Respond to the consultation

That’s great that you want to support! Thank you!

Please take a look at our reasons why we want to keep our school open.

We encourage you to then visit Lambeth’s Consultation page to submit your response to the proposal.

Tell other people &

Share our social media

We need as many people as possible to respond to the online consultation and say they do not want our school to amalgamate. It’s a few clicks to submit. Please encourage other interested parties and members of our community to do it too.

We need to tell Lambeth Council that we do not believe that the merger would be in the best interests of St John the Divine or our local community. The more responses provided to Lambeth, the better.

We have social media up on Facebook and on Twitter with information about our school, and this campaign.

Please do share the posts we have up, or create your own. There are some images you can use below.

Write or email

Please also consider writing letters/emails to our local MP, and Councillor Ben Kind, who will be one of the 8 members of Cabinet who will vote on whether our school site will close. There is also a consultation email address that you may wish to copy in. You may also wish to share our social media posts at @SaveSJTD on Twitter/X and on Facebook

We’d love everyone to make the strongest arguments they can against Lambeth Council’s proposed plans and to reinforce why St John the Divine school is special and deserves to stay open for generations to come – for our children’s children to be able to come to school here, just as some of our current pupil’s parents did. Please do put your own views and thoughts, in your own words, to make it clear to Lambeth why you think our school is worth saving.

How to write to your representatives to help usDownload

Contact details

  • Ben Kind – Councillor & Cabinet Member for Children & Families in Lambeth who is on twitter/’X’ @BenKind or can be emailed at bkind@lambeth.gov.uk

Issues with the proposals you might wish to consider mentioning:

  • The headlines –
    • Just 1% of our pupils are White British. Saint John the Divine has a high proportion of pupils who would be eligible to receive free school meals, and who speak English as a second language and are not yet proficient in English. More than the Lambeth average school, and much more than the nationally average school.
    • Despite these challenges, our academic results are excellent – in the top 30% of Lambeth primary schools.
    • Lambeth have refused to listen to our parents, our pupils and our community’s response to their initial consultation.
    • The governors of the school, a number of whom are church members, have worked hard to ensure the school has a balanced budget.. The school’s running costs are lower than many others, and the school has no deficit, unlike many school sites that Lambeth plan to leave open. The school rolls- the number of children attending – are increasing, bucking the Lambeth trend of decline.
    • We cannot see why our school would be earmarked for closure. Lambeth claims to be ‘a borough with social and climate justice as its heart’. But our chair of governors has called these proposals ‘socially unjust’ – our community are mystified and deeply disappointed by them.
  • St John the Divine outperforms both the Lambeth averages at key stage 1 & 2;  last year our Year 6 group were in the top 5% in the country for reading. For black African children in particular, our outcomes are exceptional, outperforming both the national and Lambeth KS1 averages (our black pupils perform above the Lambeth average by 20% in reading, 16% in writing & 10% in maths).  This is despite 68% of our pupils having English as an additional language.  More facts & figures here. These amazing achievements are the result of our school culture, our staff and children, and our community – they will not necessarily transfer to the new school if amalgamated.
  • St John the Divine is in a far better financial position than many other schools – it does not have a financial deficit! It makes no sense to close a school that is running a balanced budget. The staff and governors have done an excellent job of keeping the books balanced and the school well-run. If relevant you could comment on the size of your child’s class, including to say that children have joined the school from other schools during this/previous years – we know class sizes often fluctuate over the school year.
  • We are particularly disappointed that Lambeth is making this amalgamation proposal when our school Governors had already agreed at the authority’s request to reduce the PAN (admissions) to 15 from 2025. We did what Lambeth wanted – their response has been to propose the closure of our site.
  • Many of our children live on the Brandon estate – shockingly dubbed ‘the deadliest estate in Britain’ by the national press in 2018 after a spate of gang violence.  Headlines in 2019 called it an ‘estate of broken promises‘. One primary school has already closed on this estate this year. These children need to feel safe and supported – and this is what we do, as evidenced by OFSTED saying our pupils feel happy and safe, and that ‘Leaders know pupils and their families well. They are acutely aware of challenges in the local community and respond well to them. Staff teach pupils how to manage some of the risks they might face.’ Lambeth Council’s ‘Lambeth 2030’ vision promises that they will work ‘so that children, teenagers, and young adults are safe at home, school and in public spaces’. Our children are already safe and supported despite their challenging context – yet the Council proposals would end that.
  • St John the Divine is very much the centre of the community, together with the parish church, and has fostered a real sense of belonging in an area that is not wealthy and has some significant challenges. To remove the school would have a major impact on the identity of our community.
  • The location and size of the school contribute to create a surrounding environment in which the kids feel safe and there’s a great deal of natural surveillance (everyone knows everyone, there’s a feeling that no much bad could happen without someone else in the community knowing). On the Brandon estate, this is vital to the safety and wellbeing of the children who live locally.
  • How wonderful and supportive a school St John the Divine is, and the benefit it brings to our community and to the Brandon Estate.
  • The commute to Christ Church would include crossing a very busy main road increasing the chance of traffic incidents.
  • Our school is more than 150 years old and is on the Lambeth Heritage list.
  • The events organised by the PTA including the incredibly popular summer fair, provide a positive community focal point, and are an annual highlight for many children in a very deprived area.