Queensway Primary closure: School saved as huge campaign by supporters forces council U-turn

Parents whose children attend Queensway Primary School in Yeadon learned in September that it was in danger of being shut down because of a shortage of school-aged pupils in the surrounding area. But two months and one consultation later, the council has backed down.

It follows furious opposition from parents and governors at the school, which has been praised for its treatment of special needs pupils. One parent, addressing councillors at Leeds Civic Hall last week, had pleaded with the council to re-think the closure, arguing it would “take away from the most vulnerable and deprived” families in the area.

Senior councillors had been expected to press ahead with the next stage of the proposed closure when they meet on Wednesday but a U-turn on the council’s position has been confirmed.

In a letter to headteacher Mark Duce on Tuesday morning, the authority’s executive member for education, Coun Jonathan Pryor, said: “While issues around the falling birth rate in the Aireborough area are unchanged, the consultation to address this through a closure of Queensway garnered the highest level of responses we have ever received and were overwhelmingly in favour of keeping Queensway open.

“As was said throughout, a final decision was never pre-determined, and while a consultation is not a referendum, after reading all contributions to the consultation, it was only right to listen to that strength of feeling.”

Queensway was rated ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted in June, but parents last week insisted Mr Duce and other senior leaders had overseen massive improvements since taking charge just over a year ago. As a result of that rating, the Government had placed an academy order on the school, in a bid to take it out of the hands of the local authority.

In his letter, Coun Pryor said he would ask the Department of Education to rescind this order, to allow the school to continue its “improvement journey”.

He added: “I acknowledge how difficult the past few months have been for everyone involved, not least yourself, but over this period you have only further demonstrated your leadership capabilities and I look forward to seeing Queensway going from strength to strength under your leadership. We will continue to support you in these improvements.”

Alex Sobel, the Labour MP for Leeds North West, welcomed the news, saying it would be a “great relief” to many. He said: “Whilst all the underlying issues and challenges remain, the weight of opposition to the closure within the consultation has led to the decision, not just to pause the closure, but to cancel it altogether.

“I would like to commend the parents, teachers and members of the community for the campaign and for the way they have managed this challenging process.”

Mr Sobel warned, however, that the lack of local school-aged children which saw the school earmarked for closure in the first place had not gone away. He added: “We must now engage in the process of trying to find alternative ways to solve the very real issues of reduced number of pupils in the area coming through and the continued financial pressure on all our schools.”

Meanwhile, the Leeds Conservative group’s education spokesman, Coun Ryan Stephenson said the school should now become an academy. He commented: “This screeching U-turn by the Labour administration is a victory for local pupils, parents and councillors.

“Queensway is a great community school but it has been let down by the council, leading to an inadequate Ofsted judgement.The school now deserves to have a chance outside of the council’s clutches, so it can set its own school improvement journey as it seeks to repair the damage caused by Coun Pryor’s bodged closure plan.”