Home politics RAAC: Government releases new list of schools with collapse-prone concrete

RAAC: Government releases new list of schools with collapse-prone concrete

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The government has updated the list of schools discovered to have collapse-prone concrete (RAAC).

Another 27 schools have been discovered to have reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete as of 14 September.

The government previously revealed 147 schools had informed them of the presence of the material.

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Thousands of pupils had the start of their term disrupted by the discovery of RAAC, as some schools had to close buildings or classrooms.

Of these, most have all pupils in face-to-face education, while one is fully remote, two have a mix of arrangements, and one is still establishing how to proceed.

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There is now only one school which is fully remote – down from four before, while 23 are operating a mix of face-to-face and remote.

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In total, 174 schools have been found to have RAAC, with 98.6% of schools asked having returned the government’s surveys.

The schools newly found to have RAAC are:

Ark John Keats Academy, London

Avenue Centre for Education, Luton, Bedfordshire

Baildon Church of England Primary School, Bradford, Yorkshire

Baskerville School, Birmingham

Buttsbury Junior School, Billericay, Essex

Colyton Grammar School, Colyton, Devon

Eldwick Primary School, Bradford, Yorkshire

Farlingaye High School, Woodbridge, Suffolk

Farnborough College of Technology, Farnborough, Hampshire

Grantham College, Grantham, Lincolnshire

Kingsbury High School, London

Marling School, Stroud, Gloucestershire

Maryvale Catholic Primary School, Birmingham

Merrylands Primary School, Basildon, Essex

Mulberry Stepney Green Mathematics and Computing College, London

Myton School, Warwick, Warwickshire

Ortu Corringham Primary School and Nursery, Stanford-le-Hope, Essex

Ravens Academy, Clacton-on-Sea, Essex

Selworthy Special School, Taunton, Somerset

St Joseph’s Catholic Voluntary Academy, Market Harborough, Leicestershire

Steeple Bumpstead Primary School, Haverhill, Essex

Stepney All Saints Church of England Secondary School, London

Surrey Street Primary School, Luton, Bedfordshire

The Link School, Sutton, Surrey

The Macclesfield Academy, Macclesfield, Cheshire

Marple Sixth Form College (part of Trafford College Group), Stockport, Greater Manchester

Westlands School, Sittingbourne, Kent

More details can be found on the government website here.

Education Secretary Gillian Keegan said: “The government will fund the emergency mitigation work needed to make buildings safe, including installing alternative classroom space where necessary.

“Where schools and colleges need additional help with revenue costs, like transport to locations or temporarily renting a local hall, this should be discussed with their caseworker and we expect all reasonable requests will be approved.

“The government will fund longer-term refurbishment or rebuilding projects to rectify the RAAC issue. Schools and colleges will either be offered capital grants to fund refurbishment work to permanently remove RAAC, or rebuilding projects where these are needed, including through the school rebuilding programme.

“We will set out further details in due course. We will work closely with responsible bodies to understand and assess what the right solution is for each case.

“I want to reassure pupils, parents and staff that this government will do whatever it takes to support our schools and colleges in responding to RAAC and minimise disruption to education.”

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RAAC was used extensively in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s in the UK. It is like concrete but is filled with air bubbles.

It weighs about a quarter of what normal concrete does, but has been found to become waterlogged and weak after a couple of decades.

Read more:RAAC: Collapse-prone concrete found in parliamentConcrete crisis disrupts Miriam Margolyes and Jimmy Carr

Responding to the new schools found to have RAAC, shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson said: “This news is frustratingly not surprising, because the Conservatives chose not to fix the roof while the sun was shining.

“The Conservatives’ catastrophic decision to cut Labour’s building schools for the future programme, compounded by inaction man Rishi Sunak’s decision to slash funding for school rebuilding, has led to the disruption to learning that we are now seeing.

“The Conservatives have said they will do whatever it takes to fix this crisis: they must now ensure that no child will have to return to remote learning.”

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