Plan to merge Soho and Fitzrovia primary schools

Soho Parish primary school might close and be merged with All Souls primary and join it at Foley Street in Fitzrovia, according to a leaked document that reveals the move could be underway as early as next April.

A draft proposal shared with the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) details how All Souls and Soho Parish primary schools are to potentially be combined due to falling pupil numbers.

Soho Parish on Great Windmill Street has seen a significant drop, recording just 81 pupils on the roll as of April, leaving 94 places vacant.

If approved by governors a public consultation is to be launched in early June, with the proposed new school to open on the current All Souls site in April 2027.

The draft document follows previous LDRS reporting that an “independent review” had been completed by consultancy Isos assessing “future school place planning in the City of Westminster”.

Westminster City Council’s chief executive Stuart Love said at the time that no schools were planning amalgamations or closures “this academic year”, something a well-placed source described as “a hollow technicality”.

In January this year the Westminster Extra reported that plans were being drawn up to amalgamate two schools but their identities would be kept secret until after the May elections.

In response to the Soho Parish/All Souls proposal, Cllr Hannah Galley, Westminster City Council cabinet member for children and education, said there are currently no “school-led consultations” being carried out locally reviewing organisational changes.

Soho Parish and All Souls were approached for comment.

Westminster schools are facing particularly acute financial challenges as a result of falling pupil intakes.

Fewer pupils means less Government funding, with Soho Parish among those raising the alarm regarding their future sustainability.

As reported by the LDRS just before the 7 May elections, at which the Conservatives won the council back from Labour, a detailed review completed by Isos had been shared with the local Schools Forum in January.

The paper was described in its executive summary as an investigation “into how to ensure the future financial viability of Westminster’s state-funded schools, whilst maintaining a high quality of education, by 2030-2035”.

Towards the end of the report Isos recommended Westminster set itself an ambition of having a preferred option for the borough’s most at-risk schools within four months.

Concerns were raised with the LDRS about the review, including that potential closures were being kept from the public until after the elections.

Some of those fears appear to have been vindicated by the draft All Souls/Soho Parish proposal shared so soon after 7 May.

The LDRS understands it was sent to governors on 24 May with a vote to take place next week. A public consultation is then to be launched on 8 June.

In the report it is revealed that Soho Parish’s pupil roll is expected to have reduced further by September, when it is projected to record 107 vacant places.

All Souls is reported as having more stable numbers though still has unfilled spots.

In response the schools’ Governing Bodies are proposing to merge the two schools to form a single one-form entry primary for children aged 3 to 11, to be based in Fitzrovia.

The report states: “The proposal will also include maintaining the existing autism resource base and may include a nursery provision for two-year-olds. The school will be called All Souls with Soho Parish CE Primary School.

“Westminster Local Authority supports this proposal, but it is still subject to consultation. Parents, staff and pupils are invited to share their views, which will help inform the final decision.”

If agreed the new school would open on 12 April next year. Alix Ascough, who is already executive head of both Soho Parish and All Souls, would be its Headteacher.

A source has however described the proposal as representing a “done deal” agreed behind closed doors.

They said: “The proposed school amalgamation strategy currently being fast-tracked across specific central London sites is not a response to an inevitable demographic crisis — it is the result of deliberate financial engineering.

“Historically, these communities have successfully weathered periods of low enrolment — including the 1980s when class sizes dropped down to single digits — without their future ever being questioned. These schools remain robust, entirely viable, and vital cornerstones of the community.

“The current crisis has been entirely manufactured behind closed doors. Since the transition to the National Funding Formula, local funding cushions — specifically the Minimum Funding Guarantee (MFG) designed to protect small, historic central London schools — have been systematically stripped away in aggressive 30 per cent annual increments down to zero.”

They added the “institutional breakdown” involved is “staggering”, and claimed senior council leadership has admitted in writing that local ward councillors have been excluded from the process.

They continued: “Yet, behind the backs of elected representatives, legacy leadership and council officers have quietly engineered a definitive glide path toward closure. Pushing a radical shutdown forward via a fast-tracked, defective EGM process right after a local election is a profound betrayal of public trust.

“We are demanding an immediate administrative halt to this consultation track so that an independent governance review can expose the financial mechanics driving this entirely unnecessary ambush.”

Cllr Galley said: “There are currently no school-led consultations happening in Westminster about changes to school organisation. Earlier this year, the Schools Forum commissioned the Isos Partnership, an independent body, to produce a report on falling rolls in primary schools in Westminster. The recommendations from that report are now being reviewed over the summer by schools, the council, local dioceses and academy trusts.”

Westminster has seen several struggling schools amalgamated in recent years.

These include Barrow Hill Junior School, Robinsfield Infant School and George Eliot Primary School in St John’s Wood, and separately Our Lady of Dolours Catholic Primary School and St Mary of the Angels Catholic Primary School.

Please support The Fitzrovia News. Consider helping us cover our costs by visiting our secure payment page.