Guide to the proposed closure of Monkseaton Middle School

Introduction

North Tyneside’s population is changing. With birth rates falling steadily since 2018/19 there are now around 300 fewer children born each year. That’s the equivalent to 10 fewer classes annually.

There are now too many schools for the number of children in North Tyneside and too many places in the three-tier system in the Whitley Bay/Monkseaton area, which is also known by the Council as the North East Planning Area (NEPA).

The Council needs a clear plan to make sure the system works well for children who live in the area.

Part of this proposed plan is the closure of Monkseaton Middle School. This would mean the school would stop admitting pupils into Year 5 from September 2026. There would be no changes this academic year. If the proposal moves to the next phase, a full timeline will be discussed with school leaders and then shared with the community.

At the same time the Council is proposing:

To merge Langley First School and Appletree Gardens First School
To work with three other middle schools to reduce admission numbers
To work with Whitley Bay High School to permanently increase admission number

The Council believes this would support the alignment of admission numbers from First through to High School and create educational and financial stability for the three-tier system.

It gives pupils from the NEPA who are starting first schools the best chance of getting a place at a middle school and then Whitley Bay High School, if that is their preference. There is more on this below.

The consultation will commence on 2 October 2025 and end at noon on 13 November 2025. If no viables alternatives are found, the Council will move into the statutory consultation period with the outcome expected to be announced in January 2026.

If the proposal moves to the next phase we would work with employers - school leadership and governing bodies - to agree a full timeline and we expect changes to be implemented by September 2027.

You may have some questions to ask, and this document will provide you with the background.

There are more answers in options and background document and in the Frequently Asked Questions on Our North Tyneside Voice . Please read this in full before submitting your consultation response.

Background – Pupil numbers

Birth rates have fallen since 2018/19 and fewer pupils are entering schools. The new homes being built in North Tyneside will still not bring in enough children to fill all the schools.

Primary and First schools are already only 87% full and this will drop to 75% as smaller year groups move through.

In NEPA this is more prevalent. Since 2018/19, there have been 113 fewer children born here, when compared to the highest rate, in 2010/2011. There are, and will be, too many empty places, or ‘surplus places’ at NEPA schools.

What is the rationale for the proposal to close Monkseaton Middle School?

The Council considered many factors before making this proposal. These include the school building and location, the local area, financial viability, pupil numbers and surplus capacity.

Pupil numbers at Monkseaton Middle School are falling and the school is only around 60% full.

There are three other middle schools in the NEPA, and the current birth rate and projections show that none of these four schools will be full in the future.

Currently, the vast majority of families living in the catchment area are not choosing to send their child to Monkseaton Middle.

Only around 1 in 10 middle school-aged children living in the catchment area attend the school.

82% of pupils at the school now do not live in the catchment area. Half of the current pupils travel from outside the NEPA to attend the school.

It is important that families have choices and options for their children, but the number of schools within the NEPA means families have too many schools to choose from, and pupil numbers are spread too thinly.

This puts the school in a vulnerable financial position. Schools receive their funding based on the number of pupils in attendance, so high numbers of surplus places are not sustainable.

Monkseaton Middle School is not projected to have a deficit in the next few years (spending more than the funding it receives) but the extra spaces it will have in the future are a significant financial risk.

Other schools in Monkseaton/Whitley Bay

Monkseaton High School

In December 2024, the Council agreed the closure of Monkseaton High School from September 2026 because the school had too many empty places which wasn’t sustainable financially, and the school was forecast to have a £7m deficit. This means that the number of High School places available in the three-tier system is reduced.

Whitley Bay High School

Whitley Bay High School has temporarily increased its admission number to 390. Part of the Council’s proposals are to work with the school’s leadership and governing body to make this a permanent number.

If it is agreed, all admission numbers from First School through to High School should be equal. This gives NEPA families who want their child to stay in a three-tier system the best chance of that happening. If Whitley Bay admitted 390 pupils in Year 9 then the maximum number of pupils in each year group across all first and middle schools in the area should be 390.

Other middle schools

Work is then proposed to take place with Valley Gardens Middle School, Marden Bridge Middle School and Wellfield Middle School to amend their admission numbers to meet 390.

The Council believes this could be achieved in this way:

Valley Gardens Middle School – to amend admissions from 192 to 180
Wellfield Middle School – to amend admissions from 90 to 60
Marden Bridge Middle School – to keep admissions at 150

This proposal would reduce the number of other Middle School places by a further 42 places to reach the total of 390.

First schools

A consultation is currently taking place on the proposed merger of Langley First School and Appletree Gardens First School. If agreed, this would mean that capacity throughout the system is capped at 390 places per year group.

Which other options have been considered?

The school provides a high quality, mainstream provision for children with SEND and this has been carefully considered. The Council’s SEND Support Service would work directly with children and young people with an Education Health and Care Plan which names Monkseaton Middle School, to ensure a smooth transition to another setting were the decision taken to close Monkseaton Middle School.

The number of new homes being built now and in the future in the NEPA was also considered. On average, each 100 homes bring an extra 32 pupils across all twelve year groups. Even with all the homes planned in NEPA and indeed across all of North Tyneside, there would still not be enough pupils to fill the empty places at first and middle schools.

The intention of all options considered was to ensure there are 390 places across each year group in the three-tier system – in First Schools, Middle Schools and the High School.

Other options have been considered and modelled which have looked at all Middle schools and taking no action. These can be found in more detail in the Options and Data document.

The table below shows how the gap between the number of pupils the school can hold and the number of pupils projected to go to Monkseaton Middle would grow, if no action was taken.

All options considered looked at several factors, including the school building and location, local housing and birth rates, financial viability and pupil numbers and surplus capacity.

Some of them were options that the Council could not support financially, all of them would necessitate a school closure but with a larger number of pupils being displaced. All of the other options would also leave a larger distance for children to travel to school.

What happens next?

Any proposal for school reorganisation must be carried out in accordance with Department for Education (DfE) statutory guidance.

The Council cannot take a decision to merge a school without having held a consultation on the proposal, which will include seeking the views of members of the public. The first stage of consultation will be informal and opens on 02 October 2025.

The detail below sets out the expected timescales for the process:

Consultation – 2 October to 13 November 2025

The initial consultation will take place for six weeks. This will include the publication of consultation material and parental information sessions. Once the consultation closes, the Council will analyse the responses.

Statutory Public Notice and Representation Period – November to December 2025

Following a thorough analysis of consultation responses, and if appropriate, a delegated decision will be required to publish a statutory notice. As part of the analysis of consultation responses, all options not previously explored will be considered and necessary due diligence undertaken.

If an alternative viable option is presented, the timeline would need to be reviewed, and we would taken the necessary time to evaluate. If no viable alternative options are put forward the Council will decide to proceed with this proposal. At this stage, statutory notices would be published which commences a Statutory Representation Period. This is where any person or organisation can submit comments to the Council within a four-week period.

Decision Making – January 2026

Once the representation period closes, the Council’s cabinet would consider responses to the statutory notice and make the final decision on whether to agree the proposal or not.

Taking part in the consultation

We are clear that no decision has been made. The public consultation runs until noon on 13 November 2025. We encourage you to take part in the online consultation on Our North Tyneside Voice. A range of Frequently Asked Questions are available on the site, please read these before completing the survey.

If you need us to do anything differently to help you take part in this survey, including providing this information in another language or format, please click here