Proposed school changes 2024

Proposed changes to Hackney primary schools

Note: this page is for information purposes only. For the latest details about the project and next steps please visit the page listing the agenda and decisions of the January 2025 Cabinet meeting (items 11-14 on the agenda).

On 27 January 2025, the Council’s Cabinet decided to proceed to publishing statutory proposals on changes to six Hackney primary schools.

A 28-day representation period begins on 6 February 2025. 

Any person may object to or make comments on the proposals within four weeks of the date of their publication by:

• visiting the website
• emailing school.sufficiency@hackney.gov.uk
• writing to: 
  School Sufficiency and Estates Team
  Hackney Council
  Hackney Service Centre
  1 Hillman Street
  London, E8 1DY

The last date for receiving responses is 5 March 2025 at 5pm.

The proposals can be accessed in full on the Council's consultation website from 6 February 2025 and include:

• Closing St Mary’s Church of England Primary School
• Closing St Dominic’s Catholic Primary School
• Closing Oldhill Community School and merging its pupils with those from nearby Harrington Hill Primary School
• Closing Sir Thomas Abney Primary School and merging its pupils with those from nearby Holmleigh Primary School
• Enlarging Harrington Hill Primary School from one to two forms of entry and adding the special educational provision that was previously offered at Oldhill
• Enlarging Holmleigh Primary School from one to two forms of entry and adding the special educational provision that was previously offered at Sir Thomas Abney. Holmleigh would move to the current site of Sir Thomas Abney, which is large enough to accommodate the children from both schools. 

Final decisions will be made by the Council’s Cabinet in April 2025. If the decision is to proceed, the proposed changes would take effect on 31 August 2025.

Why are the proposals needed?

In recent years the majority of London boroughs, including Hackney, have been experiencing a significant fall in pupil numbers. The reasons behind this are thought to include lower birth rates, the cap on housing benefits, and families leaving London (as a result of the housing crisis, the cost of living, Brexit, and the pandemic). 

Schools receive money from central government based on the number of pupils. This means that schools with a high number of unfilled places have less money for staff, resources, equipment, extracurricular activities, to pay bills and to carry out maintenance work. 

While our schools are recognised for their high performance and excellent results, they face significant challenges due to the reduced government funding caused by the falling rolls. Many schools have already told us that this is affecting their ability to fully support their pupils, especially those with the greatest needs.

We know that our schools have close ties to the local area and communities, sometimes over many generations. This makes these proposals very difficult, and not something we would choose if we felt there was a better option. 

What is a merger?

A merger (also known as ‘amalgamation’) brings together the children from two or more schools in one enlarged school - on one site and under a single leadership. 

Merging schools can bring significant benefits, including:

• Establishing a stronger, more durable single school, that is better equipped to respond to the needs of children and staff and to continue to improve
• More specialist expertise from a wider teaching team
• Stronger finances
• More resources to provide extended services to local families, such as breakfast and afterschool clubs

Snapshot - Hackney 2024

• 54 local primary schools
• 2,400 fewer primary school children in January 2024 compared to January 2017
• 2,700 further projected decrease in the number of pupils by the early 2030s
• 2,675 reception places in Hackney in 2024/2025
• 610 (23%) vacant reception places in October 2024 
• 4,855 (24%) vacant places across all year groups in October 2024
• Over £28.5m less funding received by local primary schools compared to what they would be entitled to if their classrooms were full
• 5-10%: a healthy amount of unfilled school places (compared to Hackney’s 21%)

The evolution of unfilled reception places in Hackney

In the last school year, following the statutory process laid down by the Department of Education, Hackney Council made the difficult decision to close four primary schools due to the decrease in the number of pupils. The four schools closed permanently on 31 August 2024.

These closures, together with reductions to the planned admission numbers to other schools across the borough, are expected to reduce the percentage of empty school places to 18% by 2025/2026. This is still far above the healthy surplus of 5-10%. 

School leaders, the Council and its partners have been doing everything they can to manage the situation, including reducing the admission number to a half form of entry, combining age groups, undertaking staff restructures and trying to supplement the schools’ budgets. But this hasn’t solved the problem as rolls and funding continue to fall.

Like many other local authorities, Hackney Council is facing enormous financial challenges, and needs to make substantial savings to be able to continue to protect the borough’s most vulnerable residents. The Council cannot afford to maintain schools that are not financially sustainable, and must continue to make difficult decisions to make sure our schools are fit for the future, and to protect the high quality education that Hackney is known for. 

What will happen next?

Any person may object to or make comments on the statutory proposals within four weeks of the date of their publication online, by email, or in writing.

The last date for receiving responses is 5 March 2025 at 5pm.

A final decision would be made by the Council’s Cabinet in April 2025. If the decision is to proceed, the proposed changes would take effect on 31 August 2025.

We will continue to work together with school leaders, the Dioceses, and all other partners to support children, families, staff and communities through the next steps. We will continue to do all we can to protect the education and wellbeing of all those affected.

Proposed timeline

More details about the proposals can be found in the latest Cabinet reports on the Hackney Council website (items 11-14 on the agenda). 

What happened so far

In the Autumn of 2024, the Council consulted on proposals to close four schools in the borough: St Mary’s Primary School, St Dominic’s Catholic Primary School, Oldhill Community School and Sir Thomas Abney Primary School. The consultation also sought views on the option of merging the pupils from Oldhill Community School with the pupils from Harrington Hill Primary School after the closure of Oldhill, and the option of merging the pupils from Sir Thomas Abney Primary School with the pupils from Holmleigh Primary School after the closure of Sir Thomas Abney, with Holmleigh moving to the current site of Sir Thomas Abney, which can fit all the children from both schools.

The Council has offered the affected schools information to provide to parents and carers from the beginning of the process, via information packs sent to the schools.

• St Mary's Primary School Information Pack
• St Dominic's Catholic Primary School Information Pack
• Sir Thomas Abney Primary School Information Pack
• Holmleigh Primary School Information Pack
• Oldhill Community School Information Pack
• Harrington Hill Primary School Information Pack

Parents and carers, staff, and all others interested were able to share their views on the proposals, as part of the consultation that took place in October-November 2024. At the end of the consultation period, a total of 369 responses had been received for all the proposals. Read the full proposals and the final report on the results of the consultation. 

The feedback gathered during the consultation, together with other influencing factors and available data, has informed the final proposals included in the January 2025 Cabinet reports. 

Families were able to take part in consultation meetings organised for the schools in scope during the consultation process.

On 27 January 2025 the Council’s Cabinet decided to proceed to the next step with closure and or merger proposals in the proposed changes affecting six Hackney primary schools.

Statutory proposals were published on 6 February 2025, here. This marked the start of a four-week representation period.

Headteachers of the schools in scope have been provided with regular updates and information from the Council to share with parents / carers and members of staff. 

Further updates will be published at key stages in the process.