Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many local authority maintained schools designated as rural were shut down in (1) 2019, (2) 2020, and (3) 2021.

The table below shows the number of mainstream local authority maintained primary schools that are designated by order as rural as part of the Rural Primary Schools Designation and have closed in the years stated in the question. This data has been taken from Get Information About Schools, the department’s register of schools. Schools are identified as rural via the Office of National Statistics Rural Urban Classification. The data excludes closures of schools which are not local authority maintained primary schools as set out in Section 15 (4) of Education and Inspections Act 2006.

The presumption against the closure of rural schools means that when considering proposals to close a rural local authority maintained primary school, decision makers must refer to the list of rural designated schools. This does not mean that a rural school will never close, but that the case for closure should be strong and clearly in the best interests of educational provision in the area. The bodies listed under Section 16 (1) of the Education and Inspections Act 2006 are also required to be consulted when proposing the closure of a rural local authority maintained primary school, and other alternatives to closure must have been considered.