Transcript

Transcript

Good evening and welcome to this meeting of the Executive. Are there any apologies this evening? Apologies from Councillor Island. Councillor Island. That's understood. And any declarations of interest? Councillor Stott. Thank you, Chair. It's not a pecuniary interest but in the interest of transparency in relation to the one item that's on the agenda this evening, I wanted to declare an interest that I'm a governor of a school in the nearby area at Christchurch, which is actually in the pupil planning area. I'm a governor at Falconbrook Primary School. That's understood. Thanks very much. So we'll move on to those matters for decision. And this evening, yeah, we just have the item from Children's Committee. Councillor Stott. Thank you, Chair. There was a special meeting of Children's Committee last Thursday where we were welcomed by governors from Christchurch Primary School and also representatives from the diocese. They explained that their school has been struggling for some time in relation to falling roles. The executive will be aware that is a challenge that we're facing across the borough, just like many other London boroughs driven by the pandemic, by Brexit, by the cost of living crisis and more and more families moving out of London. And the governors explained that over a period of about three years they have been trying to deal with this problem, but unfortunately they haven't really been able to increase pupil prices to the extent that the school now has a 55% surplus places, which is well above the standard in the borough, and as a consequence of which, since November last year the governors have been consulting with the school community and the wider community about our proposed closure of the school, a committee last week heard about the consultation process and the rationale for the decision and made further enquiries of the governors as to the rationale for the decision, as I've said, and how the school engaged with the local community around this decision. A committee understood that there didn't look like there were any prospects of increasing pupil numbers, and in a situation where schools are funded on a peer-pupil basis it was clear that the governor's rationale was sound in terms of how this school was going to be funded into the future, so the committee unanimously supported the recommendation of the governors to close this school at the end of the academic year. There was then some further conversations amongst councillors in relation to next steps. There's been an assurance that all pupils will have a school in a local community. We're very satisfied that there are more than enough school places, both for pupils, including those with special educational need, and committee also heard that as a council we've also committed to supporting pupils with new school uniforms, as they are required to move school as a consequence of the closure. Thank you very much, Councillor Stock, I know it's not an easy issue to deal with, but thank you for that thorough summary. Are there any comments or questions for Councillor Stock? In which case are the decisions approved? Thank you very much, as we said, that's the only item for this evening, so thanks all very much for your time. [BLANK_AUDIO]