The council has refused to say whether seventeen Southwark primary schools could close, despite the News requesting comment on three separate occasions.
During a meeting at St Francesca Cabrini Primary School, Honor Oak, on May 16, a Local Education Authority (LEA) figure reportedly told parents that seventeen schools were “at risk” due to declining birth rates.
The News has been asking the council to comment for two weeks, but the council has failed to address the rumours and refused requests for interview. Instead, the council has said: “Each school has different circumstances, and needs individual attention to work out how we can best support them.”
Parents at St Francesca Cabrini Primary School, Honor Oak, which could close due to plummeting admissions, have been “sent into panic mode” following the announcement.
A parent at the school, who wished to remain anonymous said parents were told that: “In Southwark alone there are seventeen schools in critical conditions like St Francesca Cabrini and more are likely to close.”
With Southwark home to 74 primary schools, it would mean 23 per cent of schools in the borough are at risk.
The LEA figure reportedly said that this was due to declining birth rates, Brexit and people moving away from the area.
An Admissions Consultation document published by Southwark Council said that Ilderton Primary School, Dog Kennel Hill Primary School, Cobourg Primary School and Ivydale Primary School were all seeing falling admissions.
St John’s Walworth Church of England Primary School has already closed.
A 2019 Annual Public Health Report by the Southwark Public Health Division also found that births had been declining year on year since 2010.
Parents have been left frustrated by what they say is a lack of consultation because it has made it difficult to plan for their children’s futures.
One parent, who has a child at St Francesca Cabrini said: “The pain is that us parents are now looking for schools in Southwark but we don’t know if they might close. The school must have had an inkling that numbers were falling and if they’d told us, parents could have done something about it but they told us absolutely nothing.”
According to an anonymous parent who attended the meeting, the LEA figure said birth rates weren’t expected to bounce back until 2034, with admission numbers not likely to recover until 2038.
I do not agree with the reasons of falling numbers. Its more to hide poor performance, bad management and other internal bureacracy. I had really difficulty last year in getting my daugter enrolled into one of those schools listed for closure, on 3 occassions I was told there were no space by staff in the school at different levels, but upon taking matters further, she was given a place. I also have a younger daughter who I tried to enrol in the nursery, still can’t a place in the same school. There may be drop in students in some areas due to brexit or decline in birth rate, but not all.
Other schools are oversubcribed, because performances are better, so parent taking children there.