North Tyneside Greens call on council to reconsider plans to close Monkseaton High School and carry out a full review of schools in North Tyneside to ensure that all options have been considered to save the school.
The North Tyneside Green Party has responded to the recent consultation held by North Tyneside Council on the future of Monkseaton, heavily criticising the consultation and urging the council to rethink plans.
The consultation comes after the council abruptly announced that they were planning to close Monkseaton High School in September, sending local parents into a panic about their children’s education and wellbeing and the formation of an action group that has also held public meetings on the subject.
The school has been facing a decline in pupil numbers over several years and as schools receive funding from the government per pupil, this has resulted in a growing deficit and the council has been unable to find solutions for the school with the board of governors and school leadership, making the school financially unviable.
However, the North Tyneside Green Party has criticised the announcement and the council’s approach to this consultation, saying that the council should have brought in parents and the wider community at an earlier point to look at more creative solutions and to bring them along on the process.
Green Party spokesperson, Penny Remfry, said “It is clear that North Tyneside Council has serious problems with managing the schools in the borough and the latest news that they have not been able to find an alternative solution for Monkseaton High School is very concerning. Surely the council has known about the growing deficit for a long time but has chosen to discuss the future behind closed doors rather than genuinely listening to the community.”
“We believe that the decision on Monkseaton should not be taken in isolation and everything should be done to identify a joined up solution. We have suggested in our consultation response that there needs to be a full review of schools provision in the borough which assesses demand over the long term to ensure the right decisions are made both for the present and the future. We have also proposed other alternatives which should be explored which could keep the school open. Now let’s have a new timetable from the council to set out how a more thorough public consultation can take place.”
The consultation closed on the 30th October and the full consultation response from the North Tyneside Green Party can be found here. The council has since announced that it has decided to move to a statutory consultation about the closure, a week after closing the consultation and further suggesting the previous consultation was not carried out in good faith. If the decision is made to proceed to closure as planned, the school will close at the end of August 2026, with the pupils transferring to other schools in the borough.