Fate of Harrogate's doomed Woodfield Community Primary School to be confirmed next week

North Yorkshire County Council’s executive will next Tuesday be asked to agree to the closure on 31 December.

It comes after council officials said they “exhausted all options” to try to keep the school open after years of falling pupil numbers and an inadequate rating by Ofsted inspectors in 2020.

But parents say the school has been “badly let down” by the local education authority, while councillors have slammed the planned closure as a “disgrace”.

There was just one pupil on the school roll earlier this month after the closure plans were revealed in summer and parents were forced to start looking elsewhere ahead of the new term.

Ward councillor Paul Haslam, who is also a governor at Woodfield, said the sudden death of a former headteacher in 2018 led to instabilities at the school and that an “unfounded slur” on social media then caused an “exodus” of about a third of the pupils later that year.

This is how the secondary schools in Harrogate were rated in their last Ofsted inspection

He said in a letter: “The school was exonerated of any wrongdoing and the correct safeguarding procedures were found to have been followed and to be in place by the local authority, as they were at the Ofsted judgement.

“What failed to happen was a restoration of the reputation of the school and difficulty in getting permanent, long term leadership.

“The school did not get enough support to come back from this reputational damage.”

Councillor Haslam also argued the school should not be closing as Harrogate’s population grows and that it had made good progress since its inadequate rating in January 2020.

But a report to Tuesday’s meeting said government legislation requires the school to close unless an academy sponsor can be found. Any school rated as inadequate is required to become part of an academy, but Woodfield has failed to find one to secure its future.

This is how the 23 primary schools in Harrogate were rated in their last Ofsted inspection

The school had also held merger talks with the nearby Grove Road Community Primary School, but these fell through.

If approved, the closure will mean the Woodfield catchment area will be shared with both Bilton Grange Primary School and Grove Road Community Primary School.

The school’s debts, which were forecast to reach almost £100,000 by the end of 2022/23, will also be absorbed by the council.