Southwark schools in financial difficulty - Dog Kennel Hill?

[motorbird83]

Schools can't run at a deficit. A school in financial trouble will have to cut staff, the extracurricular offering, learning support and / or be at risk of closure. None of that is good for pupils or staff who risk being made redundant.

mrwb Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Good for the kids and teachers if not for the

> schools finances!

>

> oliviaandmilo Wrote:

> --------------------------------------------------

> -----

> > Currently class sizes have become smaller in

> > London as the bulge classes put in place 10/12

> yrs

> > ago can't remember exactly! Means since then

> the

> > birth numbers have dropped and after extra

> schools

> > were built at the time of growth they now find

> > they are in a situation where schools are

> closing

> > and class sizes are getting smaller in state

> > schools! Some yr groups have as little as 16

> > children.

[motorbird83]

Schools can't run at a deficit. A school in financial trouble will have to cut staff, the extracurricular offering, learning support and / or be at risk of closure. None of that is good for pupils or staff who risk being made redundant.

mrwb Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Good for the kids and teachers if not for the

> schools finances!

>

> oliviaandmilo Wrote:

> --------------------------------------------------

> -----

> > Currently class sizes have become smaller in

> > London as the bulge classes put in place 10/12

> yrs

> > ago can't remember exactly! Means since then

> the

> > birth numbers have dropped and after extra

> schools

> > were built at the time of growth they now find

> > they are in a situation where schools are

> closing

> > and class sizes are getting smaller in state

> > schools! Some yr groups have as little as 16

> > children.

[legalalien]

Latest on primary school roll numbers- council consulting on closure of Townsend Primary in Walworth(near the Elephant):

"We have seen a fall of 2,161 primary pupils (9%) over

the last five years. Approximately 5,184 primary places - 20% of the total

are currently unfilled. This is despite the Council also removing 500 Year

R to 6 places since 2019 (2%). The spare capacity represents 12 empty

2FE schools.

7. Surplus capacity is particularly acute in the Council?s school place

planning area 1 (PA1), which covers the Borough, Bankside and

Walworth areas and has seen the biggest growth in surplus places in the

borough. Presently, there are 196 reception places surplus in this area -

25% of all available reception places, some way above the borough

average of 17%. Overall, Year R to 6 vacancies total 1,507 places, also

around 25% of available places in schools."

And this general statement around risk:

"There is a much greater risk that, without further action, there would not

be sufficient funding to provide an appropriate curriculum if we are unable

to close loss-making schools. This makes taking decisive and timely

action all the more important. The closure would mean that staff would

potentially need to be made redundant, and that this could create costs

for this in the short term. However, every year that the Council fails to

address these issues adds to the debt burden that Southwark risks, which

then limits our scope for further action. Running out of money to fund

schools, or school closing due to lack of viability poses an enormous

reputational risk to Southwark, which, up till now, has been seen as an

efficient and effective local authority with schools scoring above the

national average, and with over 94% ranked as Ofsted "good" or

"outstanding"."

There seems to be some concern about the risk that the SoS for Education might try and reallocate the site to a new free school, thereby negating the effect of the closure (not sure why that would happen - assume this suggests a strategy to get rid of LA schools and replace them with free schools? Is that part of what has happened here ie academy schools sucking pupils out of LA schools?)

Link to report here: https://moderngov.southwark.gov.uk/documents/s103606/Report.pdf. Interesting read.

I guess if there are other schools being lined up for closure we will hear about it soon, as there's a statutory process to go through and the report suggests it needs to start now to enable closure before September 2022.

On the bright side,the report does note that less pupils has a small positive climate change benefit:

"As explained above, the falling numbers of

pupils is likely, if anything, to have a net positive effect (albeit small) on

climate change, as less pupils attend school and are therefore transported

by car or other forms of transport."

[legalalien]

No details yet but council are applying to reduce the intakes at Ilderton, Dog Kennel Hill, Coburg and English Martyrs.

https://moderngov.southwark.gov.uk/mgIssueHistoryHome.aspx?IId=50028068

ETA here is the report

https://moderngov.southwark.gov.uk/documents/s103860/Report%20-%20Variation%20to%20Published%20Admissions%20Numbers.pdf

Of the various areas Dulwich has the lowest level of overcapacity with 29 surplus primary places this year.

[legalalien]

Update - schools admission arrangements are on the agenda for next weeks Cabinet meeting and looks as though they are now also consulting to reduce the reception admission number at Ivydale from 90 to 60.

https://moderngov.southwark.gov.uk/documents/s104236/Report%20Admission%20Arrangements%20for%20Community%20Primary%20Schools%202023.pdf

ETA: seems the situation with Ivydale is fast moving.

this article on 7 Jan suggests the reduction in intake and a move back to a single site is proposed; followed by a petition launched by the local Labour councillor, and a denial from the cabinet member that the reduction is happening

https://londonnewsonline.co.uk/new-nunhead-school-building-to-close-four-years-after-it-was-opened/

Then today Southwark News reporting a Uturn and the fact that the report prepared for Cabinet will be "urgently updated".

https://www.southwarknews.co.uk/news/ivydale-nunhead-school-not-considering-cutting-intake-in-southwark-council-u-turn/

The documents on the website appear to have been updated from the ones I linked this morning - the link is no longer working and the replacement documents don't refer to Ivydale.

[legalalien]

Just to add, here is a link to the petition. Given it was started by the local ward councillor, it's difficult to accept that there weren't serious plans in place to reduce intake and switch sites. I see that Cllr Hamvas signed it as well.

https://www.change.org/p/keep-ivydale-school-as-a-2-site-school

[legalalien]

Interesting discussion around the oversupply of primary spaces at Cabinet this week - listen to the council officer from 37 mins onward. The situation with the reduction in numbers at a few schools now is only the beginning, it seems - there will be more mergers, closures, reductions in intakes.

That said, at this stage Dulwich is not where the capacity problems are most acute.

[legalalien]

Council is consulting to close Townsend Primary in Walworth - this is what the process looks like

https://townsendprimary.co.uk/

Quite stressful for all concerned.

As mentioned upthread, the schools in the Dulwich planning area are generally oversubscribed(compared to the Elephant area where there has been significant demographic change due to development) but there are some eg DKH, Ivydale which seem to be on the council?s watchlist.