Parents and children join striking teachers outside Highbury Quadrant Primary School

STRIKING teachers marched to the Town Hall on Wednesday to protest the proposed ­closure of two Islington primary schools that would force them out of their jobs.

Parents and children joined teachers on the picket lines outside Highbury Quadrant and St Jude and St Paul’s schools, waving placards and union flags and handing out scones.

The schools have been proposed for closure by Islington Council because shrinking pupil numbers have put them into challenging financial positions, the council says, and both could shut this summer pending a decision by cabinet councillors in April.

Year 5 teacher Phoebe Oakley spoke to the Tribune from the picket line at Highbury Quadrant.

She said: “It’s not just a job to us. Our children aren’t meant to balance Islington Council’s budget book but it feels like that’s what’s happening.

“They have a complex range of needs and have so many different backgrounds. If you don’t work in this kind of school you don’t understand.

“There seems to be a target on our school, which already has a lot of disadvantaged children.

“I went into teaching to protect and empower children to be the best versions of themselves and to progress in life.

“If this school goes, the whole community goes and our children’s futures are disadvantaged further.”

Protest at St Jude and St Paul’s

Reception teacher Premila Pillay, who travels an hour from her home to Highbury Quadrant daily, has worked at the school for more than 13 years.

She said: “I wouldn’t come if I didn’t love the school. This is our home, these are our children.”

Year 2 teacher Anjuma Begum said: “[The council] haven’t really spoken about where staff are going to go after this. It’s like we’re in no-man’s-land. We don’t know what’s happening.”

She added: “Seeing the children’s sad faces is really upsetting every morning. Some of them have complex needs and they’re struggling a lot. It’s not fair on children like that.”

Islington’s National Education Union (NEU) co-secretary Pippa Dowswell said: “I think the council is running this process as a box-ticking exercise. They have to consult by law and that’s what they’re doing. I think their minds have already been made up.”

Ms Dowswell added that Highbury Quadrant had been “scuppered” by the government’s school funding formula, which provides a set amount of funding per pupil and therefore puts smaller schools at a financial disadvantage.

This has led Islington’s Green councillors Benali Hamdache and Ernestas Jegorovas-Armstrong to describe falling rolls as “a school funding crisis, not a school place crisis”.

Islington’s lead councillor for children and families Michelline Safi-Ngongo said: “We recognise that discussions about potential school closures are unsettling for pupils, families, and staff. Closing a school is always a last resort and is only considered when all other options have been explored.

“The current consultation is being managed in line with national guidance and is an open and transparent process. The future of teaching and school staff jobs can only be determined once the consultation process is complete, and a final decision has been made.

“We will continue to work closely with staff and families to support them through this process.”