School forced to close over faulty concrete told just four days before new term
A school caught up in the concrete crisis was told its building was no longer within official guidelines just four days before the start of the new term, it has emerged.
Ferryhill School, a secondary school in County Durham for children aged 11-16, is one of more than 100 across the country believed to contain Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC) - a mid-century building material which can collapse 'without warning' once it expires.
An email sent to parents on Thursday said they had been left with "no choice" but to delay the start of the year after issues were found in the main building.
But one local councillor has told the Mirror that the school was only told yesterday that new Department for Education (DfE) rules force them to close the building - just four days before lessons were due to start on Tuesday.
It is one of a number of schools across the country disrupted by the new guidance (pictured: Parks Primary School in Leicester) (PA)Stephen Bowron, a Labour councillor on Ferryhill Town Council, said: "All we know is that it's the concrete and they've had to close the school. It's absolutely terrible what's happened - they didn't know until yesterday. It's disgraceful how it's been handled, they [the DfE] have had weeks to do this over the school holidays."
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An email to parents seen by local outlet The Northern Echo read: “We have undertaken inspection work throughout the summer, and earlier this week the surveying and engineering team confirmed that there are issues in our two main blocks. Unfortunately, as a result of this, we are unable to open the building to Ferryhill students on Tuesday September 5, and have no choice but to delay the start of the new school year.” The Mirror has approached Ferryhill School for comment.
A DfE spokeswoman told the Mirror that guidance on the use of RAAC concrete in school buildings was updated yesterday. Previously, the guidance had stated that schools should only close parts of buildings if the aerated concrete was beginning to show signs of wear - but on Thursday, this was changed to include any part of a building where RAAC is confirmed to be present. The spokeswoman added that it was a "very, very rare" that this would lead to a total closure of a school building, and that in most facilities with the material present it is confined only to a small number of rooms.
The concrete crisis, which is causing disruption or closure at 100 schools across the country, was sparked by the sudden collapse of beam in a school in another part of the country. Schools minister Nick Gibb revealed the incident happened at a school over the summer which had previously not been thought to have been at risk.
He told the BBC: "What we discovered over the summer was a number of instances, in schools and in non-schools, in England and outside England, where RAAC that had been considered to be a low risk actually turned out to be unsafe. So over the summer, given this evidence, we had to take a decision. Some of that evidence was as late as last week. We had to then decide what to do given the previous advice. A beam that had no sign... it was a critical risk and was thought to be safe, collapsed."
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