In November Lambeth Council agreed to a series of closures and amalgamations to tackle the issue, including the closures of Fenstanton Primary School and Holy Trinity CofE Primary School.
These schools, and the community, made a clear ask that they be given more time to come up with an alternate plan, and the council listened, agreeing that could happen via a modification to the closure decision. The Southwark Diocese Board of Education have subsequently also submitted its own approach for the future of Holy Trinity, which also involves closing both schools and creating a new Voluntary Aided school, highlighting that all parties recognised the scale of the challenge and the difficulty of sustaining two separate schools with such low pupil numbers.
Change needed
The Office of the School Adjudicator (OSA) has now rejected this modified closure decision as unlawful. This decision is specifically about the technical process used to modify the original closure decision, not about whether change is needed, which the OSA has not disputed. This is despite the council having taken external legal advice, at every step of the process, including on the wording of the modification, before making its decision. The council acted in good faith and has already committed to learning from this outcome.
The OSA also rejected a proposal by the governing bodies of Fenstanton Primary School and Holy Trinity CofE Primary School to amalgamate the two schools. That proposal suggested closing Fenstanton Primary School, and keeping Holy Trinity CofE Primary School open on the Fenstanton site. Again, this proposal itself demonstrated the shared recognition among the schools’ leaders that the two schools could not continue in their current form.
Lambeth Council will now seek to meet with the OSA and the Department for Education to discuss how to best address the challenge of falling pupil numbers, and the threat that poses to the quality of education in the borough. The council will also continue working transparently and constructively to deliver sustainable schools that meet local demand and provide excellent education.
School funding concern
Schools are funded per pupil, so less pupils means less money, putting teaching resources under strain and raising the risk that primaries will build up big debts, potentially harming every school.
The council has looked at pupil numbers across the borough and made the difficult decision to work with communities on a closure programme that aims to fill classrooms, ensure schools are well resourced and maintains a high standard of primary school education close to people’s homes. Fenstanton and Holy Trinity have seen some of the steepest pupil number declines in the borough.
Word from the Cabinet
Councillor Ben Kind, Lambeth’s Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Families, said: “This is a deeply challenging time for schools across London as falling pupil numbers impact education budgets and sustainability. The very difficult reality we face is that a big drop in pupils in has seen the number of children starting reception classes falling by more than 1,000 over the last 10 years.
“We have worked hard to address this, running a pupil place planning process that aims to make sure viable and sustainable school remain in the local area – minimising disruption and retaining education provision in a way that would protect the quality of education for our children.
“The council’s approach, set out in 2022, was endorsed at the time by trade unions, school leaders and the Southwark Diocesan Board of Education as a way to respond to falling pupil numbers while protecting jobs and avoiding sudden and disruptive school closures. That collective, borough-wide process, where schools would come together rather than work against each other, is now at risk.
“However, we respect the OSA decision and will now consider what it will mean for our approach to tackling the excess of school places in Lambeth. We acted on external legal advice at every stage, and while the OSA has taken a different view on one part of the process, we remain committed to learning lessons and moving forward constructively. We also apologise to the parents, pupils and staff at both schools.”
