Parents tell of shock as scale of school closures emergeson September 2, 2023 at 12:13 am

Parents have described their shock at being told their children’s schools need to close due to the risk of dangerous concrete collapses.

More than 100 schools have been told to shut areas affected by reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) without safety measures in place.

It follows the collapse last week of a beam previously thought to be safe.

It is unclear how many schools have had to fully close, but it could be as many as 24.

Parents hit out at the timing of the government’s announcement, with some saying the short notice left them scrambling to arrange childcare.

“This is an absolute disgrace,” said Wendy Kirwood, who was told several corridors, a library and sports hall at her son’s school in Workington, Cumbria, were affected.

Martina Eliasova’s daughter was due to start Year Two at Katherines Primary Academy in Harlow next week, but the start of term has been postponed to 11 September.

“It’ll be difficult because she’s only six,” she told the BBC.

“I don’t have family here. I can’t say ‘mum, can you help my daughter?’ I have to either take holiday, or just have her home and somehow battle through.”

The government says parents at 156 schools in England confirmed to have RAAC should have been contacted. Parents who have heard nothing are unaffected, pending further building checks.

Of the total, 52 were deemed a critical risk, and safety measures have already been put in place.

Asked whether buildings at those 52 schools “could have potentially collapsed”, schools minister Nick Gibb told the BBC: “Yes, and that’s why we took action.”

The rest were deemed to be “non-critical”, and were told to develop contingency plans.

But on Thursday, those schools were told to close buildings and rooms with RAAC unless they had safety measures in place.

Meanwhile, the number of schools identified with RAAC could rise as more surveys are carried out.

The government has not said when a list of affected buildings will be published, drawing criticism from the Labour Party – but the BBC has been compiling its own.

Mr Gibb told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme the guidance changed because “a beam that had no sign… that it was a critical risk and was thought to be safe collapsed”.

The incident took place last week, but it is not clear where.

Anne Longfield, former Children’s Commissioner for England, told BBC Radio 4’s World Tonight programme she was “flabbergasted” by the sudden closure of schools, but said it is not “something we can’t take any chances on”.

Ms Longfield, who chairs the Commission on Young Lives, said the return to home learning was a “too swift default”, and it was a “deeply painful reminder” for families who have already faced much disruption.

The Department for Education (DfE) has not given a timeline for replacing the RAAC, which was widely used until the mid-90s.

There are more than 20,000 schools in England.

In Scotland, 35 council-run schools have been had been found to contain the material. All were under assessment.

The Welsh government said it would survey schools and colleges, while Northern Ireland’s Department of Education said schools were being checked as a matter of urgency.

Many children whose classrooms are out of action face being housed in temporary alternatives, other schools or will need to return to online lessons.

Some have already experienced months out of school in recent years due to the pandemic, as well as disruption because of teacher strikes.

Pascal Dowling, whose child’s school in Somerset has been affected, said she wanted the government to “bear responsibility for yet another catastrophic failure”.

“Our children have already had two years of their education turned upside down by Covid countermeasures and now face a winter trying to catch up in hastily constructed sheds,” she said.

Shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson urged ministers to “come clean with parents and set out the full scale of the challenge that we’re facing”.

On Thursday, Education Secretary Gillian Keegan said the plan would “minimise the impact on pupil learning and provide schools with the right funding and support they need to put mitigations in place to deal with RAAC”.

Teachers’ unions have criticised the DfE for making the call so close to pupils returning to school.

The DfE said it would fund the cost of remedial works, such as temporary classrooms.

However, schools would have to bid through the department’s capital funding process for permanent replacements for lost classrooms or buildings.

The risk of injury or death from a school building collapse was said to be “very likely and critical” by the National Audit Office (NAO) watchdog in June.

RAAC is a lightweight “bubbly” form of concrete used widely between the 1950s and mid-1990s – usually in the form of panels on flat roofs, as well as occasionally in pitched roofs, floors and walls. It has a lifespan of about 30 years.

It is still manufactured in hundreds of factories around the world, and is still used as a building material in numerous countries, according to Chris Goodier, professor of construction engineering and materials at Loughborough University.

“It does seem as though the UK is at the forefront of being aware of this problem,” he said, adding that there was little information globally available on its durability.

The Local Government Association said it had been warning about the risk of RAAC since 2018.

The government says it has been aware of RAAC in public sector buildings, including schools, since 1994.

It said it has advised schools to have “adequate contingencies” in place since 2018, in case affected buildings needed to be evacuated.

Aside from schools, numerous public buildings have been identified as being at risk because of RAAC, including courts, hospitals and police stations.

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