Falling pupil numbers and the cost-of-living crisis saw Southwark’s nurseries take a hit last year, but parents and staff were not giving up without a fight.
In Southwark it began with the closure of two nurseries in Borough – Banana Moon and Bright Horizons, both due to rising operational costs that meant staying open would be ‘unsustainable.’
Another two nurseries faced disasters of their own and their futures currently hang in the balance.
The first was Kintore Way Nursery School, which has been serving under-fives since 1939 and currently owes £450,000 to the council.
To curb the debt, the headteacher was forced to propose job cuts meaning the support workers would reduce from eleven to three.
Nearly half of their pupils have special educational needs (SEN), so the main concern by parents was the risk to their kids’ safety due to these staff cuts. Parents with kids with needs also told us that this was ‘the only nursery’ they could send them, so they needed to be able to rely on it.
This year Southwark UNISON led the campaign to save the jobs at Kintore and protested for the council to save the outstanding-rated nursery. Their petition reached over 1,800 signatures and the parents and staff rallied to discuss the effects of the redundancies if they were to go ahead.
When we asked the council they said no decisions had yet been made, but they were doing ‘everything they could’ to support the nursery.
In terms of the reasons behind the debt, Kintore Way is unique in the sense that although it is a mainstream nursery, the number of children with SEN means it requires funding it isn’t currently getting.
Funding for students with an Educational Health and Care Plan (EHCP) sometimes bypasses nursery schools and goes directly to their primary schools when they transition, without any backdated payments to the nursery.
In UNISON’s campaign, they were asking for Kintore Way to become a resource-based school, which would backdate EHCP funding and help recover costs, ensuring the nursery’s financial stability and continued support for SEN children.
Also in a ‘significant deficit’ is Ann Bernadt in Peckham and if nothing changes, it will be forced to close next year.
In September 2023, Ann Bernadt saw pupil numbers fall from 123 (in 2016/17) to 45. Schools receive funding on a per pupil basis meaning Ann Bernadt was plunged into a £300,000 deficit, up from £100,000 in 2021/22.
Southwark’s birth rate has fallen by 33 per cent since 2012 – equivalent to around 1,650 childbirths – and in Peckham and Nunhead the fall is 35 per cent. This has had a far-reaching impact on schools’ financial viability across the borough.
But as well as nurseries, plummeting pupil admissions proved most severe for Southwark’s primary schools.
Townsend Primary School in Walworth closed its doors in the summer as did St Francesca Cabrini Primary School in Honor Oak.
Meanwhile, Cobourg Primary School merged with Camelot Primary School and St Jude’s is consulting on a merger with Charlotte Sharman Primary School.
The council did announce that plans were ‘already underway’ to repurpose closed primary school buildings for children with SEN, so we will be following this up in the new year to see what happens.