'Lessons learned' after school closure U-turn

A council has said it will learn lessons after it was forced to reverse its plan to close a primary school.

Leeds City Council had intended to shut Queensway Primary, in Yeadon, after saying a decline in pupil numbers and financial pressures had put its long-term sustainability at risk.

However, the authority was forced to shelve the plan after parents launched a legal challenge over the way a consultation was carried out ahead of the decision.

Now a set of recommendations to improve future school consultations have been published in a "lessons learned" report by the council.

The report found that parents, school staff and councillors felt the consultation period was not long enough, although meetings were held in the run-up to the decision.

It also said the plan had caused "stress and upset for children, their families and the wider community", particularly as they faced a similar closure threat in 2022.

It added that it had also caused concern over the welfare of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

At a children and families meeting earlier, Otley & Yeadon councillor Ryk Downes said: "Parents were coming to me saying they couldn't find alternative places for their children based on their SEND needs.

"We have got to sort out the problem of pupil numbers in Aireborough but at the moment the solution isn't there."

Councillors were told that a wider "area-based" approach to the decline in pupil numbers would be taken moving forward.

Headteacher Mark Duce, who has been at the school for four years, announced last week he and other staff had taken the difficult decision to leave the school due to a "lack of clarity provided regarding the long-term future of Queensway".

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