{"id":233946,"date":"2025-08-29T10:44:42","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T09:44:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/schoolsweek.co.uk\/?p=233946"},"modified":"2026-02-17T15:08:38","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T15:08:38","slug":"school-delays-return-to-class-amid-raac-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/schoolsweek.co.uk\/school-delays-return-to-class-amid-raac-concerns\/","title":{"rendered":"School delays return to class amid RAAC concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A school has pushed back its return from the summer break and ordered temporary classrooms amid concerns over RAAC, as the long tail of the crumbly concrete crisis re-emerges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leaders of St Joseph Catholic Primary School in Buckinghamshire made the decision after experts sent in ahead of a planned rebuild questioned whether building reinforcements fitted seven years ago met latest best practice standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It comes after the previous government made a last-minute order in 2023 for dozens of schools to partially or fully close due to the dangerous material, though St Joseph identified the issue years earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Headteacher Caroline Lovegrove believes it would have been “wrong for us to use any spaces with the existing\u201d mitigations, as the academy awaits the results of further Department for Education assessments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘Prepared for all eventualities’<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are preparing for all eventualities,\u201d Lovegrove said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTemporary classrooms, in the form of steel structure marquees, are going up in the school grounds should we need them for a short period of time. We may also have to look at things like how lunches are provided.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The collapse of a primary school\u2019s flat roof in 2018 \u2013 at a weekend and with no casualties \u2013 is believed to have brought the potential danger of RAAC\u2019s fragility into the government\u2019s focus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In September 2022<\/a>, the Office for Government Property issued a safety briefing warning that RAAC was \u201clife-expired and liable to collapse\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it was not until August 2023 that ministers ramped up their RAAC policy by ordering 104 schools containing it to partially or fully close. This action was previously only taken in the worst cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

234 RAAC schools<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This came after officials learned of cases over the summer where buildings with the material collapsed despite not showing any signs of deterioration. The government\u2019s final list of settings with RAAC, published in February, included 234 schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

St Joseph was one of the schools confirmed to have RAAC<\/a>. It was also among 119 of the affected schools added to the school rebuilding programme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the primary had been aware of the dangerous material\u2019s presence \u201cfor some time\u201d, having installed \u201cprecautionary structural reinforcements\u201d in 2018, before completing additional work five years later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lovegrove stressed \u201cindependent and professional monitoring has been undertaken very regularly since then\u201d, with experts \u201calways\u2026very comfortable that our buildings were safe\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But a \u201cwhole different set of contractors\u201d visited as the school prepared for its new building, planned for construction \u201cin the next few years\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Questions raised<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

It was during their checks that \u201cquestions\u201d were raised over whether the seven-year-old reinforcements \u201cmeet the best practice standards that have been developed in more recent times\u201d. The school is waiting for the results of further DfE-led surveys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe believe it would be wrong for us to use any spaces with the existing reinforcements in until all parties have full and robust assurance about any possible risks \u2013 however small or remote those risks may be,\u201d Lovegrove continued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is not how any of us wanted to start the new year, and we are determined to do everything we possibly can to ensure that our children are back learning with us and having fun as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The start of term, originally scheduled for September 3, will now take place on September 8. This will allow the school to \u201cput in place all sorts of possible mitigations if they are needed\u201d, Lovegrove added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Long tail of crumby concrete crisis re-emerges as ‘questions’ raised over 7-year-old mitigation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":311204,"featured_media":198181,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[32,28,239,3095],"post-theme":[3100],"class_list":["post-233946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-academies","tag-dfe","tag-education-policy","tag-raac","post-theme-school-buildings"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t