A WEST End primary facing possible closure should be the catalyst for a radical overhaul of how Whitehall funds educa­tion, parents have said.

St Joseph’s Catholic Primary in Macklin Street, Covent Garden (pictured) is having its future reviewed by Camden. The council say four schools in the borough have seen pupil numbers collapse to the point where they are no longer viable in their present form. They are consulting over possible closures, mergers or systems that would mean sharing headteachers.

Currently, school budgets are based on pupils numbers, and as inner London’s birth rate has fallen by 27 per cent in the past 10 years, funding has dropped.

Parent Michele Zini went to the school as a child, as did her parents. She is one of many who have sent their children to the primary they attended. Parents the Extra spoke to were all determined 175 years of St Joseph’s history should not be disregarded.

She said: “We want to keep the school as it is. Amalgamation with another school should be the last resort, and closure not an option.”

The one-form entry school has 145 children on its roll, and has room for around 100 extra pupils.

Ms Zini called on the government to reform how they fund schools. She said: “There needs to be change at the government level. Smaller schools should not be seen as a problem. We would like to see the pupil funding formula scrapped for inner-London schools.

“The cost of living has had an impact and housing is a massive problem. We have lots of developments but we don’t get enough in terms of social housing. Added to this, there are properties we know of that are left empty. I know of six voids that could be used to house families and help the school bring the numbers up.”

Closure, she said, “would be absolutely devastating. It would mean families forced out of the area. The school is a vital part of this commu­nity. We may be in the West End but it is very much like a village, a place where everyone who lives here knows each other. Without schools, the West End could just come to be about nightlife. Most of the new flats that are private properties are left empty or become Airbnbs, not places to provide housing for people who want to live and work in the area.”

A six-week consultation on the future of primary schools St Joseph’s, St Alban’s CE in Holborn, St Patrick’s Catholic in Kentish Town and secon­dary La Sainte Union in Parliament Hill Fields begins in November.

The National Education Union’s branch secretary Megan Quinn said: “If families cannot afford to live in Camden, rolls will continue to fall. The gov­ernment needs to replace the per pupil funding formula to make smaller class sizes possible, which would benefit all children and help prevent future closures.”

Unison’s Liz Wheatley said: “Pupils are not walking pound signs. There should not be such a rigid funding of education per pupil. Some of the money spent on warfare should be spent on things that make our society better and that includes educating our children. There is a housing crisis where working-class people cannot afford to live here. Pupil numbers go down and that means less funding for education. This is a ridiculous way to run schools.

“We are seeing young people in France taking to the streets over under-funded education and large class sizes. Maybe we need some French lessons.”

Parents and teachers gathered for a council cabinet debate on Tuesday. Camden Labour council­lor Marcus Boyland told Extra: “There is under­standable anxiety from school communities, but I stressed to parents and teachers this is just the start of the conversation. No decisions have been taken. There are options on the table that schools may stay open. We do not want a panicked response. We will support schools in their ideas about alterna­tive plans that might be put forward, but they have to be viable… Schools cannot be run with high deficits and low numbers of pupils.”