The case for Colvestone
While we understand that Hackney Council, like the rest of London, has to respond to falling rolls, we don’t believe closing Colvestone at this time is the right solution. It would represent a devastating loss to this community. Here’s why:
Lack of parental choice
The closure of Colvestone and nearby De Beauvoir would mean there would be no non-faith, one-form entry local authority schools within a mile of the Colvestone building. Our local area would be dominated by religious schools, free schools and academies, which are not being considered for closure, regardless of numbers.
Impact on the Dalston development plan
Colvestone plays a key role in the Council’s development in Dalston. Closing Colvestone could have a significant impact on the new housing developments and plans for greener, pedestrian spaces.
Impact on children with special educational needs
Seven percent of Colvestone students have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), more than well above the 4.3 percent average across the borough. Many of these children would find the transition particularly challenging. Closing a school with such an unusually high proportion of the most vulnerable children is cruel.
Air pollution
The Council is proposing to send students from Colvestone to Princess May, whose playground is right next to the A10. The Council’s air quality monitoring system shows Princess May had 40 percent higher levels of Nitrogen Oxide (NO2) in 2021 than Colvestone. Adding more students to a school closer to the A10 with higher pollution levels is a backwards step in the effort to reduce children’s exposure to air pollution.
Historical significance
Built in 1852, Colvestone is a Grade 2 listed building. Closing it would mean shutting the last surviving example of an important 19th century radical education movement.
Lack of parental choice
Lack of parental choice
The closure of Colvestone and nearby De Beauvoir Primary School would mean there would be no non-faith, one-form entry local authority schools within a mile of the Colvestone building.
Our local area would have three religious schools, Holy Trinity, St Matthias, and Our Lady and St. Joseph. The religious schools are not being considered by Hackney Council for closure, even when they have similarly low enrollment numbers, such as St. Matthias. According to a 2017 consultation report (page 30), 84 percent of respondents agreed that they would like Hackney’s schools to be non-denominational. But the closure of Colvestone and De Beauvoir could force parents to choose between sending their child to a religious school or travelling further for school. And the further they are from a school, the less likely they are to get in.
The area also has an academy, Mossbourne Parkside Academy, and a free school, Halley House. Neither academies nor free schools are being considered for closure, regardless of numbers.
The only other options in the area would be Princess May, whose playground is located right next to the A10 (see Air Pollution) and Shacklewell Primary School, which is currently oversubscribed.
The people of this community deserve to have a school they can walk to, one that has a strong academic record, that offers the closeness and individual attention of a one-form entry environment, and that is not tied to any particular religion.
Impact on the Dalston development plan
Colvestone Primary School (circled) alongside the newly proposed housing developments.
Impact on the Dalston development plan
The Draft Dalston Plan has ambitious plans for Dalston, which would be harmed by the closure of Colvestone School. Those plans include:
Building more than 600 new homes in Dalston. For almost all of the new development, Colvestone would be the closest school. There is no similar development plan near Princess May.
Turning Colvestone Crescent into the first 21st Century Street, the borough’s first permanent play street.
Most of the development would be concentrated at the Kingsland Shopping Centre, with smaller residential developments at surrounding sites. If Colvestone and De Beauvoir schools were closed, parents in that development would have to travel almost half a mile to get to a non-denominational school. And even the closest one, Princess May, sits next to the A10 (see Air Pollution).
Government guidance on school closures advises that local authorities can close schools when “there are surplus places elsewhere in the local area which can accommodate displaced pupils and there is no predicted demand for the school in the medium to long term” (page 23, emphasis added). In Colvestone’s case, the new development will create that demand.
Closing the school could impede the success of the development by making it hard for developers to sell those apartments to families, given the limited schooling options. And it would leave an empty building in the heart of this area.
Colvestone Crescent is slated to become the first 21st Century Street, a long tree-lined pedestrian walkway with lots of new plantings, ecology gardens, spaces for congregating and a small playing field. But without the school, that plan makes less sense. The plan says “The first phase - positioned directly next to Colvestone Crescent Primary School presents an opportunity to create a permanent school street. It will expand the existing school playground into the street, creating a safe space for children to play on the street itself”.
The proposed closure of Colvestone could be potentially damaging to Hackney’s plans for Dalston’s future, making the new developments a harder sell to parents and ripping out the heart of the first 21st Century Street.
Impact on children with special educational needs
“I like my school because it’s small and comfortable - I feel that I have space and I feel calm.”
Impact on children with special educational needs
Seven percent of Colvestone students have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), more than well above the 4.3 percent average across the borough. Some parents of children with special educational needs are concerned about the impact of the transition.
“Colvestone is the ideal school for my 6-year-old autistic son,” said one parent. “As a one-form entry school, tucked away from busy roads, it provides a calmer, less overwhelming environment, which is of utmost importance to children that are autistic and struggle to process overstimulating surroundings. I could never imagine him settling into a two-form entry school and being as happy as he is at Colvestone. Losing this school would be devastating for him.”
The Council should factor in the proportion of children with special educational needs in a school when considering school closures as they would be most likely to find the transition challenging.
Hackney Council have proposed the borough’s first 21st Century Street outside the school
Air pollution
Air pollution
The Council is proposing to send students from Colvestone to Princess May, whose playground is right next to the A10. To get to and from Princess May many Colvestone students would be forced to walk along the A10.
As Hackney’s Local Plan 2033 says (page 22), “Kingsland High Street (A10) is the main route through this area and is heavily traffic dominated. As a result of this, it suffers from high noise and air pollution levels.” The Council’s air quality monitoring system shows Princess May had 40 percent higher levels of Nitrogen Oxide (NO2) in 2021 than Colvestone.
The Low Traffic Neighbourhoods and School Streets the Council has established to improve air quality in the borough could drive even more traffic to the A10.
The Council has a draft plan to reduce air pollution near Colvestone Primary School. Colvestone Crescent, the road on which the school is located, is already a School Street, closed to traffic during the school run. The next stage is to develop it into the borough’s first 21st Century Street, a long tree-lined pedestrian walkway with lots of new plantings, ecology gardens, spaces for congregating and a small playing field.
The Draft Dalston plan states this 21st Century Street will demonstrate how “streets can adapt to help tackle the climate crisis”.
All children should breathe clean air. We call on the Council to develop a plan for protecting the students at Princess May. In the meantime, moving students from a school where there is a clear plan for improving air quality to a school whose playground is close to a high traffic, high pollution street doesn’t make sense.
Historical significance
Historical significance
Built in 1852, Colvestone is a Grade 2 listed building. It was one of six Birkbeck Schools founded by businessman and educational philosopher and philanthropist William Ellis. The schools were named for George Birkbeck, founder of Birkbeck, University of London, and pioneer in adult education.
The building was purpose built to reflect Ellis’ radical ideas about education. Richard Clarke, who teaches at the University of Westminster, wrote in a 2009 article, “The Birkbeck Schools were secular, often for girls as well as boys, emphasised teaching through dialogue, rejecting rote learning (as well as corporal punishment), and (more problematically) emphasised ‘social economy’ and ‘useful knowledge’.”
He goes on to say, “Its premises, which today remain nearly intact as Colvestone Primary School, reflect in their architecture some of the most progressive elements of Ellis’ philosophy”.
The Council has recently invested in maintaining the building, making significant external repairs to the stonework and leadwork on the roof and careful restoration of the Grade 2 listed railings in front of the school.
Colvestone is the last remaining Birkbeck School. Closing it as a school would be a significant historical loss to Dalston.