‘It’s like a family’: Worried parents urge council to bin plan to close ‘unique’ primary school

Pooles Park parents. Photograph: Julia Gregory

Concerned parents have spoken out about a “family-like” school as they try to prevent it from being closed down.

Pooles Park primary in Finsbury Park is the latest London school whose future is at risk because of falling pupil numbers.

Council bosses blame a declining birth rate, the Brexit effect, and the lack of affordable homes for pushing young couples out of the capital.

Just a few streets away from the childhood home of famed war photographer Don McCullin, parents have a different fight on their hands.

They have so far collected 133 signatures in support of their campaign and are urging the wider community to help.

The nine council-run primaries in the area have 107 empty reception places this year – out of an available 465.

There are 20 children in reception at Pooles Park, compared with 32 in 2019.

The council said the school is losing money because government funding is calculated on a per-pupil basis, and this will affect staffing costs and maintenance.

However, parents said their children are happy at Pooles Park, despite its recent inadequate rating from Ofsted.

The report was challenged by the school pre-publication but the education watchdog said the case is closed.

The Ofsted verdict triggered the Department of Education’s invitation to academy trusts to put in a bid to take over the school.

Some parents said they might welcome this but it would not solve the problem of having fewer children.

Paul Levy-Adophy said: “It’s like a family, there’s something unique about the school.”

He visited 12 schools before selecting Pooles Park and praised the progress his son with special needs has made.

He likes the pastoral care on offer and the community garden.

Sophia Iannou from Plant Environment works with the children in the garden and said it is an amazing asset: “Children find peace in the garden.”

She said it calms children down and she notices a difference in behaviour compared with other schools where she works.

Parents said the impact of nature helps children with special needs.

They suggested to the council that it should consider moving another school to the site to benefit from the garden. Education bosses pledged to do everything they can to maintain it.

Levy-Adophy said if the Pooles Park children have to move, “they are are going to go to a typical concrete jungle”.

After the current pre-consultation stage closes on 5 June, the council’s executive could decide to start a four-week formal consultation.

If they opt to close the school at a meeting in September, it will open its doors for the last time in December.

The Department for Education is also likely to make a decision over bids from academies – believed to be three – around the same time in June.

Parents said it means they have to wait and see rather than vote with their feet and look at other schools.

Council bosses stressed they would work hard to support families and pupils, saying it is a possibility that friendship and year groups are able to move together.

Executive member for education Michelline Ngongo told a public meeting: “We do not want to close a school.”

She wrote to the government to ask for more funding for schools but the request was unsuccessful.