Manchester Creative Studio School faces closure

A studio school in Manchester plagued with financial and performance problems since it opened in 2014 faces closure after the schools commissioner said turning it around would be a “challenging task” for any new sponsor.

The regional schools commissioner, Vicky Beer, has written to everyone involved with the Manchester Creative Studio to inform them of a consultation on whether it should be closed or passed to another sponsor, according to the Manchester Evening News.

However, Beer said in the letter that making the school viable would be “challenging” for any academy chain that took it on, and the school now says the option of closure is being “strongly considered”. If closed, it will be the eighteenth studio school to shut, leaving just 34 open.

The school has significant financial challenges and the reality is that, without considerable support from outside bodies, it is unable to deliver on its educational aspirations

An original plan was made to rebroker the school and its sister institution, the Collective Spirit free school in Oldham, in January, after Manchester Creative Studio was handed a financial notice to improve and Collective Spirit was placed in special measures.

But Collective Spirit closed in the summer and the Manchester Creative Studio, which is also in special measures, deliberately avoided taking on new pupils in September, in preparation for a potential closure at the end of the academic year.

Both free schools were founded by Raja Miah, the former charity head who won an MBE for his social integration work in 2004.

The school has received support from another chain, the Laurus Trust, for the past six months, and claims to have made some progress in strengthening its position.

However, Martin Shevill, who took over as chair of the school’s board in July, said it had become “increasingly clear” that the school “does not have the capacity and resources to continue this trajectory over a sustained period of time”.

“The school has significant financial challenges and the reality is that, without considerable support from outside bodies, it is unable to deliver on its educational aspirations,” he said.

“The option that is being strongly considered is that the school will close at the end of this academic year.”

In a letter from Beer, seen by the Manchester Evening News, the commissioner said the school would need a new sponsor “that could reverse its falling pupil numbers to make it financially viable”.

“The difficulties in securing the necessary viability would be a challenging task for any trust in the school’s current circumstances,” the RSC wrote.

“We have therefore decided to consider the possibility of closure of the school, subject to conducting a ‘listening period’ to gather views on the proposed closure.”

The Manchester Creative Studio is not the first institution of its kind to run into problems.

Studio schools are specialist 14-to-19 institutions with a vocational focus. They have been backed with significant investment from the government, but in many cases have struggled to recruit the necessary number of pupils to be financially viable.

Since the project’s inception, 17 studio schools have closed, leaving just 35 open nationwide.

The rate of closure has reportedly caused unease at the Department for Education, and Schools Week revealed earlier this year that the former academies minister Lord Nash met with officials from the programme to discuss a review of the model’s concept.

Meeting records show that Nash met the Studio Schools Trust (SST) in March, with the purpose of the meeting listed as being “to review the concept of studio schools”.

However, after being approached by Schools Week, SST’s chief executive David Nicoll denied the concept of studio schools was even discussed at the meeting.