Campaigners fought hard to save Montem Primary School in Finsbury Park from the merger

UP to four more schools could be closed amid a crisis of falling pupil numbers, warned a senior politician as the merger between two primary schools came one step closer on Monday.

Councillor Benali Hamdache, the leader of Islington Greens, was one of five councillors to challenge a decision by Islington’s ruling Labour Party to merge Montem Primary School with Duncombe Primary School, both in Finsbury Park, over concerns about the number of pupils in both.

Speaking after the challenge was rejected, Cllr Hamdache called the merger “sad” and worried that children could suffer as a result.

“Montem is a special school. It does a lot of things really well,” he told the meeting.

“Seventy-one per cent of students passing their SATs is above the national average, and that’s particularly notable when 63 per cent of your students are on free school meals; when almost a third are SEN. It’s a school doing the best for our most disadvantaged children.”

He warned without proper planning a further four schools across the borough could be closed, and the distress witnessed at both Montem, Blessed Sacrament and Pooles Park – which was threatened with closure last year before becoming an academy – could be repeated. Blessed Sacrament has applied to become an academy.

“It could be up to four schools that are under threat across every area,” Cllr Hamdache warned.

“I think it was quite clear from the response that more schools are going to be closed and looking at the figures, it looks like there’s one extra school per planning area, almost, apart from Highbury.”

At the start of this academic year there were more than 2,000 empty chairs across the borough’s classrooms.

Cllr Hamdache said “salami slicing” schools was a mistake, and called for a pause so an independent body, made up of school leaders and communities, could be given the lead on planning for the future of Islington’s schools.

But Islington’s lead councillor for schools, Cllr Michelline Safi-Ngongo, said pausing would leave schools in a precarious financial position, with Drayton Park Primary School projected to be in deficit by £2million next year if nothing is done, and a total deficit of £15million across the borough.”

Justifying the decision to go ahead with the merger, she said: “Schools are ask­ing us to move fast – they’re the ones asking us to move fast. The process is not easy but we have to take the decision for the education of the children.”

She added: “We need to take this serious­ly. The government is not funding our schools the way everyone is expec­ting – we need to take the de­cision, and the decision we took is for the benefit of the children.”

Samuel Rhodes Special School, on the Montem site, will now have to find a new home while Islington are considering the possibility of selling off the site at Montem for private homes, according to a report.