Ivydale has always been about “a love of learning for life”. To keep delivering the best education for our children in a changing local context, we are proposing some important changes to how our school is organised.
This page explains:
Across Southwark, and particularly in Peckham and Nunhead, the number of primary-aged children has fallen in recent years. Between 2015 and 2023 there has been a significant drop in births and in applications for Reception places.
For Ivydale, this means:
Like many schools, we are facing financial pressures because funding is based on the number of pupils actually on roll, not on the number of places we could offer. Running two buildings, two kitchens and two sets of utilities without the pupil numbers to match creates a substantial budget shortfall.
We want to address this now so that we can:
We are consulting on reducing our PAN from 90 to 60 children per year group, moving from three classes to two classes in future cohorts. This will bring our official intake in line with the numbers of families currently choosing Ivydale.
Key points:
We are proposing to consolidate Ivydale Primary School on the Bellwood site, with all pupils from Nursery to Year 6 learning together in one building and outdoor space.
Until the upgrade works at Bellwood are complete, Ivydale will continue to operate across both Bellwood and Inverton.
An analysis of both sites looked at overall size, layout and suitability for a two-form entry primary school. This concluded that Bellwood is better suited because it:
The Inverton building will remain in educational use and is planned to become a primary SEND special school, subject to consultation and planning processes led by Southwark Council.
