Yorkshire estate village primary school faces closure as council prepare to open consultation after pupil numbers fall to below 10

Skelton Newby Hall C of E Primary School, in the village of Skelton-on-Ure near Ripon, has seen its roll halve since 2020 and council education chiefs fear it is no longer sustainable.

The school shares a headteacher with its partner school, Sharow C of E Primary, and key stage two teaching has now merged.

It has capacity for 52 children, and in 2020 had 20 pupils. Following a Requires Improvement rating by Ofsted as a result of an inspection that year, the roll dropped to 15, with two nursery attendees, and there are now nine children in full-time education and one in the nursery – only four of whom actually live in the catchment area. It has not had 50 pupils since 2016.

A census carried out in 2021 found that only six of the 27 primary-aged children living in the catchment area were attending Skelton Newby Hall and there is no new housing planned for the village under Harrogate’s Local Plan.

This autumn the governors held an extraordinary meeting to discuss the school’s future, and voted unanimously to ask the county council to begin a consultation on a closure effective from August 2023.

According to a North Yorkshire County Council report: “This decision was not taken lightly by the governing body. The main issue was being able to provide such a small number of pupils with the rounded education that they deserve together with little prospect of future improvement in pupil numbers.”

The consultation decision will be put to a council committee later this month. If approved, the eventual closure would see the village become part of an enlarged catchment area for Kirby Hill C of E Primary School, which has spare places, rather than Sharow, which is oversubscribed.

The consultation would open in early January and run for a period of around six weeks, with the council making a final decision in May.

Skelton Newby Hall was originally the school for the nearby Newby Hall estate, and founded by Lady Mary Vyner in 1856. The male Vyner line died out in 1915 and the estate is now owned by the Compton family.