Agenda and draft minutes

The Cabinet Member will advise of any items of Urgent Business that they have accepted and these will be considered under agenda Item 3.

There  were no items of urgent business  put forward.

The report sets out the outcome of consultation with all stakeholders on the future of the School.

Before considering the report  the Director of  Children’s services gave her apologies for  including a  letter in  the report pack from the Department for Education  personally addressed to  Schools  Company  Limited regarding the Academy Sponsorship proposal outcome for John Loughborough School .  The  Children’s Service  should not have included this letter as they were not  the main recipient of this information  and the  error was regrettable. The letter had now been  removed from the report  pack, published on the council’s website.

 The  meeting was provided with some background information about the John Loughborough School. It  was a small  voluntary aided church secondary school with  capacity for  300 pupils and operated by the South England Conference of Seventh –Day Adventists but maintained by the local authority. A review of the  school’s financial and educational viability had been  initiated in April 2012 because a number of agencies had provided support  to improve standards  without considerable impact and continued OFSTED inspections  also  showed no improvement . The council  had worked with  Seventh day Adventists Church  in the review  to examine a range of options for its future   and the review had concluded  that only two options  were open: one  was for the  Seventh Day Adventist Church to pursue establishing the school as an academy and  the council  to consult on the  closure of the school.  Both these options were  pursued in parallel to avoid delay in finding the best solution for current and future pupils at the school.

The Cabinet had in September agreed to commence  consultation on the closure of the school  whilst  a potential sponsor for the school  was sought. The Cabinet  were clear that they  would halt the consultation on the closure if  a sponsor  was found  to support the school as an academy and this still remained the case.  

 Following the decision by Cabinet in September, this report set out the responses to the consultation . It was noted that 80% of respondents were opposed to the closure of the school.  However the council were required to weigh  this against factors such as the school’s current  education standards, past GCSE results, past support provided to improve  standards  and the  current position on  finding a sponsor for the school. Therefore, the report recommended  that the  council now publishes a statutory  notice to close the school across all year groups with effect from September 2013. 

 Before  making this  decision, the Cabinet Member for Children highlighted some  responses in the consultation which contended that the school was financially viable and that  African  and Caribbean Children did well at the school .It was confirmed that the financial viability of the school had been examined, in the review, and this  had concluded that  the school   could not continue without subsidy. The report further contained exam data  which showed  that  African and  Caribbean children do not do better  at the John Loughborough School than  overall African and Caribbean students in Haringey schools.

 The Cabinet Member for  Children having considered the  information in the report  ...  view the full minutes text for item 41.

To consider any new items of Urgent Business admitted under Item 1.

No new items of business were put forward.