A Brighton primary could close if it becomes an academy, the school’s ward councillors fear.
All three councillors for Moulsecoomb and Bevendean have voiced their opposition to plans for Coombe Road Primary School to join The Pioneer Academy (TPA) trust.
The trust already runs two other schools in Brighton and Hove – Moulsecoomb Primary and West Blatchington.
The three Labour councillors are worried that the academy trust would consolidate Coombe Road and Moulsecoomb on the Moulsecoomb Primary School site to cut costs.
Councillor Amanda Evans said: “Coombe Road Primary school is performing well – two ‘good’ Ofsted ratings and rising pupil numbers. Why the need to make such a drastic change?”
Councillor Jacob Taylor, who is also the deputy leader of Brighton and Hove City Council, said: “I’m very concerned that what is actually being consulted on is the future closure of Coombe Road Primary school – by the trust consolidating on to the larger site of Moulsecoomb primary school.
“I’ve raised this with the head and chair of governors and have received no assurances whatsoever.”
Councillor Ty Goddard said: “The proposal doesn’t make much sense at this moment in time.
“Why not work with the local authority on school improvement including capital investment in the school?”
Bringing the two schools together on one site in Moulsecoomb would mean spending less money on the cost of running both including bills for electricity and water.
It would also enable the trust to cut some staffing costs including for senior leaders and back office and support staff.
Coombe Road’s governors voted to hold a consultation on joining the Pioneer Academy trust, a group of 20 primary, infant and junior schools across the south east.
The decision was said to follow “the success of the primary school’s associate membership with TPA in the autumn term”.
This provided support for the school across a wide range of areas including for children with additional needs, PE, music and staff training and development.
The formal consultation started on Monday 19 January and is due to run until Friday 27 February, with the school promising parents and others plenty of opportunity to provide views and feedback.
Following this, the Coombe Road governors, including the head teacher Stuart Scrase, will review the outcomes of the consultation process.
If the governors decided to become an academy, and subject to approval from the Department for Education, Coombe Road would be expected to join the Pioneer Academy in the next academic year.
Peter Freeman, the school’s chair of governors, said: “We are proud of Coombe Road Primary School and everything we have achieved together as a whole school community and we want to ensure that our school remains ambitious for every child.
“As a small, one-form-entry primary school, the support available to us is limited and we believe the support and resources TPA can offer as a primary-specialist MAT (multi-academy trust) will allow us to thrive and, crucially, provide the best possible learning experience for every child while upholding our values and school identity.
“We have carefully considered this proposal following our initial work with TPA and based on initial feedback from staff as well as parents. We welcome further feedback before deciding whether to apply to join TPA.”
Their party is in government, so they could address the current school funding model if they had the political will to do it, but they clearly don’t.
Absolutely agree, these concerned councillors showed no support when schools such as Coombe Road worked really hard to reduce their deficits.
Likely the school will go from strength to strength once it is an academy as they will have some external support.