Agenda item

[Report of the Director of Children's Services. To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Children and Families]

This report sets out the result of the statutory representation period on the proposal to amalgamate Stamford Hill Primary with Tiverton Primary School.

The Cabinet Member for Children and Families introduced this report which set out the result of the statutory representation period on the proposal to amalgamate Stamford Hill Primary with Tiverton Primary School.

The Cabinet Member highlighted that this report was the final in a series of reports that had been presented to Cabinet over the amalgamation of Stamford Hill Primary with Tiverton Primary. All required consultations had now taken place and the report sought the formal agreement of Cabinet to agree the amalgamation from September 2020.

RESOLVED

1. To note that no comments or objections were received during the 4-week representation period despite consulting widely with all relevant parties.

2. To note the revenue budget to operate Stamford Hill Primary School successfully in the future is severely diminished with the school’s very low pupil numbers.

3. To note the equalities impact assessment at Appendix 4.

4. To approve the proposal to amalgamate Stamford Hill Primary School with Tiverton Primary School. This will mean the closure of Stamford Hill Primary School from 31 August 2020 with displaced pupils transferring to Tiverton Primary School at the beginning of the 2020/21 academic year.

The Chair of Overview and Scrutiny has agreed that the call-in procedure shall not apply to this decision as the action being taken is urgent and time critical and any delay in implementation caused by the call-in procedure would seriously prejudice the Council's or the public's interests. This is in accordance with Part 4, Section H, and Paragraph 18 (a) and (b) of the Council Constitution.

Reasons for recommendation

Following an ‘inadequate’ inspection judgement by Ofsted in November 2018, the Regional Schools Commissioner, on behalf of the Secretary of State and the Department of Education, placed a directive academy order on the school. Since April 2016, the Department has issued directive academy orders to maintained schools that Ofsted has rated as inadequate. Its aims for these schools to open as sponsored academies.

Significant concerns were raised about the long-term sustainability of Stamford Hill Primary School in terms of the vulnerability of its financial stability and its historic ability to attract pupils to the school. Based on the low level of demand for school places locally and the expected future declining demand, the Council considers that Stamford Hill Primary and other local schools will continue to face difficult financial challenges because classes won’t be full. Schools are largely funded on a ‘per pupil’ basis i.e. how many pupils attend the school.

The Council has a duty of care to ensure children in its schools are able to receive a good education and to access the full curriculum. A school with a declining roll will be challenged to do this effectively because of inevitable financial pressures from reduced funding.

Schools in the local area currently have a significant surplus of places and current school roll projections do not indicate any future demographic growth before 2026/27 and possibly beyond. In view of this, the Regional Schools Commissioner agreed for the Council to consider alternative options in parallel with the pursuit of Academisation.

The Council’s preferred option and one that provides a long-term sustainable solution to local falling demand, is an amalgamation between Stamford Hill Primary School and Tiverton Primary. Tiverton Primary is a local school located on other side of Seven Sisters Road, within a 5-minute walking distance to Stamford Hill Primary. The proposal would mean the closure of Stamford Hill Primary with displaced pupils being accommodated by Tiverton Primary School, to create a single two form entry school operating from one site.

Full consultation has been undertaken over a period of six months including meetings with staff, governors, and parents, along with other interested stakeholders. On the 27 November 2019, Council’s Cabinet agreed to publish a statutory notice commencing the statutory representation period, which was the last opportunity for people and organisations to comment on the proposal.

Alternative options considered

A number of options on the future of Stamford Hill Primary School were presented to local stakeholders during the consultation periods before the publication of the statutory notice.

All alternative options were rejected because they did not offer a viable solution in the context of falling demand. Local stakeholders were informed of the reasons these alternative options were less desirable than the Council’s preferred option of amalgamation:

1. Keeping Stamford Hill open: This option does not provide a long-term sustainable solution to falling local demand and leaves Stamford Hill and other local schools vulnerable because demand for school places are falling more widely in the locality.
2. Federation: Federation is an option that focuses on improving educational delivery by allowing the governing body to use budget, resources and staff across a federation to improve the educational outcomes for all pupils. This option would need another school to federate with Stamford Hill Primary. Also, under a federation, schools would remain as separate organisations and this again would not address the decline in numbers on roll at Stamford Hill (and other local schools) or the financial challenges that other schools are facing. This option is therefore less desirable than amalgamation.
3. Amalgamation with split site: This would involve Tiverton Primary School having two permanent sites and would not be desirable because it would involve the overheads of permanently running two sites in a context of reduced revenue from falling demand for school places.
4. Closure of Stamford Hill Primary with pupils moving to other local schools (including Tiverton Primary): This would involve closing Stamford Hill Primary School and giving parent/carers the opportunity to apply for a school place at any other Haringey primary school (including Tiverton) and in other local authorities. This option provides a less outcome focused solution to those parents with children currently at Stamford Hill Primary and doesn’t provide a mechanism for ensuring cohorts of children are, as far as reasonably possible, kept together, which is an outcome some parents expressed as the part of the earlier consultations.

Stamford Hill Primary will not be educationally or financially viable in the future with low pupil numbers and falling demand that is projected to remain static until 2026/27 and possibly beyond. There is a significant risk that the school will not be able to provide pupils with a rounded education that meets their academic, social and emotional needs. Keeping the school open would therefore have a negative impact on raising standards and narrowing the attainment gap and would not be in the best interests of educational provision in the area.