School closure would be devastating, parents say

Parents have expressed opposition over plans to close a primary school that inspectors recently praised for nurturing pupils.

Richmond Council is proposing to close Kew Riverside Primary School, in Kew, after a drop in student numbers left the 210-capacity school with just 87 pupils. The school faces a budget deficit of £400,000 by 2028.

The council says the proposals are only at the consultation stage and that no final decision has been made, but parents gathered outside the school on Tuesday to voice their opposition:

"This is a devastating impact for us," said Iona Ferguson, who has a Year Five child with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) at the south-west London school.

"This is a community school and this is our third primary school in this borough," she added.

"When we found this school it was a gamechanger; not only does he feel loved and supported but he is thriving academically."

The leader of Richmond Council, Gareth Roberts, says every child would be offered a place at another school if Kew Riverside closed.

"Nobody wants to look at even considering schools, but we've got the falling birth rate and the government is absolutely hammering us [by] taking away 60% of our core funding," he said.

"We'd love for it to stay open but we have to look at the harsh realities."

A Department for Education spokesperson said "every child deserves a great school place close to home," and that the government was "taking action to shape the future of our schools system".

They went on to say that the government had increased the core schools budget by £2.3bn and increased funding for SEND provision by £3.7bn.

Priscilla Smith, who has a child in Year Three, described the school as a "close-knit community".

"It's not only about the place where the kids are thriving, but they feel accepted."

Smith is among a group of parents working to prove that the school can attract new students and become financially viable.

Both parents acknowledge the council's financial position but are urging it to consider the impact of any closure.

"We want reassurance that this is a fair process and the reassurance that this is not a done deal," Smith said.

"We have only a few weeks to not only challenge the process, but also come up with a proposal."

"I think the council hasn't thought this through, they haven't realised the repercussions on these families who will be ripped out of the heart of these communities," said Ferguson.

"To be moved into another school is a hugely disruptive position for any child but even more so for SEND children."

Roberts said the council was willing to listen to parents but that more students were needed to secure the school's funding.

Kew Riverside would be the latest in a list of London primary schools that have closed in recent years.

Primary school numbers are declining nationally but the fall is sharpest in the capital, where the cost of living plays a more significant role in forcing families to look elsewhere.

"In London, primary pupil numbers started falling earlier than elsewhere in the UK," according to Freddie Whittaker, who is editor of education newspaper Schools Week.

"Initially, you saw people moving out of the inner London boroughs, like Lambeth, which has the highest number of surplus [primary] school places right now.

"Now, you are starting to see the ramifications in outer London boroughs, where people are moving out of the capital because they can't afford to live there."

Schools receive funding for each pupil, so every empty desk has an impact on its viability.

"If you lose five pupils from a class, you lose five pupils' worth of money from the school budget and you still need a teacher for that class, and that costs the same," said Whittaker.

Whittaker believes that secondary schools could also face the same problems as smaller year groups make their way through the school system.

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