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Buildings at 52 schools in England were at risk of sudden collapse due to dangerous concrete, schools minister Nick Gibb has said.
Safety measures have since been put in place at those schools, which were deemed critical.
More than 100 others, which were previously thought to be less at risk, have now been told to close areas with the concrete unless they are made safe.
The new guidance follows the collapse of a beam that was thought to be safe.
Head teachers are now scrambling to make alternative plans days before the start of a new term.
Some pupils have been told they will be learning remotely, in temporary classrooms or at different schools.
The government has not said when a list of affected schools will be published, drawing criticism from the Labour Party.
A total of 156 schools have been confirmed as having reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) since 2022.
Of those, 52 were deemed a critical risk, and safety measures have already put in place.
Asked on BBC Breakfast whether buildings at those 52 schools “could have potentially collapsed”, Mr Gibb said: “Yes, and that’s why we took action.”
A further 104 schools with confirmed RAAC were deemed non-critical.
Those schools had previously been told to develop contingency plans in case buildings needed to close.
On Thursday, they were told to close buildings and rooms with RAAC unless they had safety measures in place – which could include propping up ceilings.
Mr Gibb told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme the guidance changed because “a beam that had no sign… that it was a critical risk and was thought to be safe collapsed”.
“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,” he said, adding that some evidence of this came “as late as last week”.
A “minority” of schools will need to “either fully or partially relocate” to alternative accommodation while those measures are installed, the Department for Education (DfE) has said.
But the DfE has not given a timeline for replacing the material, which was widely used until the mid-90s.
There are more than 20,000 schools in England.
‘Far from ideal’
Two primary schools in Bradford – Crossflatts and Eldwick – are among those affected, with parts closed to pupils after the concrete was identified, the council said.
Shazad Ismail’s son, Yahya, is about to go into Year 5 at Crossflatts. Part of one building has been closed and temporary classrooms are now being built.
At Willowbrook Mead Primary in Leicester, arrangements have been made for children from different year groups to attend two different schools, while older pupils will have to use online learning. The head teacher said in a letter to parents: “I appreciate that the timing is far from ideal.”
Shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson, who said Labour had not seen the full list of schools with confirmed RAAC, urged ministers to “come clean with parents and set out the full scale of the challenge that we’re facing”.
On Thursday, Education Secretary Gillian Keegan said affected schools would contact parents directly, adding: “If you don’t hear, don’t worry.”
She said the plan would “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”.
Watch: Education secretary tells parents not to worry
Teachers’ unions have criticised the DfE for making the call so close to pupils returning to school.
“It is absolutely disgraceful, and a sign of gross government incompetence,” National Education Union general secretary Daniel Kebede said.
Julie McCulloch, director of policy at the Association of School and College Leaders, said changes “will be hugely disruptive, and this will obviously be worrying for pupils, families and staff”.
The risk of injury or death from a school building collapse was said to be “very likely and critical” by the watchdog the National Audit Office (NAO) in June.
RAAC is a lightweight “bubbly” form of concrete used widely between the 1950s and mid-1990s – usually in the form of panels on flat roofs, as well as occasionally in pitched roofs, floors and walls. It has a lifespan of about 30 years.
The DfE said it sent a questionnaire to schools in 2022, asking if they had any confirmed or suspected cases of RAAC in their buildings. If schools provided a positive response, this was then confirmed by DfE-commissioned engineers.
Schools that are concerned but have not yet filled out the survey are encouraged to do so at this website, the DfE said.
The Local Government Association said it had been warning about the risk of RAAC since 2018.
Liberal Democrat education spokeswoman Munira Wilson said “pupil safety is paramount but for this to come out just days before term starts is totally unacceptable”.
The government says it has been aware of RAAC in public sector buildings, including schools, since 1994.
It said it has advised schools to have “adequate contingencies” in place since 2018, in case affected buildings needed to be evacuated.
The Welsh government has said it will survey the country’s schools and colleges to check if any are made with RAAC.
In Scotland, at least seven schools are affected but the number could be as high as 37, according to the Liberal Democrats. In Northern Ireland, surveys are under way.
Aside from schools, numerous public buildings have been identified as being at risk because of RAAC, including courts, hospitals and police stations.
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