What next for cash-strapped primary school after reprieve from closure?

The decision to stop a potential closure of Deri Primary School provides an “opportunity” to turn around its financial struggles, but decision makers cannot “hide away from” a bleak budget position.

Caerphilly County Borough Council’s leader, Cllr Jamie Pritchard, said the local authority would “double our efforts” to come up with a sustainable path forward for the school.

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service after council cabinet members dropped a proposed consultation on closing Deri Primary, he said the school’s community had “rallied the troops” in a bid to see it saved.

Cllr Pritchard pointed out it was not the council’s proposal to close the school down, but it had responded to a “request” from the governing body, who “came to us originally to say we are in difficulty”.

Shortly before a cabinet meeting this month, the governing body returned to the council to ask for the proposed consultation to be stopped until the end of the financial year.

It is hoped this will give the school time to resolve what a cabinet report labelled “a worsening financial position for the school, with reduced learner numbers leading directly to a significant loss of funding”.

“This creates considerable pressure on the school’s budget and its ability to remain financially viable, making it increasingly difficult for the headteacher and governing body to maintain a balanced budget, sustain appropriate staffing structures, and deliver education efficiently,” the report noted.

With school budgets linked closely to pupil numbers, the alarm bells were sounded at Deri Primary after population forecasts showed surplus places there could increase from the current 28% to more than 60% in five years’ time.

A cabinet report showed Deri Primary was £14,000 over budget at the end of the last financial year, but that modest shortfall was predicted to grow to £85,000 by next April, and to £256,000 by 2029.

Schools have a duty to prepare a balanced budget, and any facing difficulties are given extra support from council officers, typically over a three-year period.

“I know how hard officers work with all our schools,” the council leader said. “We will double our efforts now working with the school.”

He added: “We will work closely with them. I can’t be drawn on what the situation might be – it’s a big ask.

“I would like to see the school get on a better kind of footing.”

Cllr Pritchard accepted the school’s projected budget shortfall “does ramp up” but said any proposals for its future were not simply about “looking at pounds, shillings and pence”. “There’s a whole community there,” he said. “There is emotion here as well – a genuine passion from the school community to come together.

“We will work to give the school the best chance possible. It’s not ‘come back to us in March and see what it looks like.’”

Meanwhile, the council’s ongoing cross-party analysis of how falling birth rates impact on school finances will continue.

“There are falling birth rates across the country and we have got a lot of schools”, said Cllr Pritchard, adding he wanted to see the upper Rhymney Valley “thrive” and receive “a fair crack” from investment and prosperity.