Four Camden Schools Could Close: Cabinet Decides 20 October

Four Camden schools could be closed, merged or shrunk under plans the council published on Monday evening. Cabinet decides on Tuesday 20 October whether to open a public consultation on their future.

The four are all church schools:

• St Alban’s Church of England Primary School, Holborn
• St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School, Holborn
• St Patrick’s Catholic Primary School, Kentish Town
• La Sainte Union Catholic Secondary School, a girls’ school in Highgate

The reason is falling rolls. Births in Camden have fallen by about 27% since 2015, the Cabinet report says, and each empty place costs a school money. The council puts the loss at an average of £7,500 a year for each empty primary place and £9,700 for each empty secondary place (Camden Council, school proposals).

If Cabinet agrees, consultation would open at 9am on Monday 2 November and close at 9am on Monday 14 December. No school would change before September 2027 at the earliest, and a final decision would not come until April 2027.

What each school is being consulted on

The options differ by school. Closure is on the list for all four.

A merger here means the school itself closes and its pupils are guaranteed a place at the school it joins. A federation keeps both schools open under one governing body. The report does not say which schools St Alban’s or St Patrick’s would merge with.

How empty the four schools are

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The council’s own guide is that 5% to 10% of places should be empty across the system. All four schools are far above that.

The council’s draft consultation documents, attached to the report, give the January 2026 headcounts:

La Sainte Union also has 258 students in its sixth form, which it runs with William Ellis, Parliament Hill and Acland Burghley as the LaSWAP consortium. The draft document calls the sixth form “strong”. That is why one option closes the main school but keeps post-16 teaching.

The report forecasts La Sainte Union’s deficit rising to £6.476 million by March 2029. St Joseph’s is forecast to reach £731,000 and St Patrick’s £712,000. St Alban’s is the exception: its own budget forecasts a £37,000 surplus by 2029.

Together, the four could carry a combined deficit of about £4.6 million in 2026/27, £6.5 million in 2027/28 and £8.0 million in 2028/29, the council’s finance director says in the report.

The Cabinet report’s percentages for St Alban’s differ slightly from its draft consultation document: 53.3% of Reception places empty in the report against 56.7% in the draft. We have used the report’s figures in the chart.

It is not about standards, the council says

Every maintained primary and secondary school in Camden, including these four, was rated Good or Outstanding at its last inspection under the old Ofsted framework, the report says. “The consultation is not a reflection on the quality of education or staff,” it adds.

The pressure is borough-wide:

• Reception: 1,312 children on roll in January 2026 for 1,460 places, 10.1% empty
• Year 7: 1,209 pupils for 1,585 places, 23.7% empty
• All primary years: 14.4% empty, forecast to reach 20% by 2032/33
• All secondary years: 6,974 pupils for 8,210 places, forecast to fall to about 6,030 pupils by 2032/33

Camden has already removed about 228 Reception places since 2020/21 through closures and smaller intakes. In the same period Reception rolls fell by 116. School reserves across the borough fell from £14.6 million to £6.5 million in a year, and 16 schools were in deficit, officers told the Schools Forum in June.

Councillor Marcus Boyland, Cabinet Member for Best Start for Children and Families, said beginning consultation on individual schools “is difficult, but we must respond to the challenges facing schools across London” (Camden Council, 12 October 2026).

The timetable

• 5pm, Friday 16 October: deadline to ask to speak at the Cabinet meeting
• 7pm, Tuesday 20 October: Cabinet decides whether to consult
• Wednesday 21 October: schools and families told the outcome
• 2 November to 14 December: six-week consultation, if approved
• 5 November: Children, Schools and Families Scrutiny Committee discusses the report
• February 2027: Cabinet reviews the responses and picks an option for each school
• February 2027: if closure is proposed, a further four-week statutory consultation
• April 2027: final decision
• September 2027: the earliest any change could take effect

The council says this timetable may change.

What it means for you

If your child is at one of the four schools, nothing changes this term or this school year. The council says schools and families will hear the Cabinet decision on 21 October. If a merger is chosen, pupils at the closing school are guaranteed a place at the school it joins.

If you want a say, you can ask to address Cabinet on 20 October by writing to the democratic services officer named on the agenda by 5pm on Friday 16 October. If the consultation goes ahead, responses will be taken online, by email, by letter and at an event at each school.

If you are choosing a school for September 2027, the draft documents list the nearest alternatives with their Ofsted grades. For St Patrick’s they are Kentish Town CE Primary (0.2 miles), Rhyl Primary (0.4 miles) and Holy Trinity and St Silas (0.5 miles). For La Sainte Union, William Ellis and Parliament Hill are each about 0.1 miles away. Our school term dates page has the year ahead.

None of the four is a council community school. If one closes, the report says, decisions on the future of the site and buildings “would rest with the relevant Diocese”.

Sources

• Camden Council Cabinet, 20 October 2026: agenda and reports pack, item 8, Strong and Sustainable Schools Consultation (CL/2026/16), signed 8 October 2026, with equality impact assessments and draft consultation documents for each school.
• Camden Council, Camden to consult on future options for four schools, 12 October 2026.
• Camden Council, Camden school proposals, read 13 October 2026, for the timetable and the funding lost per empty place.