‘This administration doffs its cap to institutions that perpetuate social division’

Opposition politicians have reacted furiously to plans for a city centre school to use the site of a former primary school nearby.

In February 2021, Bristol’s cabinet took the decision to close St George Primary at the foot of Brandon Hill, a decision which even the cabinet member for education said was “not a day of glory I feel for education in Bristol”.

But just one year after one of the city’s oldest primary schools closed for the final time, its classrooms will be used by Cathedral Primary School, who occupy the lower levels of Central Library.

Bristol24/7 understands that the council-owned site on Queen’s Parade will be used to teach the youngest pupils at Cathedral Primary for at least two years, but the arrangement will likely be for longer.

Bristol City Council have been contacted for comment.

Before St George closed, it had been hoping to join Cathedral Schools Trust, which oversees nine schools across Bristol including Hotwells Primary School, St Werburgh’s Primary School and the new Trinity Academy in Lockleaze.

Places at Cathedral Primary School are randomly allocated to children living within the postcode areas BS1 to BS16, meaning that some pupils are driven several miles to school every morning from across the city.

Cathedral Primary School is also the only school within Cathedral Schools Trust whose pupils are guaranteed entry to Cathedral Choir School, which also does not have a catchment area.

In a statement sent to Bristol24/7, a spokesperson for Cathedral Schools Trust said: “We are planning to use St George Primary School for temporary accommodation whilst some required refurbishment takes place at Cathedral Primary School, as per the letter sent out to parents and carers.”

St George was one of the oldest schools in Bristol before closing in 2021 – photo: Martin Booth

Shadow cabinet member for education, Christine Townsend, said that Cathedral Primary moving onto the former St George Primary site “reinforces and extends existing social division within our communities”.

She said: “Those who run the Cathedral Trust have been angling to get their hands on the historic St George Primary site since before they got permission to house their socially selective primary school in the basement of Bristol’s Central Library.

“The blocker from their end was the demographic of the children – very different to the schools that carry the name of the Cathedral.

“Those traditionally educated at St George Primary had lived locally, many grew up in poverty and were in receipt of free school meals. Tradition and community service – the focus of the work the Cathedral tells us it carries out – is ripped up in relation to the schools that carry its name.

“These schools claim to use random selection admissions arrangements, open to students from all over Bristol. But the outcome is one that appears to be ‘socially selective’, where local children or those from poorer parts of the city end up under-represented, the intake dominated by children of the affluent.

“For example, Cathedral Primary currently has 18 per cent of its cohort entitled to free school meals, whilst Willow Park, the newly renamed school on the site of St Michael on the Mount, a primary school that serves the local community, has a free school meal entitlement rate of 46 per cent. The current rate across Bristol is 26 per cent.

“As Cathedral Primary is enabled to extend onto the site of St George Primary it reinforces and extends existing social division within our communities. Schools must be places where children can mix across social classes.

“The ever repeated ruse of ‘anyone can apply’ is immediately exposed for what it is when the school’s own data is examined, but yet again we see the political administration of this city doffing its cap to the very institutions that perpetuate social division and educational exclusivity across the state sector.”

Main photo: Martin Booth

Read more:

• Saying a sad goodbye to one of Bristol’s oldest schools
• ‘Not a day of glory for education’ as decision taken to close primary schools’
• ‘Marvin Rees’ administration has failed Bristol’s children’

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