Council warns of legal challenge to merger between primary and private schools

A council has warned the governing body of a primary school of a potential legal challenge if it goes ahead with a merger with a local private school.

Under the plans, Priory Primary School would – in the first deal of its kind in the country – merge with fee-paying King’s School in Tynemouth to create Kings Priory Academy. The proposed sponsor is the Woodard Academies Trust.

North Tyneside Council has sent a formal pre-action letter to the primary school’s governing body, which is seeking the Education Secretary’s approval for the merger.

The local authority has also made a formal complaint to Michael Gove, calling for a fresh consultation process to be conducted.

This would be to address North Tyneside’s “serious concerns about the way the matter has been undertaken so far and to demand a top-level review”

The schools chose to limit the consultation to the parents of children of the existing primary and King’s School. The council insisted that the consultation should be extended to parents in the wider borough who would be affected.

North Tyneside argued that the academy proposal would result in a major impact upon school provision in the area, “by introducing new places into a school system that is already equipped to meet demand”.

An impact assessment carried out by the authority suggested that the merger would provide around 900 new places for children who would normally attend other state provided schools.

Parents of King’s School would no longer have to pay fees if the merger goes ahead.

In a statement on its website the council said: “It is our view that if the proposal goes ahead there will be a need to review the current schools system, which will have a costly impact on both children's education and for the council financially.

“This is because the amalgamation of the primary and secondary school will mean that pupils who traditionally would be considering their neighbourhood schools at year 7 will no longer do so, which will have a significant detrimental impact on some schools. Therefore, there will be an inevitable need to review the organisation of schools in the borough.”

The council claimed that its attempts to engage with the schools in recent months had failed, leaving it with “no option” but to issue the pre-action letter.

Norma Redfearn, North Tyneside’s elected mayor, said: "The council has a responsibility to ensure that all children and young people in North Tyneside can access the highest quality education.”