Agenda item

Recommendation – That the Executive resolves that:

i.    the issues listed in section 9 of the report have been satisfied and there can be a determination of the proposals.

ii.   That the following proposals be determined:

a)  To cease to maintain Skelton Newby Hall CE VC Primary School with effect from 31 August 2023.

b) To extend the catchment area of Kirby Hill CE VC Primary School with effect from 1 September 2023 to include the area currently served by Skelton Newby Hall CE VC Primary School.

Considered – a report of the Corporate Director for Children & Young People’s Service seeking determination of the proposal to cease to maintain Skelton Newby Hall Church of England, Voluntary Controlled Primary School with effect from 31 August 2023, together with the future arrangements for the School’s current catchment area.

Councillor Annabel Wilkinson introduced the report and provided a brief background to the issues affecting the school that had resulted in the proposal to close the school.

It was noted that a public submission had been received from Mr Guy Critchlow, Chair of Skelton cum Newby Parish Council, as follows:

“Thank you again for the opportunity to share a statement from the community of Skelton on Ure.

I would like to remind us of the start point when considering the closure of a rural school as per the Government guidance issued in January this year. The Government “expects all decision makers to adopt a presumption against the closure of rural schools … the case for closure should be strong and clearly in the best interests of educational provision in the area.”

I want to address North Yorkshire Council’s two key justifications for closing our school.

Pupil Capacity - Whilst the national picture is for a declining number of primary school pupils over the next five years, decisions must be based on the local picture. Within five miles of our school there are 800 new houses under construction which are targeting young families, with planning permissions in place for more. Boroughbridge Community Primary School is at capacity, noted by the Chair of Governors in his submission to the consultation. Roecliffe Primary School is close to capacity and over-subscribed in the early years, and Kirby Hill Primary School already exceeds the Council’s projection for 2025. On this basis alone, we would argue that the Government test for closure of a rural school is not met.

Lack of pupils in Skelton – The Council also argues there are no pupils at Skelton Newby Hall. Context is important here. This is not a natural state of affairs. The reason there are currently no pupils at the school is the combined result of the failure of the federation as well as a managed wind down. Despite what is stated in the Council documents, our school has not been marketed to the local area, there has been no effort to understand the success & failure of attracting & retaining pupils, a performance leading to a downgraded Ofsted rating of ‘Requires Improvement’, all of which lie at the heart of the school’s current situation.

As a Parish Council we have a duty to not only stand up for our local community but also speak out when we see decisions being made on false pretences. We have presented to you separately our material concerns about the capacity of the governing body to be in a competent and informed position to make the decision which has started this consultation process. The lack of understanding and attention to Skelton’s position, the planned manipulation of school budgets, the harried and unscheduled nature of the meeting to sign off on this closure proposal, three days after the new Chair was appointed, are all clear to see in the published governor meeting minutes. 

We believe that these failures of management and governance have been detrimental to the health of our school, and as such have created a false pretence of a school with no demand.  Our Sustainable Future Plan will not only restore the school to its former success but build on it, we can grow our capacity from 50 to over 75, and we can harness all the benefits of our setting as a forest school. We can complement the other provision in the local area. It is noteworthy that this term alone there has been two multi school events held on our school site. We may have no pupils, but we have the space for them.

The Parish Council, the village community, the Newby Estate, we all want to work together in partnership with North Yorkshire Council to deliver this plan and retain our position in the catchment for Ripon Grammar School.  We believe the closure of Skelton Newby Hall Primary School would not be in the best interests of education provision in the area.  The Secretary of State for Education said in 2019, “These schools are the beating heart of communities”. North Yorkshire Council has a stated aim of putting local at its heart. Closing our school would not be putting local at its heart, but ripping the beating heart out the local community.”

Councillor Annabel Wilkinson thanked Mr Critchlow for his contribution and in response confirmed that information on the availability of school places had been made available during the consultation period and addressed in the Executive Report dated 21 March 2023. The matter had also again been addressed in detail in the report at paragraphs 7.28 to 7.41.  She noted capacity was currently available, although not in every year group in every school, at the five primary schools within a 4.5 mile radius of Skelton Newby Hall School.  There was also potential for growth at Boroughbridge Community Primary School due to planned housing development, independent of any considerations around the capacity that may or may not be available in future at Skelton Newby Hall. She suggested it would not appropriate to have to rely upon places at Skelton Newby Hall to serve Boroughbridge residents.

In regard to the lack of pupils in Skelton, she drew attention to paragraph 7.59 of the report, and the Parish Council’s Sustainable Future Plan (Appendix C1) which had been considered carefully against the requirement as part of the presumption against rural school closures to take account of ‘any alternatives to the closure of the school’. She noted the view of officers that the proposal did not provide a sustainable model for the future. She went on to confirm:

·          The falling roll and low attendance from pupils living in the school’s catchment area has been seen for a number of years - looking back to the October 2019 census there were 15 children on roll and only 4 of those attended from the school’s catchment area. At that time 18 of the 22 primary aged children living in the school’s area were attending a different North Yorkshire School under parental preference.

·          There have been minor fluctuations in numbers since 2019 but there was now only one child on roll, who was due to move to secondary provision in September 2023.

·          There were no first preference applications to join Skelton Newby Hall school in the recent admissions round and no pupils were expected to be on roll in September 2023.

·          It was regrettable that the Parish Council felt there have been failures of management and governance.  As noted in the report, the school governors consider they were active in their collective efforts to raise numbers at the school through many initiatives.

·          Leadership and governance support had been provided by the LA School Improvement Team, and governors and leaders had accessed additional support from an experienced National Leader in Governance. The federated governing body had also worked very hard to recruit governors.

Finally, she acknowledged the large numbers of volunteer governors across North Yorkshire who helped to run their local school. Like parish councillors, school governors were volunteers who come from all sections of the community. In this particular case, the federated governing body made the very difficult decision to ask the Council to consult on closure only when they felt they had exhausted all other reasonable options, placing the importance of maintaining a high quality and broad education at the forefront of their thinking.

Councillor Nick Brown also submitted a statement which in his absence, was read out on his behalf as follows:

“Colleagues many thanks for allowing me to address the matter of the future of this school in Skelton on Ure, which is in my Division. Sorry not to be with you in person because of a funeral I am attending today. I strongly support the work of Skelton Parish Council and other residents who have been fighting, since last January, to save their school. I believe they have put the spotlight on two important issues which contrast to the case put forward for the closure by NYC.

Firstly, in relation to the pupil capacity in the area it is apparent that the NYC projections are not reflecting what I personally see is the reality on the ground. With the increase of housing development in Langthorpe, Kirby Hill and Boroughbridge, with more to come, all of which seem to be specifically targeting young families, it can already be seen that the standard formula of one child per four houses, is not the experience of schools such as the Boroughbridge Community School whose own Chair of Governors, I understand, has spoken up in this consultation to support the concern that pupil capacity could be removed from the area at a time when the demand for school places has not been greater.

I note in the Council papers in point 7.30 that you are referred to their response on school numbers issued in December 2022. These have been shown to be very much out of date given how fast pupil numbers have moved in this time. The response in 7.33 that “Boroughbridge has been full for the first time in several years” suggests it may be a passing moment. Yet the school is full already as its stated capacity is not correct, and the point is overlooked that the increase in demand is continuing as more houses are completed. I also note in 7.26 the Council cites the planning application for a nursery at Yolk Farm in Boroughbridge as a positive indication of the nursery demand need being addressed; yet this very application has also been refused by the Council.

Secondly, I come to the matter of how Skelton Newby Hall has reached the point of having no pupils today. It is quite apparent from what we have seen taking place at Sharow, the lead school in the federation, that there have been a number of challenges leading to the appointment of a specialist Chair of Governors, who joined on 3^rd October 2022. Unfortunately, as expected, Sharow was still downgraded to ‘Requires improvement’ at their most recent inspection at the start of this year.

I personally attended the public meeting and was rather surprised by the lack of understanding by the Chair of Governors and the Head Teacher of efforts which had been undertaken to promote the school. Whilst point 7.18 in the Council papers states, ‘Governors feel that they were active in their collective efforts to raise numbers at the school...’, this was not borne out in their response at the public meeting or indeed in published minutes of the Governors’ meetings which even suggested in December 2021 that ‘it would be helpful if the Skelton marketing group could resume its activities’.

It occurs to me that the governors were overwhelmed by the task in hand at Sharow, including the financial predicament they faced which led them to exploring routes to merge the school budgets to use the surplus at Skelton. At the public meeting the Chair of Governors described the consultation on Skelton as “a distraction to the task he had been asked to do”.  I was also more than troubled by the federation’s approach to the Parish Council’s very reasonable Freedom of Information request for sight of their recent minutes leading up to the decision to close Skelton School. I was even more troubled when I read what was eventually sent to them – the scantest set of minutes, from a meeting, held on October 6th which lasted an hour, concluding in the recommendation to close Skelton School. This meeting which happened only three days after the previous governors’ meeting on October 3^rd yet without reference to it in the minutes of October 3^rd. 

I would therefore urge you, my colleagues on the Executive, to recognise that the number of pupils today does not reflect the future demand in the area and certainly does not reflect the potential of this School. The Skelton school, through no fault of its own, has been failed but should not be punished by closure. It is clear to me that the federation with Sharow has failed but that this should not be the end of the school in Skelton. I support the Parish Council’s Sustainable Future Plan and hope that even at this late hour you will allow them to work with the team at North Yorkshire Council and the Diocese of Leeds to deliver it for the benefit of both the village and the wider area.”

Councillor Annabel Wilkinson thanked Councillor Brown for his contribution, and in response to the issues he raised around pupil capacity in the areaconfirmed:

·           Historically both Boroughbridge Community Primary and Kirby Hill CE Primary Schools had taken only very small numbers of pupils from the Skelton Newby Hall School catchment area and vice versa.

·           Boroughbridge Community Primary School’s primary purpose was to serve the local community of Boroughbridge.

·           The technical difference in the view of existing capacity at Boroughbridge Community Primary was a consequence of how the existing spaces were utilised to best serve the existing numbers in school.

·           The Council had secured s.106 developer contributions for the purpose of expanding Boroughbridge Primary School and was currently working with the school to consider both short and long-term improvements to facilities that would result in greater capacity.

·           The strategy discussed with the school leaders would be to ensure that there were sufficient places in Boroughbridge Primary School to satisfy demand from the Boroughbridge catchment. It would not be considered appropriate to have to rely upon places at Skelton Newby Hall to serve Boroughbridge residents.  This was also the main concern of the Chair of Governors.

·           Current forecasts for Kirby Hill CE School showed that the anticipated pupils arising from remaining housing development could be accommodated by the school.

·           The Planning application for a new early years children’s nursery at Minskip was only recently determined on 15 May 2023.

·           The Skelton Newby Hall School Ofsted report, March 2023, highlighted several challenges faced by the school, including falling pupil numbers affecting the quality of education.  

In regard to federation with Sharow, Councillor Wilkinson confirmed:

·           Marketing of the school by the federated governing body had included the distribution of flyers to new builds in the area, and investment in the school’s website.

·           The Council did not hold minutes from school governing body meetings.

·           No responses to the consultation had been received from other local schools offering federation or alternative arrangements to allow Skelton Newby Hall School to remain open.

Executive Members having considered all of the information provided and with much regret, all voted in favour of the recommendations, and it was

Resolved – That:

i.       The issues listed in section 9 of the report had been satisfied and there could therefore be a determination of the proposals.

ii.      Skelton Newby Hall CE VC Primary School cease to be maintained with effect from 31 August 2023.

iii.     The catchment area of Kirby Hill CE VC Primary School be extended with effect from 1 September 2023 to include the area currently served by Skelton Newby Hall CE VC Primary School.