Teachers are scrambling to find temporary accommodation in libraries, marquees and Portakabins after at least 156 schools in England were identified as having potentially dangerous aerated concrete, and engineers prepared for a weekend checking more schools at risk of sudden collapse.
With an estimated 24 schools already facing temporary closure and the government telling more than 100 to close at least some affected areas, the schools minister, Nick Gibb, said numbers were likely to increase.
One schools estates manager told the Guardian that the number of those affected in some way could eventually rise as high as 1,000, and said the crisis could end up with children being taught in temporary buildings for as long as a decade to come.
Reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) was used until the 1990s and is now considered “life-expired” and “liable to collapse with little or no notice”, according to the Health and Safety Executive.
Gibb said the government was taking “a very cautious approach” as schools in Surrey, Essex, Kent, Bradford, Leicester, Durham, Brixton, Southend and Cumbria were among those reported to be affected by concerns over the material, which has been involved in several sudden collapses.
Many schools are switching to remote learning despite ministers saying this should be only a last resort. On Thursday, the Department for Education ordered schools to immediately shut any buildings made with Raac, a shift from previous policy that required such action only in high-risk cases.
In Essex alone, 50 local authority-maintained schools are reported to have the material. With systems already in place at all but three of them, most will be open as usual. There will be remote lessons at one school.
At one Surrey school, toilet blocks are off-limits, which means festival-style toilets are being brought in. The governments in Northern Ireland and Scotland have announced they are checking schools for Raac. Figures obtained by the Scottish Liberal Democrats showed that the substance was in at least 35 schools in Scotland.
Scotland’s education secretary, Jenny Gilruth, said on Friday evening that councils across Scotland were carrying out assessments, with all expected to report back by next week.
The UK government has U-turned on its announcement on Thursday that it would not pay for schools in England to erect temporary structures, which had drawn anger from headteachers handling already stretched budgets.
It remains unclear what recent incidents triggered the government to order closure of all facilities using Raac so near to the start of the new academic year.
Officials said it was due to “a small number of cases where Raac has failed with no warning”, some very recently. They declined to give the locations, as investigations were taking place, but said this had “reduced our confidence that schools with Raac are safe for use”.
Gibb said that “a beam that had no sign … that it was a critical risk and was thought to be safe collapsed”.
Rishi Sunak, who is preparing to spend the weekend with the king at the Balmoral estate in Scotland, is not expected to speak to the media or make a statement about the crisis, with Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, and other DfE ministers doing so instead.
Amid signs that the crisis could stretch on for months, Bradford city council said it would take between two and four months to install temporary buildings at two of its schools where Raac was found. East Lothian council in Scotland said it was keeping children who were expecting to move up to secondary school in their former primary schools. They will be sent to lessons such as science and home economics at the affected secondary school.
The shadow education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, called on the government to publish a list of the schools affected, which it has not yet done. Gibb said it would happen but “only once we are in a stable place”.
Steve Reed, the shadow justice secretary, said: “Imagine the fury of parents up and down the country today finding out that just days before the start of school term their school is going to be closed. They could have taken action at the beginning of the school holidays to start to get this preparation in place”.
The Cabinet Office revealed on Thursday night that 34 other public buildings had been found to feature Raac, including 24 hospitals, seven court buildings and four Department for Work and Pensions facilities. It declined to name the affected sites.
The DfE has been considering Raac as a potential issue since late 2018, and the timing of the decision to issue guidance just days before the start of term has angered unions.
The National Education Union general secretary, Daniel Kebede, said: “It is absolutely disgraceful, and a sign of gross government incompetence, that a few days before the start of term 104 schools are finding out that some or all of their buildings are unsafe and cannot be used.”
Callout
The DfE sent questionnaires to all schools asking if they had Raac in March 2022. The National Audit Office reported earlier this year that of the 14,900 schools potentially having Raac, because they were built between 1930 and 1990, just 6,300 had told the DfE they had completed work to identify whether Raac had been used.
In Surrey, at least 14 schools are affected as part of the GLF Schools multi-academy trust. Searches have been under way in the area to use public libraries as alternative accommodation.
“It sounds like a simple fix but you can’t realistically just move children into other places,” one official said. “It’s like that boat [the Bibby Stockholm, proposed for use to house asylum seekers]: without the right checks, you’ll have to pull people out again when something proves to be wrong.”
They said weeks of disruption was likely to turn into years of upheaval. “The longer-term picture is potentially more disruptive,” they said. “The only solution is to remove the panels from roofs and replace them. That will become so expensive, we will have to rebuild them. That means there will be a long-term picture of children in temporary buildings for a decade or more.”
They also said there was a shortage of structural engineers able to carry out checks and all those in their area were already booked up.
Despite schools still being checked, Gibb said: “Parents can be assured that if they haven’t heard from schools, that it is safe to send their children into school.”
One school in Ascot has erected marquees in the grounds to provide space for pupils from four closed classrooms.
Preston Lodge high school in East Lothian has had to shut 23 classrooms – about half the school space. Term started two weeks ago in Scotland and children are being taught in 16 Portakabins erected in the grounds.
The youngest class of new starters are largely still being taught in their former primary schools, which one teacher described as “already overcrowded”. Works are expected to take months, not weeks. The council has also shut The Bruton, a performance space and theatre in Musselburgh, which was found to have been built with Raac.
