The partial closure will impact the current year seven to nine students. The current year 10 and year 12 will remain at the school to complete their final year of their public examinations, before the school fully closes in 2024.
Lambeth council is not part of the decision-making process for closing academies, but the local authority will support all local schools the best it is able to minimise the disruption and impact on students and their families as a result of these decisions.
Cllr Ben Kind, Lambeth’s Member for Children and Young People said: “Parents are rightly very concerned about the pressures on the entire education system across London that are a result of an unfair national funding system, our declining birth rate, the impacts of Brexit and the ongoing housing crisis.
“This school is not part of our local authority network being an academy school which means decisions on its future our outside our control. We believe in localism, that schools are at the heart of their communities and that these important decisions, which hugely impact Lambeth’s young people, should be taken locally not nationally.”
Lambeth Council has adopted a plan to manage surplus places at schools in Lambeth within the local authority network and is lobbying the government to provide the level funding local schools need.
Cllr Kind said: “In Lambeth, we are asking all schools and the whole community to work together to ensure that we have a strong local school system that supports parental choice, maintains the outstanding education provided by our fantastic teachers and school staff, and keeps schools anchored to local communities.
“Lambeth Council will continue to work with St Martin in the Field School for Girls Church of England Academy during the school’s period of engagement with the community, and representatives from Lambeth will be meeting with parents at the school to support them. When requested Lambeth Council will also support families in finding single sex faith schools.”
