Thousands of pupils in England may have to begin the autumn term taking lessons remotely after the government ordered more than 100 schools to immediately shut buildings made with aerated concrete until safety work is undertaken.
The guidance from the Department for Education was sent to 156 schools and colleges just days before the start of the new school year.
It stated that regardless of the assessed risk of a building made using reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) blocks, they should be “taken out of use and mitigations should be implemented immediately”.
Schools were told “this may come as a shock and is likely to cause disruption” but the guidance goes on to say “the safety of pupils, students and staff is our priority”.
In anything up to around two dozen schools, the amount of RAAC involved means students and teachers will need to be moved off site to temporary accommodation.
The mitigations can include shoring up the structure with supports, or moving students to other parts of the school or, in some cases, portable buildings set up in playground.
While this will be paid for by the DfE, it could involve students having to take lessons remotely from home for a period which could be a few days, or up to two weeks.
Unison, which represents over 200,000 non-academic school staff, said the situation was “nothing short of a scandal”.
“The DfE and government have squandered valuable months hiding this crisis when they should have been fixing dangerous school buildings,” said its head of education, Mike Short
Of the 156 institutions, almost all of which are schools, 52 already have mitigations, and for others, the RAAC blocks are already not being used, or are only small sections, officials say. All 104 affected schools were contacted on Thursday.
Guidance to the schools – sent just days before the new term begins – says they will be helped by a caseworkers to find either emergency accommodation, such as a local college or nursery, or cabins, or else longer-term sites.
The Guardian revealed on Wednesday that officials were making hurried calls urging school leaders to draw up contingency plans for buildings at risk of collapse because of crumbling concrete. Now schools are being told to take buildings out of use straight away, in what appears to be a response to advice to proceed with greater caution.
Schools are being told that the government will help them implement contingency plans quickly to “keep disruption to face-to-face education to an absolute minimum”.
Decaying aerated concrete had been found in 65 schools in England after nearly 200 completed surveys, with 24 requiring emergency action, according to a report by the National Audit Office. The number of schools at risk is expected to increase when the results of surveys of 572 schools with suspected RAAC are published by the DfE.
Four schools were shut in April and June after RAAC was discovered in their buildings. On Wednesday, a DfE spokesperson said: “We…
2023-08-31 09:13:09
Post from www.theguardian.com