NINE classrooms have been closed at a school after potentially crumbling concrete was “missed in the initial survey”.

As the Raac saga swept the country in September last year, the Billericay School, in School Road, was forced to stagger the return of children after Raac was found in two buildings.

However, during work carried out by an electrical contractor during half term, the concrete was found in an additional teaching block. As a result, nine classrooms have been closed.

The school say this area was the “only area of the school estate missed in the initial survey” last year.

Andrew Baggott, Conservative councillor responsible for Burstead ward, said: “It is very disappointing to hear, and more importantly is a disruption to children’s education.

“Along with the cyber-attack, it is all very unhelpful for children’s education, which we know is so important.

“The important thing now, is hopefully the Billericay School will be able to provide the education support for all pupils to continue their studies now and the new academic year.

“But I also hope the community will be understanding with the school, and assist them in anyway they can.”

The school suffered a “significant” cyber-attack during half-term which forced it to remain closed on Monday.

It already has temporary classrooms on site after Raac was discovered last September.

A letter to families added: “Whilst there is never a good time to be informed there are additional areas of Raac that have removed a number of classrooms from the school estate, the final half term of the academic year does provide us with a significant amount of additional classroom capacity gained by the absence of Years 11 and 13 as they undertake public examinations.

“This means the school will not require further temporary classroom accommodation to be installed on site.

“The engineering company already on site undertaking the Raac mitigation in areas of the school previously identified will be able to immediately begin work to design and install mitigations into the newly identified building.

“I am hopeful they will be able to complete their remediation work before the start of the new academic year.”