Hackney’s Baden Powell school closed 2024 but it could become part of an expanded facility for children with special educational needs and disabilities by 2027
An East London primary school which has stood empty since its closure last year is set to reopen as a new special school.
After a collapse in pupil numbers, Hackney Council closed Baden Powell Primary alongside three other schools in August 2024 and merged it with the nearby Nightingale Primary School.
Later that year, the Mayor of Hackney Caroline Woodley said the council was eyeing up “at least one” of the now-empty buildings to be turned into a specialist school for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
On Wednesday (November 5) the council confirmed it planned to reopen the former Baden Powell site as a new specialist facility for 48 pupils.
“By investing into this now-vacant site, we are continuing to meet our commitment to create over 300 high quality places for the use of our children with SEND, and give new life to the building,” the Mayor said.
The reopened site would become part of an expanded Ickburgh School, which is based in Homerton.
If agreed, the old school will undergo significant refurbishment to meet pupils’ needs, including specialist rooms for art and food tech and new and improved staff and therapy spaces.
The council added that the new school would ease its reliance on placing SEND children in more expensive independent schools or facilities out-of-borough, while also creating more jobs.
In Hackney, more than one in five children have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) or receive SEND support, higher than both the London and national averages as of January 2025. This year the borough ranked 23rd in England for the number of pupils with EHCPs.
Labour ward councillors for the area, Sem Moema and Michael Desmond, said the plans showed their party was meeting the challenge from Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, who has urged councils to “think creatively” about how closed schools could address the SEND crisis hitting Britain’s education system.
“We are very pleased to see Baden Powell school take on a new life which will benefit so many vulnerable young people in Hackney, particularly in Hackney Downs ward,” they told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).
Green councillor Alastair Binnie-Lubbock, also representing Hackney Downs, told the LDRS he welcomed the news that the school with a “long history in the community” would remain in the hands of the council and hoped to see other sites similarly closed also used for community benefit.
“We know from listening to parents that this is a much-needed provision, and that more investment is needed,” he said, adding that his party would continue to lobby government for more money for children and youth services.
The council published its statutory notice on Thursday (November 6), and residents will have until December 3 to share their views on the plans. If approved, works would begin next year with an anticipated opening in September 2027.
Baden Powell shut in August 2024 along with three other Hackney primaries – Randal Cremer, De Beauvoir and Colvestone – following an unsuccessful public campaign to keep the schools open.
The local authority is currently weighing up a raft of submissions from community groups for how to repurpose the empty Grade-II listed Colvestone building, including one proposal to transform it into a “vibrant cultural and educational hub”.
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