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A vacant primary school in northeast London that closed due to falling pupil numbers could be reopened as a special educational needs (SEN) school for up to 48 children under new council plans. Baden Powell Primary School in Clapton, Hackney, merged with nearby Nightingale Primary School in September 2024, following what the council described as a “significant decline in school-aged pupils” across the borough. Some parents criticised the closure, saying it would “fracture” the school’s “thriving community” of staff, pupils and families and a petition to save the school attracted more than 6,000 signatures. Hackney Council said the drop in pupil numbers was driven by the housing crisis, Brexit and the pandemic, as well as lower birth rates and the cap on housing benefits. Now, the council has announced plans to reopen the vacant building as a specialist school — part of its strategy to create additional places for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) across the borough. Under the plans, the school would be repurposed to offer 48 new special school places for SEND students, providing tailored support as an expansion of Ickburgh School. Ickburgh’s main site on Kenworth Road would remain unchanged. The repurposed building would feature refurbished classrooms, shared breakout and group areas, specialist art and food technology rooms, staff therapy spaces, and new furnishings and fittings throughout. The council is expected to decide on the plans before the end of the year. If approved, refurbishment work could begin in mid-2026, with the school aiming to welcome pupils by September 2027. Mayor of Hackney, Caroline Woodley, said: “Since the start of the primary school closures in 2024, we have been committed to repurposing all of the buildings in the Council’s control, to ensure they stay in public ownership and help address the challenges the borough faces, rather than being sold off or sitting empty. “By investing into this now vacant site, we are continuing to meet our commitment to create over 300 high quality places for the use of our children with SEND, and give new life to the building.” It comes after Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson urged councils to “think creatively” about how closed schools could be used to address the country’s ongoing special educational needs (SEND) crisis, in an interview with The Standard earlier this year. The latest figures show that the number of children with SEND has skyrocketed from 1.3 million in 2020 to 1.67 million in 2024, with one in four of these children requiring extra help with speech and language. In Hackney, around one in five pupils has a special educational need—a rate slightly higher than both the London average (16.8%) and the national average (19.5%). London Councils forecast that deficits in SEND provision could reach £500 million by 2026/27. It also reported a reduction of 27,490 live births across the capital between 2012 and 2022, a change felt most acutely in the city’s inner boroughs. “We need to reform the system to deliver better targeted support much more quickly, more support in mainstream schools for children with additional needs, but also ensuring we have more specialist provision to provide a brilliant education for children with SEND,” Ms Phillipson said. The new draft Hackney SEND and Inclusion Strategy aims to create inclusive environments and ensure timely support for pupils with SEND. The plan builds on initiatives launched in 2022 to provide 300 additional specialist places by 2026, extending support across both mainstream schools and local special schools. The statutory notice for the proposal will be published on November 6, with feedback open until December 3 this year. Ickburgh School is one of three maintained special schools in Hackney, dedicated to supporting children and young people with SEND whose needs cannot be met within a mainstream setting. The move would reduce the council’s reliance on costly out-of-borough or independent school placements, the council said, while creating local jobs. Funding for the refurbishment is expected to come from the SEN Special Provision Capital Fund.
