The formal consultation on the amalgamation of Malorees Infant and Malorees Junion School has opened. Have Your Say. Closing date 10th June 2025

 The headteacher of the Malorees Schools has written to parents announcing that the formal consultation on the amalgamation of the Infant and Junior schools has opened:

 I am writing to inform you that the formal consultation on the proposed amalgamation of Malorees Infant and Junior Schools has now been launched.

A statutory notice has been placed on the school gates, and all relevant information can be found in the formal proposal which can be found at https://haveyoursay.brent.gov.uk.

It is really important that all parents take the opportunity to share their views on the proposed amalgamation. If you are in favour of the proposal, or not we encourage you to make that viewpoint known as all feedback, will be taken into consideration.

 

As the consultation is now in its final and formal stage, all comments must be submitted directly on the website, or by post to Brent Council. Please don’t send any comments to the school as they will not count as a formal consultation response.

 

Thank you for your support.

 

The Have Your Say webpage has the following introduction:

 

Malorees Infant and Junior Schools - Formal Consultation

 

Brent Council has launched a formal consultation regarding the amalgamation of Malorees Infant School and Malorees Junior School.

 

This would result in the schools joining together to become one primary school, known as Malorees Primary School.

 

Brent Council, working with the governing body of the two schools, is seeking your views on the proposal to amalgamate Malorees Infant and Junior Schools. This is a unique opportunity to bring two good schools, which are already federated under one governing body, together as a single educational institution. The combined school would build on the existing strengths and good practice within both schools, and over time there would be opportunities to further enhance whole school approaches to improve teaching and learning across all key stages.

 

Further information is contained in the full proposal document, linked below. Any person may object to or make comments on the proposal by clicking the 'Leave a comment' button on this page.

 

If you have any questions about the consultation, please contact Michael Rollin at MaloreesConsultation@brent.gov.uk

The closing date for the consultation is Tuesday 10th June 2025.

 

THE PROPOSAL DOCUMENT (hover your mouse over foot of page 6 and press + to enlarge)

 

 

 

 

Brent Cabinet decides to go ahead with formal consultation on Malorees amalgamation despite overwhelming opposition at informal stage

 

Despite overwhelming rejection of amalgamation at the informal consultation stage, the Brent Cabinet today approved moving ahead to a formal consultation on the merger of Malorees Infant and Junior School. The schools are in Brondesbury Park ward.

 

Patrick Martin, speaking on behalf of NEU members said that in their view an amalgamation would add nothing of benefit to the schools. They already operated as a Federation with staff teaching across the two schools with a single governing body and senior management.

Operating as a 2 form entry primary school as a result of amalgamation would result in a loss of funding of up to a annual £186,000 and this for a school already in deficit. They were being asked to agree a voluntary 5% cut in the hope of refurbishment. This would impact on the educational provision for pupils.

A previous successful bid for a multi use games area (MUGA) had been stopped when plans for a rebuild seemed to be likely.  Rebuild as an option seemed to be in doubt given the economic situation and resulting building delays and increased costs.

Gwen Grahl, lead member for schools, was unable to be physically present and was then unable to  connect online so Muhammed Butt, Council Leader, read out her statement.

 She startd by offering to meet opponents of the amalgamation and said that its advantages included access to the DfE Schools Rebuilding Programme for both the infant and junior school.

Merging the schools would provide financial resilience and a robust case had been made by the Governing Body. She acknowledged the alarm and anxiety of parents and NEU members but said there would be no redundancies or worsening of conditions of service. There was no danger of academisation as had happened at Byron Court. The merged community primary school and foundation junior school would reopen as a maintained primary school: Malorees Primary School.

Shirley Parks, Director of Education, Partnership and Strategy,  took questions in the absence of Gwen Grahl. She said that the funding reduction took account of changes in the national formula and  assumed a new building.

Changes in the local area, including the situation regarding Islamia Primary and the attraction of a new building would  mean the school roll would probably increase [funding is per pupil].  The schools were now in the active DfE rebuilding  programme for consideration between April and December this year.

There had been parental concern that because the two schools were currently separate that a small number of infants were unable to get a place in the junior school. As one school they would be guaranted a place.

The Governing Body was confident that it could manage the funding reduction over a period without impact on staff

Amalgamation would ensure that the new school would help build one community and the school would only have one Ofsted inspection [one for each part of the school at present] relieving stress on staff.

Interestingly, the documentation revealed that there was no parent governor on the Governing Body at present. This is similar to the Byron Court situation where parents were not fully represented on the governing body.

 

The extent of the land for the two schools

Cllr Muhammed Butt concluded by assuring the delegation that there were no plans to build  homes on the Malorees land. The Junior School Foundation would transfer their land to Brent Council. The situation at Kilburn Park, also a Foundation School, was different as the redesignation of the land for non-education purposes was a result of the South Kilburn regeneration.

On the issue that a 200 plus on-line petition against amalgamation had not been included in the documentation, Butt said that this was because it had not come via the usual route. It had been checked and the issues raised had been addressed in the Cabinet report.

There were no questions or comments from Cabinet members before they voted to go ahead with a one month formal consultation. 

If amalgamation goes ahead (likely whatever the outcome of the formal consultation) the combined school would open as Malorees Primary School at the beginning of Summer Term, 2026.