Pupils at Townsend Primary School will be forced to up sticks – with Southwark Council expected to rubber-stamp the school’s closure next week.
The Walworth primary school, which faces a £599,000 budget deficit due to falling pupil numbers, would shut its doors this summer.
Cabinet chief for schools Cllr Jasmine Ali said: “I am incredibly sad about this heart-breaking decision to close Townsend Primary School. We hoped that we would find another school for Townsend to amalgamate with, but this did not happen.”
“While closure is hard, as is change, I am confident that the children will quickly adapt and enjoy a fantastic education in their new schools, I wish them all the very best for their futures,” she added.
A perfect storm of declining birth rates and unaffordable housing means primary schools in Southwark, and in cities across the country, are seeing their pupil rolls, and associated funding, plummet.
According to communications agency Comms for Schools, Southwark’s birth rate dropped by 21.5 per cent over the last decade.
Southwark headteachers have previously argued that regeneration projects, which have demolished thousands of family homes, are to blame for falling pupil numbers.
Townsend’s closure comes as yet another blow to fretting Southwark parents who are witnessing a flurry of school closures and amalgamations.
Four Southwark schools are set to amalgamate; Cobourg Primary School with Camelot Primary School and St Jude’s with Charlotte Sharman Primary School.
St Francesca Cabrini in Nunhead closed in September. Just outside the borough Archbishop Tenison’s School, Oval, and St Martin in the Fields High School, Tulse Hill, will close this summer.
Townsend Primary School, which has roughly 79 pupil vacancies, has been under threat since December 2021, when parents first learned of a possible closure.
But mums and dads rallied, fought against the closure, and Townsend briefly escaped the chop.
But in December 2022, parents were again told that St Townsend was under threat – culminating in the imminent decision.
Katy Scriven, who took her daughter out of the school when she learned of the looming closure, said: “It’s an absolutely amazing school and my daughter now says if Townsend remained open she’d want to go back there to do her last year even though she’s been in a new school since January because of the way it is – the staff, the children, the ethos.”
Townsend Primary School will remain in council hands as an educational institution so when birth rates rise it can become a school again.
All its pupils have been offered places at good our outstanding schools, according to the council.
Southwark Liberal Democrat education spokesperson Cllr Irina von Wiese said: “It is incredibly saddening to see a much loved school such as Townsend Primary having to close.
“This trend will not end until we do something about the root cause – the shocking lack of affordable housing here in Southwark and across London.
“Vibrant communities have been replaced by unaffordable apartments and shiny office blocks, forcing families out of their neighbourhoods. That is why the Lib Dems are calling for the affordable housing requirement to be increased from 35% to 50% in all new developments. We must keep our communities together and our schools open.”
The cabinet will make its decision on closure on Tuesday, June 13.
