On Thursday, the government of England declared that several schools would be shuttered due to worries about the durability of Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC).
Preparing for the start of the new school year on September 4, Key Stage 2 children from Corpus Christi Catholic School in Brixton have been transferred to St. Martin-in-the-Fields Girls School in Tulse Hill.
Cabinet member for children and families at Lambeth Council, Councillor Ben Kind, said, “Lambeth Council is committed to ensuring the safety of pupils at Corpus Christi and we are grateful to the school for working with us as we help relocate them temporarily to a new site and to the parents of pupils at the school for their support and understanding as we all work to minimize disruption.”
“By taking this measure, the school can continue to ensure the pupils’ well-being while further work is done to assess the extent to any problems with the materials used when the school was built,”
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At least 104 schools in England were ordered to shut down because of concerns that students might have to resume pandemic-style homeschooling.
The government has helped another 52 affected schools this year put in place preventative measures.
The agency has announced that a “minority” will have to “either fully or partially relocate” to new digs while precautionary measures are put in place.
Gillian Keegan, the United Kingdom’s Secretary of State for Education, recently told the media, “Most parents should not be worried about this at all.”
A lightweight construction material popular from the 1950s through the mid-1990s, RAAC is currently thought to be unsafe.
Some hospitals that were flagged as hazardous and rushed into the government’s hospitals-building program also had the concrete.
“It is absolutely disgraceful, and a sign of gross Government incompetence that a few days before the start of term, 104 schools are finding out that some or all of their buildings are unsafe and cannot be used,” said Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union. The government has said that the vast majority of schools will not be affected.
“To add insult to injury, the Government states in its guidance that it will not be covering the costs of emergency temporary accommodation or additional transport.”
“We’re taking a very safety-first approach and we’re really being cautious here,” Ms. Keegan added.
“The first thing we’ll do is identify where the RAAC is, which means some children will be moved to a different part of the building, some buildings will be propped up, which means some roofs will be propped up, and some of them will be having temporary classrooms.”
The Corpus Christi School was contacted for their thoughts.