The ECHO spoke to parents and schoolchildren campaigning to not only save their school but also the community they have built
05:00, 22 Mar 2026Updated 10:32, 22 Mar 2026
Anna Mulholland holding her son and standing next to her daughter Alice Mulholland, 15, who has attended LIPA School since she was four-years-old(Image: Liverpool Echo)
Children in Liverpool are devastated after a decision was made to close down their school. Both parents and children said they are angry and upset about the proposed closure, and are fearful of an uncertain future, with one teenager telling us: “It feels like a storm coming towards us, and we don’t know what to do.”
Based in Upper Duke Street in Liverpool city centre, LIPA School (LIPAS) opened in September 2014 and is an academy for primary and secondary school pupils aged 4-16, but last month, the Liverpool ECHO revealed a decision had been taken to permanently close the school at the end of the summer.
As a result, we arranged to meet some parents outside LIPAS to get an update on their campaign to save the school, and also gage their feelings about the proposed closure. We get speaking to Anna Mulholland who is standing with her daughter Alice, 15, who has attended LIPA since she was four.
Alice said: “The teachers here are lovely, and we all have such a close bond with them. It’s just a very close community, and what’s been said about us is not what everyone here has been experiencing, and I wish they would listen to us.
Alice Mulholland, 15, who has attended LIPA since she was four-years-old(Image: Liverpool Echo)
“When I saw the Ofsted report I was unhappy, but expected some things to change, when I heard they planned to close the school I was really upset and I just don’t understand it
“I want to do something with sports, or I want to go into a career in dance and a lot more. I feel like other schools don’t offer those opportunities for me to be able to go on and pursue a career like that.
“I’m in the year before I actually do my GCSEs, and if they close the school, I’ll have to go to a different school and possibly pick completely different GCSEs, and it’d be very hard to catch up.”
Speaking about the moment she heard about the planned school closure, Alice’s mum Anna said: “It came as a shock initially, because Alice just went to school on the Friday, and then at six minutes past nine, we randomly got this email, which made it sound very much like a done deal.
“My initial response was to be really upset, and then I thought about what we can do to save the school, so I launched the petition, and a WhatsApp group which has over 200 parents, all really active fighting for the same cause.
“We’ve now got a four-week ‘listening period’, which is an interesting turn of phrase, because no one actually seems to be listening to us, and they’re not calling it a formal consultation, which I would query as well.
Anna Mulholland’s daughter currently attends LIPA School(Image: Liverpool Echo)
“Because they’re not listening, they are not aware of what we see everyday. We’re seeing happy children, thriving children, amazing staff. We are seeing all the strides the staff have taken to address the issues in the Ofsted report and we can see a massive difference already.
“The leadership have put us in a position where the school has made all this improvement, and the school is not even going to get a monitoring visit or a re-inspection and get confirmation of those improvements, something that is pretty standard for any other school which has been rated ‘inadequate’.
“As parents, we know that this is a good place for our children to be, or we wouldn’t be fighting so hard to keep it open.”
The campaign to ‘Save LIPA’ has generated lots of public support, and prompted a statement from Liverpool’s MP for Riverside Kim Johnson, adding her voice to the unfolding situation, and highlighting the plight of parents and children who are desperate to keep their school open.
Ms Johnson said last week: “The proposed closure of LIPA School has created profound distress and uncertainty for families across our community. The scale of disruption to children’s education and wellbeing cannot be overstated, and the concerns expressed by parents in recent days are entirely justified.”
Dagmara Wojciechowicz has two children who attend LIPA school including her daughter Bianca, 7, who joined in 2022, she told us about the impact the situation is having on her family, and the anxiety it is causing.
Dagmara Wojciechowicz has two children who attend LIPA school including her daughter Bianca, 7, who joined in 2022 (Image: Liverpool ECHO)
Dagmara said: “There is a big drop in pupil numbers due to […] upper management moving children out and placing them in other schools already.
“As a result, my children are rapidly losing their friend networks and feel torn between wanting to be with their friends but also wanting to be in a space they know and love.
“LIPA has been a part of our family life since 2017. We met friends through the school community, and feel at home in LIPA.
“Our children have always been described as ‘LIPA kids’ and the performing art aspect of their learning is unmatched. Just last school year my daughter performed at The Cavern, St George’s Hall, The Everyman. It’s difficult to think what other school could give our children such opportunities?”
LIPA primary and high school opened in September 2014 in Upper Duke Street and while it shares a name with the original performing arts academy founded by Sir Paul, it is run entirely separately by the LIPA Multi-Academy Trust (MAT), which also includes a sixth form college.
Last summer, Ofsted inspectors published a report on the performance of the school, rating it ‘inadequate’ in all categories. That report formed part of a chain of events which culminated in the DfE’s decision to close the school down.
A recent protest outside LIPA Primary School in Liverpool, March 4(Image: Liverpool Echo)
A letter was sent to parents last month which was attributed to Kevin Sexton, the chair of trustees for the LIPA Multi Academy Trust; Paul Johnson, the school’s executive headteacher and acting headteacher Claire McKendrick.
The letter stated: “We are deeply saddened to have to let you know that the Secretary of State for Education along with the board of trustees has made a substantive decision that the school should close as of the 31 August 2026.”
In response, parents have started a petition which went live on Friday (February 27), and has already generated more than 4,300 signatures, all keen to offer their support. Campaigners are urging the DfE, Liverpool Local Education Authority, and the Secretary of State for Education to reconsider the planned closure, and find a sustainable solution.
Campaigners like James Trafford, 42, the father of a 15-year-old who currently attends LIPA school and is preparing for his GCSEs.
James describes the school as a unique place which continues to provide his son with an excellent education, and a safe and nurturing environment in which to learn and grow into a young adult.
James said: “I think the philosophy of teaching behind this school, through the arts, is really something new and groundbreaking. It’s certainly something that grabbed us when we first looked around it.
James Trafford’s son currently attends LIPA School (Image: Liverpool ECHO)
“In terms of the location, it’s in a great area. I’ve lived in Liverpool for 20 years now, and it’s just a wonderful place, the school is really vibrant, energetic and full of life, and exactly what this city is all about.
“Access to the arts can so limiting if people aren’t from wealthy backgrounds or can’t afford to go to fee paying schools, so it’s really good to have this school here and open to anyone.”
In reference to the Ofsted report and whether it’s inspection methodology is fit to properly assess a school like LIPA, James adds: “There is so much focus and pressure put on schools to attain targets, and the only way to attain targets is to ascribe strict measurement criteria to those targets.
“This constant draw upon metrics, is unbalanced and can mean children are just taught to pass exams, rather teaching them to think critically and creatively.
“That’s what we have here, with our children performing excellently at both an academic level, lots of them predicted for outstanding grades in core curriculum subjects, but also thriving as young people.”
We met some of those young people outside the school and spoke to them about their experience and what they thought about the situation.
Ellie Nguyen, 15, has attended Lipa School for the last ten years(Image: Liverpool Echo)
Ellie Nguyen, 15, has attended LIPA School for the last ten years, and said the school has a really close community bond, shared by pupils, parents and all the teachers, she added: “I’ve been at LIPA School for almost my whole life, and we’re all family here because we’ve all grown up together.
“The prospect of losing this place, it’s like you’re losing a part of yourself. It’s made us all realise how grateful we are to have this school here, and the plan to close it has broken us all.
“It feels like a storm coming towards us, and we don’t know what to do. Everyone’s parents are stressed, the teachers are worried about losing their jobs, and me and the other pupils have had our future’s thrown into doubt, including the ones preparing for our exams.”
These sentiments were shared by Douglas Trafford, 15, who like Ellie, is currently working towards his GCSEs, and has high hopes, particularly in science, he said: “I know all of the teachers, and they know exactly what I need.
“I’ve really, really enjoyed being a part of it, and no matter what happens, we trust we will get good GCSEs here, but the threat of losing the school looms on the horizon and it puts all our chances in jeopardy.
Douglas Trafford, 15, currently attends LIPA School(Image: Liverpool Echo)
“If they do close the school I’d feel angry and I’d feel disappointed, because the people making that decision would have failed us.”
The ECHO previously approached LIPA School for comment on the concerns raised by the parents and pupils and were directed to the Department for Education (DfE). We contacted the DfE regarding the same points, as well as some prepared by the parents of LIPA students.
These included questions about the number of schools which have been closed after ‘inadequate’ reports against those given improvement plans, whether recent improvements will be factored into its future decision making, post-‘listening period’.
Parents also expressed complaints about the leadership of the current board of trustees, their apparent lack of contact and accountability, and whether the executive headteacher’s recent, and additional appointment as the executive principal at North Liverpool Academy, would reduce leadership resource at LIPA School.
Responding to those points and the issues raised in this article, a Department for Education spokesperson told us: “We have taken the difficult decision to close Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts (LIPA) School by mutual consent.
“The decision to close any school is not taken lightly. Declining pupil numbers and the school’s unsustainable financial position has made it challenging for the trust to continue to provide an environment that offers a high-quality education.
“We understand the closure of the school is a matter of concern for the community.
“The trust and Liverpool City Council will offer their full support to parents while they work to find suitable alternative schools for pupils.”