Well, we’ve just read through the council’s newly released Strategic Education Review — the one they tried to keep under wraps until the last minute — and honestly, we’re appalled.
North Tyneside Council’s Cabinet is talking about closing or merging a string of well-loved local schools: Monkseaton Middle, Langley First, Ivy Road Primary, and Hazlewood Primary. They say it’s all part of their “Family Friendly North Tyneside” plan. But if this is what “family-friendly” looks like, we’re in trouble.
Buried deep in the report are lines that admit exactly what parents are already feeling: these plans will cause “significant stress and anxiety” for pupils, parents and staff. Yet they’re ploughing ahead anyway.
And just to top it off — they’re planning the public consultation over the Christmas holidays (28 November to 26 December). You couldn’t make it up. Who runs a consultation when families are busy wrapping presents and keeping kids entertained? It’s almost like they don’t want us to respond.
They talk about “falling birth rates” and “financial sustainability,” but the numbers don’t add up. Monkseaton Middle, for example, has only a tiny deficit — yet they’re calling it “unsustainable.” Meanwhile, other schools with far bigger gaps are left untouched. It’s inconsistent, unfair, and frankly, it stinks of a decision that was made long before the paperwork went public.
We’re told this is about “giving children the best start in life.” But ripping communities apart, forcing kids to travel further, and closing the very schools that hold our neighbourhoods together? That’s not the North Tyneside we know and love.
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