Wigan school with ‘no children’ set to close for good on New Year’s Eve

Abram Bryn Gates Primary School was due to close on August 31, 2023 as a result of “declining school budgets and falling numbers of pupils”, but now the council wants it shut on New Year’s Eve.

That was despite objections and headteacher Gillian Talbot saying she was “devastated” by the decision to close it.

Wigan Council’s cabinet suggested in its report the possibility of an early closure was dependent on the number of pupils that remained at the school after the decision to close in June.

Due to all pupils "now having secured places at other schools within the area” for September 2023, the council said they “needed to initiate a decision to close the school at the earliest opportunity”.

“All pupils currently on roll at the school have applied for and been allocated a place at another school,” a report said.

“Therefore there will be no children who will be on roll at the school in September 2022. This means that the school will not attract any per pupil funding from the October census and thus would have no budget allocation from April 23.”

Council officers have used projection data to see that there will not be a large enough rise in demand for places that cannot be tackled by other schools in the area.

There are eight housing developments currently under construction in the area, but none of those would yield enough student places for the council to keep the school open, the report explained.

A major reason the school was closed was because the council revealed it would be £500,000 in debt by the 2024/2025 school year.

There are currently no plans to replace the Lily Lane-based site – which means the number of schools in the area will be cut from four to three.

Five primary schools are within a two-mile walking distance of Abram Bryn Gates.

The cabinet is due to approve the decision to close the school on December 31 at a meeting at Wigan Town Hall this afternoon.