More than 100 schools told to close buildings over safety fears

I've looked at a map of the Essex schools affected. Many of them are clustered around Colchester...

Looking at the list of Colchester secondary schools I'm surprised that so few are affected (2). There was a big increase in population after I left in the early 70s. How long did councils go on building schools containing RAAC, I wonder.

I've just discovered that one local secondary school has just finished extensive work to reinforce 1000m2 of ceiling, one primary school has been shut forever (they knew about RAAC in April) and one Southend Primary was closed at the end of last term with pupils' being sent to a number of neighbouring schools.

Why did it take so long for the news to break and warnings issued to other schools?

GrannyGravy13

growstuff

At least 54 of them are situated in Essex.

Source:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-66681227

Essex County Council has 647 schools (not counting the ones in Thurrock and Southend), so nearly 10% are affected in some way.

Yes as I said upthread one is extremely close to me, only having Yr 7 and Yr 11 on-site (unless that has changed since this morning)

Have Y7 and Y11 returned to school a day earlier than the rest of the year groups? They do this in some schools so the new Y7s can be shown around by older pupils.

Not seen any mention of independent schools with RAAC.
I wonder how many......

I expect there will be loads more. If it does turn out to be 10%, it will be more than a nightmare!

Academies are responsible for their own buildings, so have to pay for surveys and maintenance etc. However, the issue is that no school (whether academy or local authority maintained) has enough money for complete rebuilds. There has always been a special fund, controlled by the DfE.

Some of these schools have already applied for funding in the last few years because they identified that parts of the building are unsafe, but they were turned down. Some were due for replacement under Building Schools for the Future, but Gove pulled the funding.

I've looked at a map of the Essex schools affected. Many of them are clustered around Colchester, so some parts of the county aren't affected.

Im sure you’re right, I just think there will be loads more. I would imagine this is going to turn into a bureaucratic nightmare for the government actually, if all academies have to seek funding through that one central route - prioritisation will be a nightmare. At least in Wales if we end up with a lot of affected schools there will be a prioritisation process at LA level as we are lucky enough not to have academies.

Casdon

growstuff

I'm still not sure about that Casdon. Most of the schools are academies, so Essex County Council wouldn't have been responsible for the surveys.

As I mentioned before, Essex has more schools than almost any other county. I'm familiar with a number of the schools affected and they're in areas which experience huge population growth in the post war years. Most of the schools were put up cheaply to cope with the growth and ROSLA. Nearly all the secondary schools are former secondary moderns, which replaced delapidated elementary schools. They were usually built in the same style.

I guess we'll just have to wait for the final tally. Hopefully, it won't be 10% across the country, but it's not going to be a small number.

I don’t know either growstuff, I just doubt that Essex is unique in having either lots of academies or high population growth. I’m a cynic I think, but my gut tells me there will be many, many more.

It's not unique, but I do know that Essex experience a much higher than average post war population growth, as people moved out of London to places within commutable distance.

Incidentally, Essex was the first county to opt out of local authority control on a mass scale. I don't think it even has any secondary schools left which aren't academies. In any case, academisation isn't that relevant. These schools were built before they became academies, but control over the buildings was handed over to the academies.

GrannyGravy13

growstuff

At least 54 of them are situated in Essex.

Source:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-66681227

Essex County Council has 647 schools (not counting the ones in Thurrock and Southend), so nearly 10% are affected in some way.

Yes as I said upthread one is extremely close to me, only having Yr 7 and Yr 11 on-site (unless that has changed since this morning)

But the number of schools affected isn't a small number.

growstuff

I'm still not sure about that Casdon. Most of the schools are academies, so Essex County Council wouldn't have been responsible for the surveys.

As I mentioned before, Essex has more schools than almost any other county. I'm familiar with a number of the schools affected and they're in areas which experience huge population growth in the post war years. Most of the schools were put up cheaply to cope with the growth and ROSLA. Nearly all the secondary schools are former secondary moderns, which replaced delapidated elementary schools. They were usually built in the same style.

I guess we'll just have to wait for the final tally. Hopefully, it won't be 10% across the country, but it's not going to be a small number.

I don’t know either growstuff, I just doubt that Essex is unique in having either lots of academies or high population growth. I’m a cynic I think, but my gut tells me there will be many, many more.

growstuff

At least 54 of them are situated in Essex.

Source:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-66681227

Essex County Council has 647 schools (not counting the ones in Thurrock and Southend), so nearly 10% are affected in some way.

Yes as I said upthread one is extremely close to me, only having Yr 7 and Yr 11 on-site (unless that has changed since this morning)

Casdon

growstuff

Will allowances in public exams be made for the minority of pupils affected?

Possibly, but you would hope that won’t be necessary, surely temporary solutions will be found somehow, and the schools will prioritise accommodating GCSE and A level students where there are partial closures? It would be so unfair on students otherwise.

The school I know best was featured in the Guardian yesterday. The headteacher has had to close the school because so many classrooms are affected. He said there's a 16 week wait for portable classrooms, so the school will almost certainly remain closed until after Christmas.

I'm still not sure about that Casdon. Most of the schools are academies, so Essex County Council wouldn't have been responsible for the surveys.

As I mentioned before, Essex has more schools than almost any other county. I'm familiar with a number of the schools affected and they're in areas which experience huge population growth in the post war years. Most of the schools were put up cheaply to cope with the growth and ROSLA. Nearly all the secondary schools are former secondary moderns, which replaced delapidated elementary schools. They were usually built in the same style.

I guess we'll just have to wait for the final tally. Hopefully, it won't be 10% across the country, but it's not going to be a small number.

growstuff

Will allowances in public exams be made for the minority of pupils affected?

Possibly, but you would hope that won’t be necessary, surely temporary solutions will be found somehow, and the schools will prioritise accommodating GCSE and A level students where there are partial closures? It would be so unfair on students otherwise.

I still think that Essex were more on the ball than anywhere else in assessing their schools, and that hundreds more will be found UK wide when the surveys are completed.

Will allowances in public exams be made for the minority of pupils affected?

At least 54 of them are situated in Essex.

Source:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-66681227

Essex County Council has 647 schools (not counting the ones in Thurrock and Southend), so nearly 10% are affected in some way.

Oops source Google/UGov

There are 24,323 schools in England of which 147 have been sited as having problems with RAAC, 24 of these have switched to online learning.

Serious yes, but only a small percentage of schools are currently identified as being unsafe.

Will the percentage grow, probably but nobody knows by how much.

Joseann

Chocolatelovinggran

Yep - as a former SLT member in a number of schools I can assure you that all I know about building structures could be written on a pinhead.
Growstuff, count me in : how hard can it be?
I'm thinking of names for the yacht I will buy....

Count me in as the delivery man! It costs almost as much to have them brought in and taken away as the things themselves! Small fortune to be made.

Do you have an Abnormal Load Vehicle Permit? If not, don't worry. We'll get the Secretary of State to burn all the pesky red tape.

Blimey PMQs was brutal. Sunak seemed to shrink.

Chocolatelovinggran

Yep - as a former SLT member in a number of schools I can assure you that all I know about building structures could be written on a pinhead.
Growstuff, count me in : how hard can it be?
I'm thinking of names for the yacht I will buy....

Count me in as the delivery man! It costs almost as much to have them brought in and taken away as the things themselves! Small fortune to be made.

Yep - as a former SLT member in a number of schools I can assure you that all I know about building structures could be written on a pinhead.
Growstuff, count me in : how hard can it be?
I'm thinking of names for the yacht I will buy....

Fair enough, but so often estates of houses are built without any infrastructure to support the incoming population.

Callistemon21

growstuff

Callistemon21

😁
You may laugh but as soon as the new primary school here was built it wasn't large enough and they had to bring in portable classrooms.

Booze-ups in breweries comes to mind.

That happens quite frequently. Councils usually do five year projections, but nobody seems to think about schools when new housing is built.

They had an expansion plan in place for the town and surrounding area for years!
Joined up thinking?

I don't know about Wales, but in England, new schools can't be built until there's a need. School places can't be provided and left empty until they're needed.

Callistemon Buildings would have been commissioned by local education authorities or their predecessors. There was a huge change in the 1970s and I suspect the plans are hidden away in some basement. Local councils should have planning documents in their archives, but I don't suppose headteachers have the time to search for them - and they probably haven't thought it would be necessary.

You're right - headteachers wouldn't really know what they're looking for.