South London borough loses 4th school in 2 years as families leave London and demand plummets

The fourth Southwark school in two years will shut its doors due to a drop in demand for places. Councillors rubber stamped the closure of Comber Grove Primary School in Camberwell at a cabinet meeting on Monday (June 17).

Labour-led Southwark Council took the decision to close the school after falling pupil numbers left the school with 100 spaces to fill. If the school on Comber Grove had remained open, 42 per cent of places would have been empty.

Southwark, like other inner London boroughs, is suffering from a crisis of falling pupil numbers and has identified at least 16 schools at risk of closure. The capital is predicted to experience a fall in demand of about 7,900 places for the first years of primary and secondary over the next four years.

Last year, Coburg Primary School in Walworth closed and merged with Camelot Primary School. Townsend Primary School, also in Walworth, closed its doors at the end of the 2023/24 academic year. A third school in the borough, St Francesca Cabrini Primary School in Forest Hill, shut at the end of the 2022 school year.

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Councillor Jasmine Ali, cabinet member for education, said Southwark was suffering from a 'demographic toxic shock' due to the plummeting number of school-age kids in the borough. She said: "It started with the issue of Brexit and as we've seen, the increase in house prices, the dramatic fall in birth rate, means we just don't have enough children to fill our schools. Last year we had 30 per cent of families leaving London. Today it's 35 per cent."

Neither the head teacher, chair of governors nor any parents from the school attended the cabinet meeting at the council's Tooley Street headquarters where the closure was approved. Cllr Ali said their absence didn't mean they hadn't been 'completely engaged' by the council about the proposals. Parents had previously set up a petition against the school's closure and held a rally opposing the plans outside the council's offices.

The council said all pupils at Comber Grove Primary School will be able to secure a place at a good or outstanding local school. A decision on the future of the school building has yet to be made.

Cllr Kieron Williams, leader of Southwark Council, said: "Obviously it's something we take very seriously. The proposal, we take it with a very heavy heart. We've seen a large reduction in the number of young children in our city over recent years and that's led to us having more primary school places than we needed. I know the team has been working very hard to ensure we keep all of our schools strong and to work out the best way to do that. These proposals are part of that work."

Got a story? Email robert.firth@reachplc.com.

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