Angry North London parents and staff march in protest as yet another school earmarked for closure
Parents, pupils and staff this week marched in protest over the impending closure of their school in east Islington. The Town Hall last week announced plans to shut Highbury Quadrant Primary School due to falling pupil rolls, a budget deficit and a need for 'significant capital investment'.
Islington Council has said it would support the school and affected families, but many were knocked back by the plans — and are eager to fight them at every turn. On Wednesday, protesters young and old marched from the school gates through the streets of Highbury, brandishing banners to cries of: "We won't stop. Save our school!"
Alicia Perez, a childminder with two children at Highbury Quadrant, warned of the disruption to families' lives. She said: "Our school is closing down without notice, and it's the only secular school in the area, and they are not considering their children's wellbeing — so they just want us to pack up and go.
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"They're going to send us very far away, somewhere outside the catchment area you can't walk to. If you plan to go to work at eight o'clock, you'll now have to wake up at five in the morning.
"What they don't realise is that many parents will take it into consideration that if the school is too far away, they will just home school their children. This is really not how things should go. It's bad planning and badly thought out."
Perez said the council had not considered the impact that nearby private developments of 100 new homes, and thus more school-aged children, would have on pupil numbers.
"If you have the power to change something, change it — don't just close schools," she said.
A council spokesperson said Greater London Authority (GLA) modelling of future enrolment had accounted for the number of school-aged children living in the new developments in the future: "Across London, because of a falling birth rate and changes to the local population, pupil numbers are falling, and Islington is no exception," they said.
"Schools with fewer pupils get less government funding which risks their long-term future and the quality of education. Our top priority is to ensure the best outcomes for our children and young people, and to deliver that we need to effectively manage issues around capacity and ensure our schools are sustainable for the long term. We have worked closely with Highbury Quadrant for some time to explore alternative solutions and the proposed closure of a school is always the last option."
The school’s premises manager, Mark Gillespie, described his surprise at the announcement, saying: "A lot of people did not see this coming."
One teaching assistant, Flora, said staff had no knowledge that there was a risk of closure until children's services director Paul Senior told them the Town Hall planned to shut the school.
"I don't know what the management knew beforehand, but we were not told anything [to suggest] this was coming. We were just hit with the news." Flora has worked at Highbury Quadrant for nearly 12 years.
Another staff member whose three children had attended the school was dejected: "I don't know what to say — it's a big shock."
Gillespie also pushed back on the suggestion that the capital works needed were so significant that the school had to be shut, saying: "Yes, the building is very tired, it does need a lick of paint on the outside and some new windows here and there.
"But the major work has been done on the lights and the skylight. On the whole, the general welfare of the building is okay."
The Town Hall spokesperson said the school requires an estimated £2 million of capital investment over the next 15 years, with around £1m required by 2027. "Works have been identified across many elements of the school fabric and services including external walls, windows and doors, roofs, electrical installations, internal finishes and external areas," they said.
Gabriel Anstis, a school governor and a vicar at nearby St Augustine's Church, also joined the protest. He suggested the need for significant capital works showed Highbury Quadrant had been neglected by the council.
"It's a cumulative effect of the last few decades. The local authority needs to decide where they invest in buildings, and so that investment has to be done over over time. If there's no major investment, then obviously buildings do get tired. That's in their nature."
He praised Gillespie's efforts to maintain the school despite budget constraints. The council spokesperson added that Highbury Quadrant is projecting a worsening financial deficit up to the end of 2024/25, representing a loss of 27 per cent of its Individual Schools Budget (ISB).
Should the school close, the council said it would offer all pupils a place at a 'nearby, good Islington school'. But there are fears this will still result in the loss of high-quality provision for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
Anstis said: "As you talk to parents, you realise that staff have done an incredible job and are doing an incredible job with a whole variety of kind of children and families. I think those stories need to be important and need to be helped.
"When you understand that, you see how important it is to have a safe, secure, established school environment for children, where disruption or change has a massive impact on their life chances."
Parents and staff were due to meet with school leaders last night regarding the upcoming consultation. The plans are now in the public consultation phase, where the council gives locals the chance to share thoughts, opinions and feedback on the proposals.
The council spokesperson said: "We will consider all views put forward during the consultation period, which ends on 11 December. The executive will decide whether to proceed with the statutory process to close the school at its meeting on 13 February 2025."
Until then, those angry and scared at the prospect of Highbury Quadrant closing its doors at the end of the next school year still have hope. "We'll try our hardest to fight the proposal and see where we can go with it," said Gillespie.
"If it was a foregone conclusion, I wouldn't be here," Anstis added.
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