UPDATED: Number of pupils in Brent primary schools continues to fall - no closures at present

In common with many London boroughs the Brent primary school population has continued to fall due to a variety of factors including families having to move out of London to find affordable housing, the long-term impact of Brexit and a declining economy causing European workers to return home, and a falling birthrate.

New developments have not 'yielded' the expected number of children as the occupants are often single flat sharers or 'dinkys' (Double Income No Kids). The proposed Ark primary school next to Wembley Stadium station has been abandoned as there are spare spaces at nearby Elsley Primary.

This results in pressure on school budgets as the main finance is based on the number of pupils. Some schools have seen a steeper decline than others, with those that were expanded during the pupil 'bulge' particularly hit.  One solution has been reducing the Planned Admission Number (PAN) for such schools so they may have 2 forms for each age group rather than three - a planned reduction often involving staff restructuring.

Figures going before the Schools Forum tonight  shows a net decrease in the primary population of 448 pupils. Most badly hit is Harris Primary Academy South Kenton (formerly Byron Court Primary) with a reduction of 128 children, accelerating a trend that started before forced academisation. This is a 14% reduction and equals £564,547 At a similar percentage loss, but at the other end of school size, Carlton Vale Infants has only 38 children on roll with a loss of 10 equalling a fall of 13% and £67,319 loss.

In the secondary Catholic sector St Claudine's School for Girls (previously Convent of Jesus and Mary) has an 8% fall in pupils (78 pupils) and £583,943 loss in funding and Newman Catholic College a 7% fall (55 pupils)  and £359,141 funding loss.

Brent Council has taken action through its Primary Places Strategy and the document outlines the approach it takes to help schools in difficulty despite its own financial constraints:      

Contingencies

The proportion of schools relying heavily on reserves remains high with 43% of schools in deficit planning to use 50% or more of their reserves, compared to 42% in 2024/25. It is therefore proposed to continue to de-delegate funds to support schools in financial difficulty, however at a reduced amount of £0.150m, in line with the forecast spend in the current financial year. This would lead to a reduction in the per pupil de-delegated rate of £1.19 at £7.78 compared to £8.97 in 2025/26.

 

Schools Forum agreed in January 2024 that if in exceptional circumstances school redundancies are eligible to be funded centrally, where the funding criteria is met in line with the redundancy policy, then these will need to be found from within wider Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) funding. It was agreed that redundancies should be funded from the Schools Facing Financial Difficulties Fund (SFFDF). It is proposed to maintain this allocation at £0.3m. There is a £0.21 increase in the proposed rate for 2026/27 at £15.55 per pupil due to a fall in pupil numbers compared to the last financial year.

 FULL SCHOOL ALLOCATIONS SPREADSHEET 

At the meeting, Cllr Gwen Grahl, Lead Member,  answering Lucy Cox, representing the NEU, said that when she came into the post she was determined not to close any schools in the face of falling rolls. She could not rule out closing schools in the future but would use lots of strategies to avoid that. One of those was to locate Additional Resource Provision (ARP) for SEND pupils,  in schools with spare capacity.