On Thursday, the emails that have left headteachers reeling started to arrive. A ruling from ministers in the Department for Education said their schools, built using potentially dangerous concrete, would need to close or partially close.
Within hours, parents and children had been informed. Many were left angry and confused by the timing of the announcement, just before the start of a new school year. Schools across England were left with days to improvise temporary classrooms from marquees or empty office buildings, or arrange to share space with unaffected schools. The majority of schools will open as usual but for tens of thousands of pupils the new academic year will start like no other.
By the end of Friday, the list of affected schools ranged from Hampshire to Cumbria, with many others still waiting to discover if they also need urgent repairs.
“It’s been extremely stressful,” one teacher at an affected school told the Guardian. “An absolute nightmare.”
Kingsdown school in Southend-on-Sea, a special educational needs (SEN) establishment that educates children with complex needs including cerebral palsy, Down’s syndrome, and autistic children, was told on Thursday to close its main building, leaving staff to urgently phone parents.
Lydia Hyde, a Labour and Co-operative party local councillor, said the families of pupils at Kingsdown had been thrown into chaos.
“It’s difficult enough to get babysitting arrangements, but for children with additional needs it’s virtually impossible. We’re going to see parents not being able to go to work, siblings where parents would have taken them to school might not be able to, she said. “There is specialist and bespoke equipment, specifically designed for a child’s needs, which at present cannot be retrieved because we are not allowed into the building.”
Hyde said the timing of the decision was baffling, not least because DfE inspectors were aware of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) at the school in the spring.
“There will be big questions asked about how this was allowed to happen, why the families have been thrown into such chaos. When you have a school with pupils dealing with such complex needs, surely, once you know there is Raac, the government should have a contingency plan in place? This has come as a huge shock to parents and teachers. The question is: why on earth wasn’t there a plan?”
Southend-on-Sea council said it had been working with the school and DfE to discuss and develop contingency plans.
Louise Robinson, the headteacher of Kingsdown school, said: “Instead of preparing to welcome our students back to class, we’re having to call parents to have very difficult conversations about the fact the school is closed next week. We’re hoping that a solution can be found that allows us to open the school, at least partially, but that entirely relies on ensuring the safety of our pupils and staff, and approval by DfE.”
Across Essex, where at least 65 of the Raac-identified schools can be found, parents are scrambling to find out if their children will be able to go to class next week.
Parents at St Andrew’s junior school in Hatfield Peverel, Essex, have been left reeling by the decision on Thursday to close the school because of an unsafe roof.
One father of a child at the school said: “The school has not made any alternative provisions to use any other building in the area, although we do not blame the school for this situation.
“They have ordered some temporary classrooms which may arrive by mid-September. We are hearing that our children will have to use remote learning again, which is heartbreaking for children still getting over the Covid lockdown.”
Another parent of a child at the same school said: “We want answers from the government – why leave it so late before telling everyone that the schools had to be closed?”
The government has refused to reveal the 104 education facilities that have been told to shut buildings, and critics have said the problems with Raac could be far wider.
The frustration of parents and teachers has prompted senior Conservatives to demand clarity and answers.
Priti Patel, the former home secretary, whose constituency of Witham includes St Andrew’s and four other schools affected by Raac, said: “Ministers need to explain why the decision to close schools was not taken sooner so schools and parents could plan and why provision had not been made sooner, which would have prevented the disruption to learning and teaching which we are now about to see.
“The government must act quickly and effectively to address this problem, make our school buildings safe and respond to the questions and concerns that have been raised.”
Another Essex MP, who asked not to be named, said: “School closures are a real vote loser not least because it forces parents to take time off work. This particular crisis adds to the idea of a government which is in freefall. I think Rishi Sunak will be aware of that, and will have to get a grip, and quickly.”
Three hundred miles north of Southend, parents of pupils at Cockermouth school in Cumbria have been told that the start of term will be delayed by a day to deal with the Raac issues.
In correspondence shared with the Guardian by Cumberland council, the headteacher and chair of trustees at the school said four corridors, the library and the sports hall – where alumnus Ben Stokes, the England cricketer, took lessons – would be off-limits.
A Cumberland council spokesperson said: “We are aware of one school which has been identified as having some elements of its structure made by Raac. Cumberland council are working with the school and the Department for Education to provide support where necessary. The school are in contact with parents directly.”
Kenneth Hope’s 11-year-old daughter was due to begin secondary at Ferryhill school in County Durham, on Tuesday – until the family received an email informing them that the school would not be open until 11 September.
Hope, who has six children, said the short notice had put his family in a difficult position. “My daughter just wants to get there, she’s been a bit apprehensive about starting secondary school,” he told the BBC.
Bradford council has had to restrict access to parts of two its local authority-maintained primary schools where Raac has been identified: Crossflatts primary school and Eldwick primary school.
Only qualified concrete specialists will be able to access these areas to assess and carry out the required remedial works. At least eight teaching spaces across both sites have been lost, alongside other staffing facilities across both sites and the loss of the kitchen at Crossflatts.
Education provision will continue at the schools in the short term with alterations to the safe areas so that all children can be accommodated on the school sites.
A longer-term plan is in place to provide temporary classrooms on both school sites, the authority said. The temporary classrooms have been ordered and, after relevant ground works on both sites, should arrive within the next 8-10 weeks at Crossflatts and 14-16 weeks at Eldwick.
In Leicester, three schools were told they had buildings affected by Raac and that those buildings needed to be taken out of use: Parks primary, Mayflower primary and Willowbrook Mead primary.
In the case of Parks and Mayflower, which are both local authority-maintained schools, the notification came before the summer holidays and alternative accommodation was found to ensure in-person teaching could continue as quickly as possible.
But on Thursday the DfE also identified Willowbrook Mead, an academy-run school, as having buildings which needed to be taken out of use.
Some schools made decisions to close or partially close before the mass contact from the DfE.
On 18 August, Corpus Christi Catholic school in Brixton, south London, said it would temporarily relocate 200 students at the start of the new school year while remedial work is carried out on the roof where the offending concrete was discovered.
Ben Kind, Lambeth council’s cabinet member for children and families, said: “Like parents, schools and councils across England we are concerned about the way information on this has been shared. The absence of a published list of affected schools and the slow release of information from the Department for Education simply fuels public concern and causes further speculation about what is actually going on.”
Nick Gibb, tThe schools minister Nick Gibb has attempted to respond to concerns over the timing of the announcement. On Friday he insisted he had done so “as soon as the evidence emerged”, saying experts’ advice about the risks of Raac had changed over the summer.
“It’s in 156 schools. There may be more after that as these questionnaires continue to be surveyed and we continue to do more surveying work,” he told GB News.
