Jo Riley, former headteacher of Randal Cremer primary school in Hackney, has been forced to leave London as the school has closed due to falling pupil numbers. This closure is part of a wider trend across England, with over 90 primary schools facing closure due to various factors such as falling birth rates and rising housing costs. Lambeth council, for example, saw a significant drop in school places between 2016 and 2025.
The closure of Randal Cremer has deeply affected the local community, with the building now standing empty. Similarly, Rookhope primary school in Weardale closed in August due to only having five pupils. However, there is hope for repurposing these empty school buildings, such as turning them into therapeutic centers or hubs for activities for young people.
Steve Chalke, head of Oasis Trust, believes that local authorities should take inspiration from Oasis’s projects and find ways to repurpose empty school buildings. He argues that rather than leaving these buildings empty or selling them off, they could be used to address the problems facing young people today by working with local charities to create hubs of activity for them.
In this context, the closure of schools present an opportunity to rethink the use of these spaces and provide essential services for the community, especially for young people who may have fallen through the cracks of the education system. By repurposing these buildings, there is potential to transform them into valuable resources for the local community.
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