It could have been merged with Cathedral Primary School
Filipa Gaspar, SWNS and Carl Eve Crime Reporter
16:31, 25 Nov 2025
Former Question Time presenter David Dimbleby(Image: D Legakis Photography/Athena)
A 100-year-old secular school has been saved from merging with a faith school – after protests from campaigners including presenter David Dimbleby.
The Department for Education has declined an application to amalgamate Hotwells Primary School with Cathedral Primary School in Bristol.
This comes following communication sent on November 20 to parents by the schools’ academy trust.
The plans would have resulted in one school spread over both sites which would take on the name and Church of England ethos of Cathedral Primary School.
The plans sparked protests from parents of children at both schools.
A protest outside Hotwells Primary School on Monday, June 23, 2025, against its closure and takeover by Cathedral Primary School(Image: National Secular Society)
Locals objecting to the merger included TV presenter David Dimbleby, who supported parents by helping to distribute leaflets.
His grandchildren are understood to have attended Hotwells.
Parents were also supported by the National Secular Society (NSS), which campaigns for inclusive, secular state-funded schools free from religious discrimination or control.
In June, parents at Hotwells launched a campaign website and a petition urging the schools’ academy trust not to “erase Hotwells Primary school, losing the only local secular primary choice”.
A merger or closure of Hotwells Primary would mean all primary schools in the Clifton and Hotwells and Harbourside wards would be Church of England faith schools.
The petition gained over 1,400 signatures, while a separate petition by parents at Cathedral Primary received over 700 signatures.
Save Hotwells Primary School website says “this is not a merger but a takeover that would end 100 years of Hotwells Primary as we know it”.
Cathedral Schools Trust (CST), which oversees both schools, said the merger was needed due to falling pupil numbers.
In its communication to parents, CST said it will “continue to work closely with the Department for Education, the City Council and other stakeholders in considering what happens next and it remains committed to ensuring that the children in its care receive the best education possible.”
Cathedral Primary School (Pictured September 2020).(Image: Google Maps)
NSS head of campaigns Megan Manson congratulated parents and other residents who campaigned to stop the amalgamation.
She said: “This is a fantastic victory for the children and families of Hotwells Primary School, who were extremely clear from the start that they did not want their inclusive, secular school taken over by a religious one.
“Bristol’s population is increasingly nonreligious and religiously diverse. Removing the only nonreligious primary school in the local area would have been an extremely shortsighted move.
“Our schools need to bring families of different religions and beliefs together, not segregate them according to religion or alienate families who do not share the religion or the school.”
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