Nurseries and schools containing 'bubbly form' of concrete told to close by DfE
Katy Morton
Friday, September 1, 2023
Nurseries are among the 104 educational settings in England that have been told by the DfE to shut buildings made with a certain type of concrete until safety measures are introduced.
This week, the department contacted all the settings that contain Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC), which unlike standard concrete is weaker and deteriorates over time, to ask them to vacate spaces or buildings where the material is present. It comes just days before the start of the new school year.
RAAC is a lightweight, bubbly form of concrete that is usually found in roofs and occasionally in walls and floors.
Primary schools which operate nurseries that been contacted by the DfE include:
- Katherines Primary Academy in Harlow, Essex
- Willowbrook mead primary academy in Leicester
- Mayflower Primary School in Leicester. According to reports, the council is looking to ‘arrange alternative accommodation in order to ensure in-person teaching is able to continue as quickly as possible.’
- Kingsdown School in Southend-on-Sea, Essex – a special school for children aged from three to 14, which has been told to close its main building.
Nursery World is unaware whether the above schools will have to close buildings which nursery and Reception children use.
Labour's shadow education secretary has called for the Government to publish a full list of schools being forced to close because of fears over the safety of their buildings.
The Department for Education (DfE) said that the ‘majority of settings will remain open for face-to-face learning on their existing site, because only a small part of the site is affected by RAAC. A minority will need to either fully or partially relocate to alternative accommodation while mitigations are put in place because of the extent to which RACC is present.’
Parents will be contacted by their school if pupils are moving to a temporary location while ‘remediation’ works are being carried out.
What is RAAC?
According to the DfE, ‘RAAC is a lightweight form of concrete. The Standing Committee on Structural Safety (SCOSS) has noted that: "Although called “concrete”, (RAAC) is very different from traditional concrete and, because of the way in which it was made, much weaker.
‘RAAC was used in schools, colleges and other building construction from the 1950s until the mid-1990s. It may therefore be found in any school and college building (educational and ancillary) that was either built or modified in this time period.’
How many educational settings are impacted?
According to the DfE, 156 school buildings have been identified as containing RAAC. Of them, 52 were at risk of ‘sudden collapse’ and action was taken immediately to make them safe, for example by propping up the concrete.
It is thought that the other 104 buildings were safe to be in, but over the summer there was an incident, a beam collapsed, schools minister Nick Gibb told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, which suggested otherwise, leading to the move to close the buildings to make them safe.
Gibb also said on the radio programme that the costs of emergency and temporary accommodation will be covered by Government, not individual schools as previous guidance stated.
How long has this been an issue?
The DfE said that the Government has been aware of RAAC in public sector buildings since 1994, but the issue came to light in 2018 when a roof collapsed at a school in Kent.
The same year, the DfE published guidance for schools stating that they needed to have ‘adequate contingencies’ in the event of ‘evacuations’ cause by concerns over the use of RAAC.
This year, In June, a report by the National Audit Office identified 572 schools where RAC might be present. Engineers have been carrying out surveys to assess whether this is the case.
UNISON said that the ‘situation is nothing short of a scandal’ and accused the DfE and Government of ‘squandering valuable months hiding the crisis.’
'We must take a cautious approach'
Education secretary, Gillian Keegan, said, ‘Nothing is more important than making sure children and staff are safe in schools and colleges, which is why we are acting on new evidence about RAAC now, ahead of the start of term.
‘We must take a cautious approach because that is the right thing to do for both pupils and staff.
‘The plan we have set out will minimise the impact on pupil learning and provide schools with the right funding and support they need to put mitigations in place to deal with RAAC’.
- Is your nursery or primary school impacted by RAAC? If so let us know by emailing: news.nw@markallengroup.com
