Catholic schools rocked by falling pupil rolls are being urged to academise by their diocese to shield them from local authority closure orders, leaked documents show.
The revelations have prompted renewed pleas for councils or regulators to be handed the power to oversee decisions on the shutting of all schools as the system grapples with how to deal with empty classrooms.
Documents, seen by Schools Week, reveal a “key reason” behind the Diocese of Westminster’s choice to start moving schools into multi-academy trusts (MAT) in 2017 was to ensure “closure or amalgamation [decisions] would be solely” in its hands.
Since then, London boroughs have slashed admission totals and shut schools as forecasts suggest the number of four-year-olds in some parts of the capital will drop up to 15 per cent by 2027.
