A school that scrambled to set up temporary classrooms after the Department for Education (DfE) ordered closures because of Raac has received a government apology after it turned out it did not have the crumbly concrete after all.
The government has published a list of 147 schools with Raac, nine fewer than it announced last Thursday, suggesting that last week’s order to close buildings was overcautious in several cases.
Willowbrook Mead primary school in Leicester will now fully reopen, days after being instructed to immediately close its key stage 2 block. It was among 104 schools in England told to close at least some spaces because of the presence of the out-of-date material.
The decision at Willowbrook was based on a DfE-commissioned survey, according to the school, but its own survey in June showed it had no Raac, and another survey this week confirmed that.
The school said staff had to work “non-stop” to move furniture and create new spaces, and in a letter to families it described the situation as frustrating. One parent told the Guardian it was a “maddening example” of the “Raac omnishambles”.
Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, has said her decision to order building closures was “deliberately cautious”. Other ministers reportedly fear that the threshold for closures she set risks opening a “Pandora’s box” in other parts of the public building estate.
The U-turn in Leicester comes after similar confusion in Kent, where the DfE ordered the total or partial closure of two primary schools on Monday only to admit on Tuesday that they were safe because the schools – St James in Tunbridge Wells and Palmarsh in Hythe – had already put mitigation measures in place.
At Willowbrook, the problem was solved when the school’s governing body commissioned a second survey and established there was no Raac there, it told parents on Wednesday. The school will now be shut to all children on Friday to allow staff to move the furniture and equipment back.
In a message to parents, Sarah Ridley, the chief executive of the Mead Educational Trust, which operates the school, described the situation as frustrating but said: “We are very grateful that the long-term outlook is so much more positive than we thought just days ago.”
One parent said: “The school has been amazing [but] the disruption caused by the DfE has been ridiculous. We’ve been lucky, reception and KS1 were only off on Friday and Monday, but the rest of the school has been off since Friday. Obviously it’s good news that the school will be fully open from next week, but it’s another maddening example of the government’s ever increasing shit show and the Raac omnishambles.”
The school told families on Wednesday morning: “Following the DfE-commissioned Raac survey which led to the DfE instructing us to immediately close the key stage 2 block last Thursday, a second thorough survey, commissioned by the Mead Educational Trust, has been carried out. This has determined that there is no Raac at Willowbrook Mead. This confirms the findings of an earlier TMET-commissioned survey, carried out in June 2023.”
It said: “Considering that the school was preparing for months, if not years, in temporary accommodation, it is a huge relief that we can move pupils back into their classrooms and return to our normal routines within the next week. We know this has been a hugely frustrating and upsetting time for you and your children … please know that all decision that have been taken by the school and the DfE have been to ensure everyone’s safety.”
The DfE has been approached for comment.
