After the government ordered 147 schools to immediately shut buildings made with aerated concrete that is liable to sudden collapse, potentially thousands of pupils in England are missing out on a return to school this week or are beginning the term taking lessons remotely or in temporary buildings.
Twenty-four schools across the country will use some remote learning because of the concrete crisis. Ministers havebeen accused of covering up evidence for months about crumbling concrete at a Scottish school, and Whitehall sources say the findings helped trigger the dramatic warnings in England last week.
The National Education Union (NEU), representing teachers, described the situation as “absolutely disgraceful” and warned of “massive disruption to the education of thousands of children”.
Mark Dixon, 52, a teacher and academic author from Durham, is among a number of parents who told the Guardian that their children’s schools would not be opening this week over safety concerns.
“My eldest child’s school has been completely shut down,” he said. “The school is really trying their best, we are moving to remote learning in the short term, with no long-term plan published as yet. I understand that Durham University and Durham LEA [the local education authority] have been in touch with an offer of help alongside parents, but the logistics of safely re-accommodating 1,500 secondary pupils must be beyond difficult.”
Like many other parents, Dixon is finding it hard to swallow that his child’s education is going to be disrupted yet again. “I am hugely worried – my child’s educational experience has been the result of a patchwork of ‘make and mend’ decisions. Covid, teacher strikes and now Raac have ensured that disruption rather than continuity have been an educational norm for my eldest. Past and present governments have clearly prioritised budget cutting over quality provision.”
Laura, 48, a senior education adviser and parent governor at a secondary school in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, said she was notified last Friday that her 13-year-old son would not be able to return to school on time because of Raac.
“We received an email from the school’s head explaining that Department for Education (DfE) guidance had changed and that this was ‘going to have a significant impact on the education provision [the school] can offer in the short term’,” she said.
“I have concerns for my son who struggled so much with online learning. His year has been affected a lot by school closures during Covid. He is at the beginning of year 9, going into GCSEs, and it is gutting to have his progress disrupted again.
“As a single mum working full-time, I’m also concerned that I will struggle at short notice to care for him for an additional week of holidays. I’m going to rely on my dad a lot to help out this week. I work from home, which gives me a bit of flexibility, but my heart goes out to parents who do have to leave home and go to an office and parents who’ve got younger children who are affected.”
Laura said the school had been unable to pivot to online learning at such short notice. It has delayed the start of term until at least 11 September.
“The headteacher is now meeting with staff trying to work out which year groups can be accommodated on site and which will be online, and then how to move teaching and learning online,” Laura said. “I’m hoping this is all short-term, as a longer delay would academically be quite devastating for my son. He benefits massively from the face-to-face interaction with his peers and the teaching staff.
“The school leadership are doing their very best in a challenging situation. I’m hoping that the DfE puts in additional funding and that they will hire temporary classrooms to be put on the playground, or find other creative solutions.”
Jennifer Tabb, from Warwick, said her 14-year-old son was back to being educated at home for the foreseeable future.
“It’s really difficult. We heard at the end of last week that the children weren’t going to be going in. The school has been good with regards to communicating everything, but they should never have been placed in this horrible position,” she said.
“The government has known about these problems for years and done nothing. They’ve left it to absolute crisis point to do anything, and this failure is exposing more of the government’s shameful underfunding of critical national infrastructure and systems. Yet again, they drop another emergency issue into the hands of overstretched headteachers.”
She added: “This was not an unforeseeable problem, let’s face it. This could have been dealt with during Covid when the schools were closed. It just seems bonkers that this situation wasn’t prevented.”
Komal George, a pharmacist from Barnet, north London, has written to her MP, Theresa Villiers, after she was notified last Saturday that her children’s school, Woodridge primary, would be having a Raac survey carried out on 5 September, the first day of school, and therefore would have to remain shut.
“We have a son who’s going into year 3, and our daughter’s five and should be going into year 1. It’s critical at this age that they’re learning the basics, and my son has had to start his schooling during the pandemic,” she said.
Parents were informed on Tuesday that no Raac had been found in the school and that their children would be able to start their school year on Wednesday.
“But the letter we received said 17 schools in Barnet were identified as needing a Raac survey,” George said. “Five of these have now been completed and no Raac was found. The remaining 12 surveys are being carried out this week. It begs the question as to why these surveys weren’t arranged sooner, and why it had to be done in the first week of school.”
George said in her letter to her MP that people were paying taxes with the expectation that their children would have access to well-maintained schools, qualified teachers and a safe learning environment.
“It’s unacceptable that the DfE has allowed our schools to become unfit for education, after years of schooling disruption owing to Covid and teacher strikes,” she said. “This generation of children is missing out on vital education, and us parents are having to fill in the gaps. The government’s inability to address these issues adequately is a matter of grave concern.”
