The official government Office of the Schools Adjudicator (OSA) has rejected proposals for the future of two Lambeth schools put forward by the council and by the schools’ governing bodies.
Lambeth council had proposed to close both Fenstanton primary on the South Circular in Tulse Hill and nearby Holy Trinity Church of England primary. Holy Trinity is run by the Southwark Diocesan Board of Education.
The governing bodies of the two schools had proposed their amalgamation by closing Fenstanton with Holy Trinity remaining open on the Fenstanton site.
Closure of both schools would see the displacement of a projected 344 children in the Upper Tulse Hill area, the OSA said.
The OSA said a council decision on 4 November last year approved closure of both schools “with modifications, subject to certain conditions being met”.
The modification and condition was that “a viable alternative proposal to amalgamate Fenstanton Primary School and Holy Trinity CofE Primary School is proposed within the agreed timeframe and criteria”.
The OSA report says that these “conditions” are not capable of being imposed and the “modifications” are unspecified. “It was, therefore, an unlawful decision.”
The report says: “A condition that other persons ‘propose a viable alternative proposal for amalgamation within an agreed timeframe and criteria’ is not a condition prescribed under relevant regulations and is therefore a condition which the council had no power to impose.”
The OSA says also that a council decision on the future of the schools on 16 May this year was required to have been made no later than 28 April.
OSA concluded that, since it had rejected both proposals, both schools should remain open, adding: “The council should take the steps necessary to advise the parents and all persons who have been informed that the schools will close in September 2026 that this is not what has been determined. This should be done as quickly as possible.”
