Fall in school rolls forces closure of two schools

Two primary schools in south London are set to close amid a declining birth rate and families leaving the capital.

Southwark Council has said it has made the "difficult" decision to shut down Charlotte Sharman Primary School in Elephant and Castle and St Mary Magdalene Church of England Primary School in Peckham at the end of August despite efforts by campaigners to keep them open.

Once closed, this will mean eight schools will have shut down in the borough since 2022 the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

The board of governors at each school have appealed to the council to come up with solutions to keep them open.

The council leadership agreed to the closures at a meeting on Tuesday in line with recommendations made in a report.

Council leader Kieron Williams said: "The two decisions that we have got to contemplate this morning as cabinet I know are very difficult ones for people who are very attached to their schools as I am to my children's schools, so we understand they are very sensitive decisions and difficult ones to work through."

There were talks to merge Charlotte Sharman and another school called St Jude's Primary however this plan fell through and Charlotte Sharman continued to struggle financially.

An online petition to save the school from closure which has received more than 1,000 signatures has accused Southwark Council of not fully exploring other options such as merging with another school, securing additional funding or increasing enrolment outreach.

David Workman, chair of governors at Charlotte Sharman, told cabinet members: "Since last year we have been engaging willingly and effectively with the local authority to look at our financial situation and try and put mitigations in place.

"There are alternative options we have put forward and to not give us the time to act more decisively and creatively after those two lengthy processes which have taken our bandwidth as it were, is to possibly neglect what might be possible in terms of preserving the school community."

Sonia Phippard, chair of governors at the St Mary Magdalene school, said it had served the community for 170 years and that the council's decision marked a "very, very sad day".

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