A consultation is set to begin on closing a primary school in Plumstead after a dramatic fall in the number of pupils.

Gallions Mount school, in Purrett Road, has gone from having 295 primary-aged children in January 2021 to 228 this January.

Greenwich Council said its monitoring had found that numbers had fallen even further since then, to 169.

Only 21 pupils enrolled for the reception year in September, the council said, while there are just six children in the school’s nursery.

Gallions Mount is expected to run up a deficit of £1.2 million by April 2026, representing three quarters of its budget.

The site would be considered for a new facility for children with special educational needs (SEN) if the closure goes ahead.

A consultation is set to begin next Friday, although this could be delayed if a local councillor objects to the decision and calls it in for reconsideration. 

A final decision is due to be made by the council’s cabinet in March, although if the governors object an adjudicator would be called in.

“Due to the continued drop in pupil numbers, any short to medium-term plans to recover the deficit are not achievable,” a council report published on Thursday afternoon said.

“The proposal to close Gallions Mount Primary School is something that the local authority wishes it would not be making but given the school’s consistent falling roll numbers over an extended period, this decision has become necessary to limit the impact on children and the entire school’s community,” the report said. 

“The school has been unable to recruit sufficient number of pupils to ensure its long-term viability, with this long-established trend unlikely to alter in the foreseeable future. Consequently, there is a high risk that the school cannot be recovered within a reasonable timeframe.

“This situation is unsustainable for a school with 30 reception places.”

Holy Family school
Holy Family school in Kidbrooke closed in the summer. Image: Google Streetview

Families with children at the school – including ten pupils who live across the border in Bexley – would be given support to find new schools, including the offer of grants for new uniforms.

A number of primary schools across inner London have closed in recent years in response to falling pupil numbers since the pandemic. 

Gallions Mount would be the second Greenwich school to close after Holy Family Roman Catholic school in Kidbrooke, which shut in the summer. Earlier this year the council said Holy Family had also been earmarked as a possible location for an SEN school.

Parents have set up a petition against the closure at change.org.

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Updated on Tuesday to add the petition link.