THE headteacher of a primary school under threat of closure said it is time for the council to “think creatively” about how to solve the borough-wide pupil numbers crisis.

Jacqueline Phelan from Carlton School in Grafton Road said it could look at expanding its offer to take in three-year-olds for the first time.

“This is a unique opportunity for the council to think creatively about how they solve this place planning issue,” she said.

“We have an amazing building that has been maintained very well by the council and by us. We now have space in this building. We know we have taken a reduction in numbers but we are a viable one-form entry school. This is an opportunity for them to think differently. “We are willing to work with children under three and think about how we support other children in the community.”

Camden is in talks with schools across the borough about dwindling pupil numbers and whether there are now too many schools – a trend first revealed by the New Journal last year. Carlton is one of a number of Camden schools suffering from a sliding number of enrolments, a critical issue as this is linked to how much funding is made available by the government and the council.

The council says Camden now has 15 per cent more primary spaces than it needs. The talks over Carlton come after St Aloysius in Somers Town shut its doors in December and with council-run nurseries now also under consultation for closure.

Jacqueline Phelan

Council leader Georgia Gould met with more than 30 parents yesterday (Wednesday) to discuss concerns.

Stephanie Barrett said her daughter, Ava, has flourished at Carlton after experiencing difficulty at a previous school when showing signs of autism. Ms Barrett said: “The teachers were very caring, understanding of her needs and you could tell they wanted my daughter to do well, they really did help her, they never gave up on her and I felt in a good place finally. Ava eventually got her diagnosis of ADHD, Dyspraxia and she got her EHCP [education, health and care plan] to help as she does need one-to-one support.”

Some 30 per cent of the children on the school roll at Camden have special educational needs (SEN), the highest percentage of children within Camden receiving SEN support. The school also has the third highest percentage of children receiving free school meals in the borough and the fifth highest percentage of children with English as an additional language.

Parent Linda Addison, who also went to Carlton Primary as a youngster, has three children at the school.

She said her youngest son had trouble settling in at nursery, saying: “The family support worker helped us as a family a lot and there were groups for my son to attend to help build his confidence and myself and my partner attended parent classes to share ideas on how we could handle situations and try new ways to help our son.”

Ms Addison added: “Slowly we could see our son changing and changing for the better with the help of the groups, he felt more confident and smiled more and more which also improved family life at home as he was less angry or stressed.”

A decision on the school’s future is expected at the council meeting on April 1 after the current round of school applications have been looked at by the Town Hall.

Education chief Councillor Angela Mason said: “Camden is experiencing a fall in the number of pupils across the borough, and we are working with our family of schools to look at options for how to make our system sustainable now and in the long term. The council’s cabinet, at its meeting on April 1, will consider proposals for achieving a sustainable system across the borough which will then be subject to extensive consultation, in which everyone can have their views heard, before any decisions are made”

She added:  “The consultation on proposals for our early years services closed on 12 February. The findings will be used to assist the council’s cabinet to make a decision on 1 April.”