More than 100 schools, nurseries and colleges in England have been told by the Government to close classrooms and other buildings containing a type of concrete which is prone to collapse.

The DfE has contacted 104 settings which do not currently have mitigations in place to vacate spaces containing reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC).

Some 52 of the 156 educational settings containing the concrete have taken protective steps already this year.

A “minority” of the state facilities will need to “either fully or partially relocate” to alternative accommodation while safety measures are installed, the Department for Education (DfE) said.

This includes Hockley Primary School, which was temporarily closed by the Department for Education at the beginning of June due to concerns over the presence of the building material.

 

This was widely used from the 1950s until the 1980s, but is now viewed as “a risk to the safety of buildings”. When the Chevening Gardens school was built, the material was used in the ceiling.

The school has been in a race against time to put plans in place for pupils returning in September after the installation of a series of temporary classrooms was delayed.

It has been confirmed that Reception children and youngsters in Year Three will be using two classrooms on the site which have been deemed “safe”, while other year groups will be sent to nearby schools in Hockley.

Year One and Year Two pupils will be learning at Plumberow Primary Academy, in Hamilton Gardens, and Years Four, Five and Six, will all be going to Westerings Primary Academy, in Sunny Road.

Both schools took children for the final term of the last school year after the school’s closure.

In the Government announcement today, 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.

“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.”