FAQ

Use the official response form and explain your view in your own words. It asks for reasons and offers space for alternatives and comments.

Prepare with other parents and use the meeting’s answers to strengthen your response. You can submit now if you are ready; do not miss 16 October while waiting for more information.

Our suggestion: explain what matters to your family or community, give specific examples and link to evidence others can check. Separate your experience from claims about budgets or demand. The printable checklist (PDF) can help you prepare.

Sources: Official response form

No. This parent-led site is separate from the official consultation. Community letters are not automatically forwarded. Sharing a letter with the council is a separate, optional choice with its own consent and a human review. Even then, we cannot guarantee it will be sent or counted.

Read or write a community letter to share your experience here, and respond directly to the council as well. Named supporters are also separate from official responses.

Sources: Community letters and sharing choices · Respond directly to the council

Use Share ideas for an idea, a public source, a correction or a question for the meeting. It is not a donation form. Your submission goes privately to Yann for review; a name and reply email are optional.

Evidence and meeting questions wait for a person to assess them. Nothing is published or sent to the council or meeting automatically. If you choose to allow it, eligible suggestions can be considered for the public board. For your personal views about the school’s future, write a community letter instead.

Please share links to public documents, not private school records or children’s personal information.

Sources: Privacy, moderation and where submissions go

No. The council is consulting on a proposal. Its timetable plans for a committee to decide in November 2026 whether to move to formal consultation. It plans a final decision in April 2027. Closure on 1 September 2027 would depend on approval.

The future timeline separates confirmed chances to take part from planned, conditional stages. Permission in November to continue would not by itself approve closure.

Sources: Council timetable, PDF page 7

The advertised 29 September meeting date has passed. The September PTA preparation sessions are also past events. Their details remain in the Parent action plan for reference.

Use any answers you received and questions still outstanding in your own official response by 16 October 2026. You can respond now without waiting for a meeting record. See the separate 6 October rally information and access updates.

Source: Council’s advertised meeting details

The official response form states 16 October 2026. Submit directly through that form. It does not specify a closing time; allow time rather than assume a late-evening deadline.

The public leaflet gives a wider window for this first stage, while the form gives this exact date. We explain the mismatch in the timeline’s source note. A possible statutory notice would later open a separate four-week representation period.

Sources: Official response form and deadline

It is a projected accumulated deficit, not £400,000 lost every year. An annual gap is the shortfall in one year—for example, the council forecasts £212,417 in 2026/27. An accumulated deficit is the balance after reserves and successive annual gaps are taken into account.

The received final budget summary retains these as indicative forecasts, not current debt or a fundraising target. See the year-by-year forecast and calculation.

Still needed: the ledger, current monitoring and assumptions behind the received summary, to reconcile conflicting reserve wording. See the missing financial evidence.

Sources: Kew FAQ Q5–6, page 4 · Council March 2026 school balances

It has not been reported as an existing £400,000 debt. The council forecasts the balance becoming negative in 2027/28 and an accumulated deficit above £400,000 by 2028/29.

The council papers disagree about when reserves run out. Its budget table projects £19,268 left in March 2027, while other wording says the reserve is exhausted. That projection does not establish cash available today. The received final budget summary also projects a positive balance at that date. Check the forecast and document differences.

Source: Kew FAQ Q5, page 4

There is no agreed £400,000 fundraising target or guarantee that raising it would prevent closure. The forecast is one part of a wider decision about demand, costs and provision. See what the school accounts and forecast each show.

Any funding option needs a sustainable, costed plan and agreement on who would receive and manage money. This site is exploring those questions; it collects no donations or pledges. “Share ideas” is a submissions form, not a payment button.

Sources: Council financial forecast, PDF page 3 · What a costed alternative would need

Yes, applications and admissions can continue during this first, pre-statutory consultation. Normal admissions rules still apply. No one can guarantee a place at Kew or the school’s long-term future.

Prospective families can ask the school what visits are available now and check the official way to apply. Asking about a visit, applying and getting a place are separate steps. Nothing here promises an appointment or a place.

Sources: Council FAQ, question 18, PDF page 8

The published offer is a guaranteed Darell place for current Kew Riverside Primary School pupils whose parents want one, if closure goes ahead. Families can also apply to other schools where places are available.

The papers do not say every child will automatically be enrolled at Darell, or that parents must accept it. They do not yet explain how to apply for or accept the guaranteed place. A guarantee is not the same as a completed offer, so ask the council what your family needs to do. Darell describes specialist SEND provision, but that does not show it has a vacancy or would suit a particular child. Families who need advice about their own child should use their current school and the council’s SEND and admissions services.

Sources: Kew leaflet, PDF page 2 · Council FAQ, question 17, PDF page 8 · Darell specialist provision

Closure has not been decided. There is still an opportunity to make the case for keeping Kew Riverside Primary School open. See what parents can do together now.

No specific deadline for current families to choose or accept a replacement place has been published in the closure papers. The council says it would support families with admissions after a possible April 2027 decision. It says places at named alternative schools would be arranged before September. Follow direct instructions from the school and Achieving for Children when they are issued.

That is separate from normal admissions. Families applying for Reception, or moving to secondary school, should still follow those deadlines. Children with an Education, Health and Care Plan have a separate placement process. Ask the council how support, any change to the plan and each child’s travel assessment would work. Eligibility for travel help is assessed for each child and does not depend only on distance. Do not assume everyone can wait until April, or that no application will be needed.

Still to ask: exactly when current families must express preferences, how Darell offers will be made and accepted, and how individual SEND support and travel needs will be assessed. See the unanswered transition questions.

Sources: Council FAQ, question 29, PDF page 11 · Richmond’s 2027/28 admissions guide (school-hosted PDF) · SEND Code of Practice · DfE school-travel guidance

Kew’s combined expected-standard attainment was 75%, 67% and 73% in 2023, 2024 and 2025, above England’s 60%, 61% and 62%. The trend fluctuated; it did not rise every year. Richmond’s figures were 74%, 76% and 78%, so Kew was below the borough in 2024 and 2025.

These were different, small Year 6 cohorts: 12 eligible pupils at Kew in 2023 and 15 in 2025. The 2024 eligible count has not been independently verified here. Attainment is not a measure of the same children’s progress or proof of what caused their results.

See the chart, subject results, whole-cohort comparisons and downloads. Any comparison with Darell’s past results should also include its newer 2026 results. These are reported by the school and show a recovery.

Sources: Final DfE school results · Richmond and England results · Eligible cohorts

The full 16-page report for the 8 July 2026 inspection is now available from the school and reviewed in this collection. That is the inspection date, not an inferred publication date. The central Ofsted index still listed 2021 latest when checked on 22 September.

Strong standard: early years, inclusion, and personal development and wellbeing. Expected standard: achievement, curriculum and teaching, and leadership and governance. Attendance and behaviour: Needs attention. Inspectors praised behaviour but identified persistent absence. Safeguarding: Standards met.

Next steps include attendance and consistent teaching approaches. Read each category judgement on its own; this site does not turn them into a single overall grade. The newsletter is a separate account.

Source: Full inspection record, with the school-hosted PDF · Inspection summary alongside the learning evidence

The school describes a two-year Cycle A/Cycle B curriculum. It says this is meant to cover the National Curriculum while building on earlier learning. Its current overview labels 2025/26 Cycle B and 2026/27 Cycle A.

For example, the Year 1/2 map lists the Great Fire of London for Cycle A’s first autumn half-term. For Cycle B, it lists the Gunpowder Plot/Remembrance Day. This illustrates alternating topics; it does not by itself show that no child misses or repeats learning. The school’s pages give class counts that do not match, so we do not state a current number.

Inspectors observed pupils supporting younger children’s reading and taking leadership roles. They did not attribute these features to mixed-age grouping. Read the explanation or ask the school how the cycle and support would work for your child.

Sources: School curriculum · Current overview · Curriculum map, PDF page 3 · July inspection, PDF page 6, including its improvement areas

Findings vary by setting, duration and teaching conditions. Mixed-age grouping, smaller classes and structured tutoring are different things. None of these studies shows that mixed-age teaching caused Kew’s attainment or guarantees benefits for any one child.

• Scottish research (Borbely and colleagues, 2023) found early literacy and numeracy benefits for school-starters taught with older peers, but those benefits were short-lived.
• Italian longitudinal research (Barbetta and colleagues, 2023) found initial gains diminished and became negative after several years. The estimated long-term penalty was not statistically distinguishable from zero with more experienced teachers; that is not a guarantee of success.
• A 2025 review of 32 cross-age tutoring studies found positive academic effects, but included adult volunteers as well as older pupils. Organised tutoring is not simply sharing a classroom, and can also happen in single-year classes.
• Nuffield-funded English research runs from January 2026 to July 2027. It is ongoing; results are not yet available.

For evidence about Kew itself, start with the published curriculum and the inspection, including its improvement areas. Our family story is personal experience, not a general research claim.