Strategic Education Review Update – Outcome of the pre-publication consultation

Q1. Are you responding to the questions about the proposal to merge Forest Hall Primary School and Ivy Road Primary School mainly as a:

• Pupil at Forest Hall Primary School
• Pupil at Ivy Road Primary School
• Parent/Carer of a Pupil at Forest Hall Primary School
• Parent/Carer of a pupil at Ivy Road Primary School
• Parent/Carer of a child planning to attend Forest Hall Primary School
• Parent/Carer of a child planning to attend Ivy Road Primary School
• Staff member at Forest Hall Primary School
• Staff member at Ivy Road Primary School
• Governor at Forest Hall Primary School
• Governor at Ivy Road Primary School
• Member of staff in another school in North Tyneside
• Governor at another school in North Tyneside
• Trades Union representative
• Resident of North Tyneside
• North Tyneside Ward Councillor or Member of Parliament
• North Tyneside Council employee
• Local business or community organisation connected to either Forest Hall or Ivy Road Primary School
• Representative of another local authority
• Other

Q2. Do you agree or disagree with the proposal to merge Forest Hall and Ivy Road Primary Schools?

• Agree (Go to Q5)
• Disagree (Go to Q3)

Q3. Having read the proposal in the background documents and the options appraisal, do you have an alternative option to the merger of Forest Hall and Ivy Road Primary Schools?

• Yes (Go to Q4)
• No (Go to Q5)

Count

Pupils should be given alternative options of schools

Closure / merger not best solution – look at alternative models (including the suggestions to keep the school on the Forest Hall site or consider other schools to merge Ivy Road with)

The Council is proposing to merge Ivy Road Primary School and Forest Hall Primary School on the existing Ivy Road site. This means that pupils who currently attend Forest Hall Primary School would be educated at the Ivy Road site half a mile away, but would still be pupils of Forest Hall Primary School.

Ivy Road Primary School is the bigger school site and has the physical space to fit more pupils. It has two assembly halls, a large yard and playing field, car parking spaces and bigger facilities. 

While Forest Hall Primary School has too many places, the building is not big enough to accommodate combined pupils from both schools. That’s because the school was built as ‘one form entry’ meaning one class per year group, but the combined pupils from both schools would need more than this. 

Equally, the opportunity to expand on site to provide 1.5 forms of entry is limited.

The site is already disadvantaged by having no on-site parking and therefore there would be a greater highway impact in the local vicinity.

By closing Ivy Road Primary School and relocating Forest Hall Primary School, children and families can stay together.

Other schools in the planning area have less surplus capacity than Forest Hall Primary School and also have less physical capacity than the Ivy Road Primary School site.

Equally, no other school in the planning area has the same challenges that Forest Hall Primary School with regard to surplus places and financial viability.

The Ivy Road site is also the closest to the local strategic plan development site at Killingworth Moor

The nearest non-faith school in the planning area is Benton Dene Primary. There are 415 pupils in the school and only 1% surplus places (Jan 2025 census data). The school site is not sufficient in size in its existing buildings to provide extra accommodation for a combined cohort from both schools, and the opportunity to expand on site to provide any more capacity is limited.

Therefore, the Authority believes that there is no other suitable option for a merger.

It is understood that change can be particularly challenging for children and young people with SEND, including those with SEN Support Plans and Education Health and Care Plans.  School leaders, education services and support networks would work with children, young people and families to have in place the transitional support needed, which is thoughtful and inclusive for every child.  

Support may include: 

• Personalised transition plans for children who need them, developed in collaboration with families, and both current and future schools.  Plans may include support, for example, from Education North Tyneside, SEND Support Service, SEND Information and Advice Support Service (SENDIASS), Educational Psychology, North Tyneside Parent Carer Forum, Connect Mental Health and Specialist Teaching Teams.
• Visual timetables often help, and sensory-friendly tours, and other tools can reduce anxiety and help children and young people feel prepared
• Familiar staff who know children well would be involved in handover planning
• Working with school leaders to offer transition days to help children meet new teachers and explore new environments.
• Assistance with travel may be available in specific circumstances and each child’s circumstances would be considered individually. 

For the schools which the Authority is proposing merge with another school, all children would be automatically allocated a place in the school they are being merged with.  If parents are content with this, they would not be required to do anything further.    

Parents may choose to apply for a school place in an alternative school at any time, which they can do via the in-year transfer process. 

Housing delivery by private sector developers, especially on the Authority’s strategic housing sites at Murton Gap and Killingworth Moor, have experienced reduced build-out rates which are below the annual target identified in the Local plan 2017. This, together with delays in the expected submission of planning applications is delaying the anticipated increase in pupil numbers.

Also, new homes do not always mean new children of education age.  On average, each 100 homes create 32 pupils across all twelve-year groups. Current projections show that the total number of pupils new developments would bring remains lower than the current birth rate decline. 

In the period 2010 to 2024 there has been a net increase of 7,777 dwellings across the Borough, with an average build per year of 555 dwellings. This therefore suggests that despite that level of new homes, the decline in the birth rate and pupil population continues.

Maintaining a high-quality education for young people is our priority. The Authority is working alongside school governors, who are the employers, on staffing issues.  

As no decisions have been made regarding the proposals, no decisions have been made regarding what happens to employees at the schools. All decisions regarding staff and employment are managed by the Governing Bodies, who are taking appropriate advice and guidance from their HR support. Any decisions in relation to employment would follow relevant employment legislation and would be consulted on, where appropriate. 

Where a school accesses HR Services through North Tyneside Council, we are aware that the Schools HR Team is providing dedicated support to Governing Bodies during the Education Review consultation. This includes: 

• Regular contact with Chairs of Governors and Headteachers
• Sharing wellbeing resources and guidance
• Offering to attend Governing Body meetings to provide tailored advice
• Keeping trade union colleagues informed of developments
• Ensuring governors are supported to meet their legal responsibilities around employment and staff wellbeing. 

The Authority believes that the proposed merger would sustain high quality education in the community, provide greater stability for all local pupils, improve financial sustainability, and support the provision of a high-quality education for everyone.

If left unchanged, the risk is that the two schools would continue to grow in deficit, and this in turn would limit their ability to sustain high quality education.

Cabinet agreed at its meeting on 22 September 2025 to authorise the commencement of an initial pre-publication consultation with schools, parents and other stakeholders in relation to each of the four proposals. It is a statutory requirement for the Proposer (in this case the Authority,) to consult any parties it considers appropriate before publishing statutory proposals.  The Pre-Publication Consultation ran from 2 October 2025 to 13 November 2025. The Stage 1 Pre-Publication Consultation was carried out in full accordance with DfE statutory guidance.

The Authority is conscious that while many staff and parents understand the reasons for the Pre-Publication Consultation, it recognises that there is also understandably a great deal of emotion connected to any change within a school and its place in the community. Throughout the process the Authority has sought to respond to concerns with transparency, for example through the survey, responding to resident enquiries and Freedom of Information requests and uploading documentation and FAQs to the Engagement Hub. 

In considering the concerns raised during the course of the pre-publication consultation period, the Authority was able to publish additional information at various points and to also update the FAQs in response to responses received to the survey. Whenever an FAQ was updated, this was made clear on the Have Your Say page to ensure it was obvious which ones were new or had been updated. Newsletters were sent out which informed everyone who had registered and/or already submitted a response that there had been some updated information and FAQs added to the Authority’s Have Your Say consultation page. 

The Authority recognises that a consultation of this nature will be a concern for local communities however the current educational and financial position is not sustainable. The Authority aims to have a system of education that brings about the highest possible standards of education for all children and doing nothing will not achieve this in the rapidly changing educational landscape.

The Authority understand the impact the consultation may have on those affected. Our Connect Mental Health Team works directly with schools and can provide additional support to pupils, colleagues and are available to parents. 

School leaders, education services and support networks would work together to ensure transitions are thoughtful and inclusive for every child. There would be additional support for children with SEND. SEND Support Service and Educational Psychology teams can work with your child’s current and future school to create a personalised transition plan. 

Visual timetables and sensory-friendly tours may be used to reduce anxiety. Staff who know pupils well would be involved in handover planning. Joint events and transition days help children meet new teachers and explore the new environment gradually. Schools would try to keep friendship groups together during the transition where possible. 

It is understood that change can be particularly challenging for children and young people with SEND, including those with SEN Support Plans and Education Health and Care Plans.  School leaders, education services and support networks would work with children, young people and families to have in place the transitional support needed, which is thoughtful and inclusive for every child.  

Support may include: 

• Personalised transition plans for children who need them, developed in collaboration with families, and both current and future schools.  Plans may include support, for example, from Education North Tyneside, SEND Support Service, SEND Information and Advice Support Service (SENDIASS), Educational Psychology, North Tyneside Parent Carer Forum, Connect Mental Health and Specialist Teaching Teams.
• Visual timetables often help, and sensory-friendly tours, and other tools can reduce anxiety and help children and young people feel prepared
• Familiar staff who know children well would be involved in handover planning
• Working with school leaders to offer transition days to help children meet new teachers and explore new environments.
• Assistance with travel may be available in specific circumstances and each child’s circumstances would be considered individually. 

The Council is proposing to merge Ivy Road Primary School and Forest Hall Primary School on the existing Ivy Road site. This means that pupils who currently attend Forest Hall Primary School would be educated at the Ivy Road site half a mile away, but would still be pupils of Forest Hall Primary School.

Ivy Road Primary School is the bigger school site and has the physical space to fit more pupils. It has two assembly halls, a large yard and playing field, car parking spaces and bigger facilities. 

While Forest Hall Primary School has too many places, the building is not big enough to accommodate combined pupils from both schools. That’s because the school was built as ‘one form entry’ meaning one class per year group, but the combined pupils would need more than this. 

Equally, the opportunity to expand on site to provide 1.5 forms of entry is limited.

The site is already disadvantaged by having no on-site parking and therefore there would be a greater highway impact in the local vicinity.

By closing Ivy Road Primary School and relocating Forest Hall Primary School, children and families can stay together.

The Authority believes that the proposed merger would sustain high quality education in the community, provide greater stability for all local pupils, improve financial sustainability, and support the provision of a high-quality education for everyone.

If left unchanged, the risk is that the two schools would continue to grow in deficit, and this in turn would limit their ability to sustain high quality education.

The Authority believes that the proposed merger would sustain high quality education in the community, provide greater stability for all local pupils, improve financial sustainability, and support the provision of a high-quality education for everyone.

If left unchanged, the risk is that the two schools would continue to grow in deficit, and this in turn would limit their ability to sustain high quality education.

Maintaining a high-quality education for young people is our priority. The Authority is working alongside school governors, who are either the employers, or have delegated powers, on staffing issues. 

As no decisions have been made regarding the proposals, no employment decisions have been made regarding what happens to employees at the schools. All decisions regarding staff and employment are managed by the Governing Bodies, who would be taking appropriate advice and guidance from their HR support. 

Any decisions in relation to employment would follow relevant employment legislation and would be consulted on, where appropriate. 

Where a school accesses HR Services through North Tyneside Council, we are aware that the Schools HR Team is offering dedicated support to Governing Bodies during the Education Review consultation. This includes: 

• Regular contact with Chairs of Governors and Headteachers
• Sharing wellbeing resources and guidance
• Offering to attend Governing Body meetings to provide tailored advice
• Keeping trade union colleagues informed of developments
• Ensuring governors are supported to meet their legal responsibilities around employment and staff wellbeing.

It is recognised that work would be needed to support the school communities to integrate. This would be led by the school’s leadership team and governing body with support from Council officers, offering advice on best practice. Examples may include working with all pupils to look at what the merged school community means to them and gathering their thoughts and ideas; opportunities to bring the pupils together before the change is implemented including welcome meetings and shared curriculum based projects; establishing a new joint school student council with representative from both schools; working with new joint school student council to look at matters which could include the name of the school, uniform, values that are important to the pupils to combine their thoughts and ideas; opportunities to celebrate the history of each school before any location change takes place; visits to the school site for those students relocating to a new school site; talking to the pupils about transition and understanding more about what they would like this to include.  

North Tyneside’s population is changing. Birth rates have fallen steadily since 2018/19 and there are now around 300 fewer children born each year. That’s the equivalent to 10 fewer classes annually. There are now too many schools for the number of children in North Tyneside. 

In the Forest Hall area, there are five primary schools close to each other and the number of children attending these schools is falling. Forest Hall Primary School and Ivy Road Primary School are half a mile away from each other. 

Both Forest Hall and Ivy Road primary schools have low pupil numbers and are only two thirds full. The amount of funding schools receive is linked to how many pupils they have. There is too much financial pressure on the schools and both are in deficit (where the amount the school spends is more than it gets).

The school’s budget forecasts show the deficit at both schools is predicted to worsen by 2028, which would have an impact on the education children would receive. 

School leaders have made changes and worked hard with the Authority to make the financial situation better, but because low pupil numbers mean less funding, the situation is not improving.  If left unchanged, the risk is that the two schools would continue to grow in deficit, limiting their ability to sustain high quality education.

The proposed merger would sustain high quality education in the community, provide greater stability for all local pupils and improve financial sustainability.

Ivy Road Primary School has been judged as Inadequate (February 2024) and has an Ofsted Academy Order upon it with no identified sponsor.  When the school was judged inadequate, the DfE immediately began the process of finding an ‘academy sponsor’ which means a Trust that could take over the school and make rapid changes of improvement. Unfortunately, no Trust has been identified.

The DfE have requested that the Council find a solution, meaning that doing nothing is not a viable option.

Even without the Ofsted judgement, action would still need to be taken in the Forest Hall area because of the falling birth rate.

The merged schools would be accommodating the number of pupils their buildings were originally designed for. The location of the merged schools within their catchments has been taken into account in the proposals. 800m (half a mile) is considered an acceptable distance for a primary age pupil to walk to school.

Statutory guidance states that the reasonable distance for children under eight years of age to travel is two miles and for those over eight years of age is three miles, to their nearest school with places available.  Assistance with travel may be available in specific circumstances and each child’s circumstances would be considered individually. The Authority’s home to school transport policy is available here.  

The Home to School Transport Team can be contacted for advice in relation to children who receive travel assistance by email,  hometoschooltransport@northtyneside.gov.uk, or by phone on 0191 643 8726.

The Authority is committed to maintaining the highest standards of Early Years provision following the merger. The Early Years provision would continue to meet all statutory requirements and follow best practice for care and learning. Experienced staff would remain in place, and resources and facilities would be reviewed to ensure they provide a safe, stimulating environment. The priority is to give every child the same high-quality start, with consistent routines and support across the merged school.