Optimistic parents this week outside Blessed Sacrament Primary School, where a new banner is declaring its partnership with the Cardinal Hume Academies Trust

PARENTS and the leadership of a primary school have vowed to keep on fighting despite expectations Islington will sign off on shutting it down.

Speaking outside the gates on a freezing January afternoon this week, parents at Blessed Sacrament Primary School in Boadicea Street, off Caledonian Road, said they were “keeping fingers crossed”.

The Diocese of Westminster, which runs the school, is hoping to avoid closure by transforming the school into an “academy” with sponsorship from the Cardinal Hume Academies Trust.

Blessed Sacrament’s headteacher, Alexandra Fernandez, told the Tribune: “From our perspective we have got the wonderful academies trust backing us. We’ve got the diocese backing us.

“There is great positivity within our community to remain open and to continue for many years to come, to safeguard Catholic education.”

She added that Blessed Sacrament was the only Catholic school in the area and had recently won a “good” rating by the Diocese of Westminster.

Parents were also taking comfort in the fact the school has recently printed a slew of new banners with the words “in partnership with the Cardinal Hume Acad­emies Trust,” seeing it as a vote of confidence in the likelihood the school will become academised.

It is not clear when that decision, which rests with the Department for Education, will go ahead.

But the council’s cabinet was last night (Thursday) expected to approve the closure of the school.

They argue that just six children joined its reception class this year. And the council said it’s not just its lower years that are struggling: with a vacancy rate of 64 per cent – according to council data – it has the most empty classroom chairs in the borough.

Another parent outside the gates, father-of-two Russell Stanton, said: “A few people are taking their kids out and obviously going to go to other schools.”

But he said the rest of the people he knew “had decided to wait until the last minute and see what happens here”.

Another parent, Amanda Boniface, said: “I don’t really like academies but it’s better than it closing.”

And Toni Payne, who works in Duncombe Primary School, said: “They know our kids and they care about our kids.

“I haven’t spoken to one parent whose gone or is even on the fence: they all want it to be an academy. It’s a real community here. They know us as families.”

Her son Ronnie, 11, now in secondary school, said: “These are the best teachers I ever knew.”

The council’s report on the future of the school states: “Should Blessed Sacrament RC Primary School’s application to convert to an academy be approved, the local authority would not be able to progress closure of Blessed Sacrament RC Primary School.

“However, we must proceed on the current legal status of the school, which is a voluntary aided school and Islington Council, as the local authority, has the power to propose the closure of voluntary aided schools.”

A DfE spokesperson confirmed that an application for Blessed Sacrament to join Cardinal Hume Academies Trust was currently being assessed and would be considered at a London region advisory board “in the coming months”.