High school's closure confirmed despite opposition

A half-full school is to close after three months of consultations and protests, it has been confirmed.

North Tyneside councillors unanimously approved shutting Monkseaton High School by August 2026 during a meeting on Thursday.

The authority has cited low birth rates, parental preferences for other schools and a predicted financial deficit of £7m by 2027.

The school has 511 pupils despite having capacity for 964, but people opposed to the move said there was no clarity about where their children would be taught.

The proposal had met with staunch resistance with 86% of the 228 online respondents to the most recent consultation opposing it.

The council maintained it had explored multiple options in an attempt to retain the school, including turning it into an academy, combining schools and scrapping the local three-tier system.

Describing the budget deficit as "no longer viable", North Tyneside Mayor Dame Norma Redfearn said there was "no joy in this whatsoever".

"We couldn't give a proper curriculum offer to the children to be quite honest, which is quite sad."

The council says there are sufficient spaces in other schools in the borough for children who are either from or would have gone to Monkseaton.

In addition, it has said it will support pupils with special educational needs and disabilities, including a phased approach to introducing children to their new schools and teachers.

Sophie O'Niell, who has a daughter attending Monkseaton, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service people were "angry" and "utterly exhausted".

"I just feel that perhaps not enough has been done to look for a solution to its shutting, despite the consultation and all the suggestions put forward.

"The council has done well to provide information about schools offering places, but they still haven't done it properly.

"Children in the Monkseaton area don't have a catchment school.

"She breaks up [on Friday] and the first day back they are opening the admissions procedure to pick a new school, having not seen any of them or know anything about them - it's just horrible."

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