THERE are “no credible alternatives” to closing primary schools, Islington Council has said, but others argue that creative ideas to keep the schools open have not been properly considered, writes Daisy Clague.

No decision has yet been made on the future of Highbury Quadrant and St Jude and St Paul’s, but a council report summarising the first round of public feedback on the closures reads: “Unfortunately given the low pupil numbers on roll and the trajectory for pupil numbers in the local area over the foreseeable future there are no credible alternatives to closing the school.”

The council’s report lists and rejects alternatives to closure, including, in the case of Highbury Quadrant, an idea to use part of the school as a nursing home.

Parent Becky Hunter said: “It has felt like we’re trying to turn a juggernaut round at times but until the parents are certain every alternative has been properly considered, such as federation with another school, merger or even mixed use of the site – we want to know everything has been fully examined – we won’t stop fighting to keep our school open.”

Islington North MP Jeremy Corbyn similarly questioned if the council has properly considered alternatives to closure.

In his written feedback to the public survey in December, he wrote: “There are so many ideas for how to use the extra space [at Highbury Quadrant] in ways that will serve the community, and as long as we are seriously willing to consider these options, it is the most viable solution to keeping the school open.

“I have been approached by many local community organisations who are looking to rent council owned premises. The parents at the school suggested it be used as a day centre or care home for the elderly. [Headteacher] Terri Higgins and one of the parents asked whether a SEND school can be co-located at the school, which I have also suggested to Islington Council in the past.

“There are credible alternatives to school closure, which I and others involved with the school don’t believe have been given due consideration.”

The council rejected Mr Corbyn’s suggestions, writing that the “poor quality” of Highbury Quadrant’s buildings mean it is “very unlikely” that letting out its premises would generate enough income to support a sustainable future for the school.

This week Mr Corbyn told the Tribune he still isn’t satisfied with the council’s response.

“If anything the situation has got worse,” he added, pointing out that if both schools end up closing it will mean even fewer alternative primaries for their displaced children to go to.

According to Islington Council, renting out parts of Highbury Quadrant to other providers wouldn’t address the low numbers of pupils on roll at the school, which is forecast to mean a £400,000 shortfall in the budget.

Rental income would not provide a sufficient, reliable, or continuous source of income to invest in and maintain the improvements that the school badly needs, the council said.

Islington’s children and young people chief, Councillor Michelline Safi-Ngongo, said: “Funding for schools from the government is directly linked to how many pupils they have. The proposals to close these schools are based on long-term challenges due to declining pupil numbers. As numbers continue to fall in the future it will become increasingly difficult for these schools to maintain the level of inclusive education and support that pupils deserve.

“In terms of proposals for alternative use and to address budget shortfall, suggestions have to be viable, costed and sustainable. The proposed closure of a school is always the last option.”