A High Court bid to overturn the government’s decision to academise a struggling school earmarked for closure because of falling rolls has been dismissed.
Islington council launched a judicial review to revoke an academy order placed on a school that it wanted to close amid viability concerns due to the plunging number of youngsters in the area.
But High Court judge Mr Justice Choudhury has thrown out the appeal, bringing the issue of the “lack of control” local authorities have to close academies into focus again.
Council bosses have also said the decision has “forced us to close a high-performing school nearby” instead.
Legal expert and Stone King partner Graham Burns said: “The current dual system of maintained schools and academies has a complex web of dispersed responsibilities between local authorities, maintained schools and academy trusts.
“A major issue for local authorities in managing pupil places, at a time when there is a stark decline in birth rates, is their lack of control over closing academies or at least reducing them in size.”
Pooles Park school, in north London, was given an academy order in February last year after an ‘inadequate’ Ofsted. This made it the only school in the borough not to have a ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ rating.
Two months later, Islington council launched a consultation to close the primary, saying it was “the most acutely impacted by falling rolls” in Hornsey, the area in which it is based.
It also reasoned that keeping it open would force the authority to “close another ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ local school”.
High Court appeal over academy order
However, London regional director Claire Burton greenlit plans for the school to join the Bridge Multi-Academy Trust. The Department for Education later refused Islington’s pleas to revoke the academy order, leading to the judicial review.
Former national schools commissioner Sir David Carter previously described the case as a “good example of the conflict that can exist between local governance and the role of the DfE in the academy sector”.
Newly released High Court papers show that during a meeting involving department and council officials, Islington suggested “the decision [for the school to join Bridge MAT] was a ‘political decision in support of academisation’”.
The authority also undertook its own analysis of the trusts interested in taking on Pooles Park, which found none had “a credible growth plan” that would support its “educational and financial viability”.
Burton described this as an “unusual step”, according to the papers, as it was not something that councils usually carry out. In her view, the fact that two trusts had shown a keen interest in taking on the school was “significant”.
Choudhury found “no sign that the decision was driven by political concerns”. He also concluded that “none of the grounds for seeking judicial review succeeds”, noting that “one of the purposes of academisation is to address the ‘inadequate’ Ofsted”.
‘Forced’ to close good school
Cllr Michelline Safi-Ngongo, Islington’s executive member for children, said the authority is “disappointed in the court’s decision”.
It still believes that “closing Pooles Park and moving pupils sensitively” to neighbouring primaries would have been “in the best interests of its children and families”.
The DfE’s decision has also “forced us to close a high-performing school nearby”, she added. Safi-Ngongo was referring to proposals, approved in April, for Montem and Duncombe primary schools to amalgamate.
The changes, which will come into effect at the end of this summer, mean the council will “discontinue” Montem, with its pupils transferred to the other site.
Council documents stated two schools – including Pooles Park – have higher vacancy rates than the two set to merge. However, they are either “converting to an academy” or already in a trust, so “we do not have the power to close or alter” them.
Bridge intends to run Pooles Park on a “shared resource model” with another academy which means they will share a senior leadership team and other resources. Both will also formally reduce their intake of mainstream pupils to one form of entry.
Leaders have said specialist SEND provision will be made available at Pooles Park for those unable “to attend local special schools as they are full”. This will run alongside its mainstream provision.
‘Uneasy truce may come to end’
Dr Penny Barratt, the MAT’s CEO, said the school is “now able to proceed and join” her trust, which has worked with the primary “on a range of school improvement activities for the last year”.
The row comes as the new government plans to introduce a “children’s wellbeing bill” in the next year.
Among other things, the legislation will require all schools to cooperate with local authorities on school admissions, SEND inclusion, and place planning.
Burns believes this means that the “current uneasy truce” between councils and trusts “may be coming to an end”.
“The academy sector will be concerned about the potential erosion of their autonomy and the threat of greater interference from local authorities.”
Your thoughts