September is, for many parents, a bittersweet month. It’s the season of new beginnings and stiff shoes, of 11-year-olds drowning in ridiculously large blazers and of watching bleary-eyed as the tiniest ones toddle away from you into reception class. But this year, there’s perhaps more of an edge than usual to letting them go, thanks to a nagging fear of the roof quite literally falling in.
Thousands of children won’t be returning to their normal classrooms this week after all, after an 11th-hour alarm over the risks posed by reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac), a lightweight form of concrete used in some postwar buildings now deemed at risk of collapse. While repairs are carried out, some children will be housed in prefabs or hastily repurposed school halls; others may be back to home learning. After three years of pandemic-induced disruption, what children need most is stability, but instead once again some headteachers are having to tear up plans at the last minute – while others whose schools aren’t on the danger list will be busy fielding questions from worried parents. Imagine, then, the reaction in staff rooms across the land when the education secretary, Gillian Keegan, was unwittingly caught on camera suggesting everyone else had “sat on their arses and done nothing” about crumbling classrooms, while she’d got no recognition for doing a “fucking good job”.
