‘It might not be over’: Islington families keep up the fight following school closures

Highbury Quadrant parents were joined by local MP Jeremy Corbyn outside their school. Photograph: courtesy Alicia Perez

Islington families say they are not giving up the fight to halt the imminent closure of their primary school, as local politicians this week launched a failed bid to ‘call in’ the council’s decision.

After months of consultation and public argument, last Thursday (24 April) the Town Hall confirmed it would shut Highbury Quadrant and St Jude & St Paul’s schools this summer due to collapsing pupil numbers and creaking finances.

The council said both school were no longer financially viable, with the former “more than half empty” and operating with a deficit that would be approaching £1m by the end of 2026/27.

But some parents and school staff are adamant the decision was based on flawed data and assumption, and that a judicial review was “definitely on the table”.

This could mean a judge ends up deciding whether the Town Hall’s decision was lawful.

Highbury Quadrant parents told the Citizen the council could be in breach of equalities law for “indirect discrimination” against the schools’ majority Muslim population.

Resident Fung Wah Man suggested this meant the campaign to halt the closures “might not be over”.

He pointed to school data, passed to the parents in November, which showed almost three quarters (73 per cent) of pupils’ families were Muslim – indicating a “structural misalignment”.

“Seventy-three per cent shows that the school is secular, but the pupils are a majority protected characteristic,” he said.

“How does the closure, in an area where 57 per cent of places are reserved for Christian faith schools, in any way, shape, or form consider the legal duty to protect them?”

Others also accused the council of “misleading” the public by saying alternative schools are within 1.2km, even though actual data shows the options slightly exceed this.

Highbury Quadrant’s caretaker, Mark Gillespie, joined the chorus of sceptical parents.

He argued the council’s assessment – that the premises needed £2m in investment to make it “optimally fit for purpose” – was contradicted by a building survey that found the school to be “generally in satisfactory condition”.

The Citizen put these claims to the council but was told that the local authority would not be adding any further comment.

The Town Hall’s equalities impact report on the closures stated: “We are not clear on the information governance on the data collection, therefore we are not able to rely on the statistic [of 73 per cent] with any degree of certainty.”

The council added it would work with Highbury Quadrant to “undertake activities designed to facilitate community bonds, considering protected characteristics of the families and pupils impacted, and to run more targeted and tailored sessions as required”.

In a statement, council leader Una O’Halloran said school closures were “always an absolute last resort”.

“We’ve listened really carefully to all of the feedback and suggestions from teachers, parents, carers, and children to save these schools.”

Meanwhile, these parents were dealt a fresh blow yesterday after opposition councillors’ move to ‘call in’ the decision was rejected, to the surprise of residents, the opposition and even Labour councillors.

The Citizen understands the Green and Independent groups on Tuesday had used this mechanism, designed to formally request scrutiny of cabinet decisions, confident that this ask was valid given that a call-in was accepted for the Montem Primary School closure in 2024.

Leader of the opposition, Cllr Benali Hamdache (Green, Highbury) told the Citizen: “To us it feels like goal posts have shifted. Our call-in for Montem was accepted, but this call-in was rejected.

“We need urgent clarity on the threshold for scrutiny, as for too long the one party state in Labour has gone unchallenged.”

The Citizen can also report that Cllr Paul Convery (Labour, Caledonian) found the monitoring officer’s decision “very odd”.

Parent Alicia Perez said she and others were counting on the call-in to bolster their legal challenge, but they still had people interested in taking up the case.

“We just need to figure out the financial side,” she said.

“Once that’s sorted, a judicial review is definitely on the table.”

An Islington Council spokesperson said the application for a call-in was received by the deadline and given “full consideration” by the Town Hall’s deputy monitoring officer.

“Every application is evaluated on its individual merits, and on this occasion the criteria for call-in, as set out in the constitution, were not met and the application was refused,” they said.

“In April, the cross-party Constitution Working Group, which includes members of the audit and risk committee, considered the criteria for call-in.

“The group decided it was fit for purpose, and no changes were made.”

Cllr Convery and the Greens’ councillor Cllr Caroline Russell (Highbury) are both members of the audit and risk committee, but it is not known whether they attended the working group.