The Education Secretary Gillian Keegan was recorded by a TV crew complaining about getting no credit for dealing with the RAAC issue yesterday.

Listeners got in touch with the Nicky Campbell phone-in on Radio 5 Live to share their reaction to her expletive comments.

Claire in north London received a letter saying her daughter's school year will have a delayed start.

She says Keegan has “stepped into a difficult position because she hasn’t been in the job that long”.

Rowan in Oxford believes, she's "only human but also, it's absolutely indicative of a government that hasn't got a handle on many things”.

Jim in Stafford describes Keegan’s comments as “outrageous”.

“If I, as a former head teacher, was saying that in any sort of public forum, I'd be disciplined, probably gross misconduct,” he says.

He says her behaviour is “typical of what happens in government at the minute, but it's not acceptable”.

Image source, PA Media

Parents have praised the actions of one primary school in south London which has been forced to relocate dozens of children.

More than 200 pupils from Corpus Christi Catholic School in Tulse Hill started their new term at St Martin-in-the-Fields Girls School, around a mile away.

Parents were informed Year 3, 4, 5 and 6 pupils would need to temporarily move away from the school site whilst further assessments for RAAC were carried out on its roof.

Michael Donnelly, 46, who has a son in Year 5 told the PA news agency: "We were told two weeks ago there was an issue and what the solution to it was, so whenever the main news headlines came out we're already quite ahead of the curve.

"I think because the solution is so good, people aren't particularly concerned."

Gem O'Reilly
Live reporter

Many schools across the country haven't gone back yet due to RAAC being in their buildings. The BBC has spoken to some of the parents affected.

Duncan, a parent from Essex, said: "If there were questions five years ago then it should have been dealt with five years ago."

Image source, PA Media

Some schools started the new term with building work under way.

People passing by Eldwick Primary School near Bradford have not seen the students today, instead, they have seen builders working on the issues around RAAC (reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete) at the site.

"Well there are builders walking around in there so that's got to be a good sign, hasn't it?" says a man walking by.

"The head here is really good and I think he's done everything he can in the circumstances," he adds.

Bradford Council said at least eight teaching spaces across Eldwick and one other school have been temporarily closed.

While the current plan is to rearrange existing provision, the longer-term aim is to bring in temporary classrooms to both schools.

A series of emails appear to show that the Scottish government was made aware of the risk of RAAC last summer.

A document prepared by the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service in relation to the dangers of RAAC was shared with the government and local authority officials in July 2022, freedom of information legislation shows, PA media agency reports.

The fire service warned of potential "structural collapse" of hospitals, the "prevalence of asbestos in buildings of this age" and the "unknown performance" of the material in a fire.

Despite 104 schools being closed in England, the Scottish government has kept schools open and is conducting a "desk-based review" throughout the coming months.

Alex Cole-Hamilton, Scottish Lib Dem leader said the "head start" that could be gained in dealing with the issue had been "squandered".

The head of spending watchdog the National Audit Office has accused the government of taking a "sticking plaster approach" to carrying out essential maintenance on school buildings.

In an article for the Times, Gareth Davies said funding for the "unflashy but essential" job of maintaining buildings has been neglected.

Davies said a failure to bite the bullet of replacing RAAC in public buildings such as schools and hospitals "leads to poor value, with more money required for emergency measures or a sticking plaster approach".

Writing in the Times, Davies said "RAAC was an innovation once" and "it served its purpose for decades but the long-term risks it posed took too long to be properly addressed".

Image source, .

The BBC's Newsround has been into a school to explain to its younger viewers why they may not be going back to classes as usual this week.

More than 100 schools in England, and two in Wales, have been told that they need to close buildings due to problems with the concrete that was used to make them.

Newsround's Martin Dougan headed to a school in Leicester to find out what's been going on.

Image source, EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

The education secretary has posted on social media site X (what used to be Twitter) this morning that the "vast majority of schools" are not affected by the concrete crisis., external

"For those that are affected, we are working non-stop to mitigate any disruption to education, and protect pupils and staff," Keegan posted.

But Labour has likened her to the mayor of the seaside town Amity in the classic shark film Jaws, who insisted the beaches were safe.

"Most beachgoers not eaten by big shark," was the party's swift response, posted on X, to her comments.

It comes after Keegan made the headlines yesterday, after being caught swearing on mic as she expressed irritation over the concrete crisis.She later apologised for her "choice language" as she voiced her frustration over the RAAC issue.

Claire in Haringey has a daughter at Hornsey School for Girls in north London, and received a letter laying the school year will have a delayed start.

Claire told 5 Live’s Nicky Campbell: “It’s not a huge delay, it’s a couple of days, but it’s an indication of how schools have been allowed to get into a state of disrepair.”

She said she’s confident her daughter will return to school next week, but will be “upset if [her daughter] had to go back to home learning”.

“[My daughter] has already been through the full pandemic at secondary school, her sister was as well and it's not good for their education, it's not good for their mental health or their social skills,” Claire said.

Simon Jack
Business editor

The boss of the Wernick Group – the UK's second biggest portable buildings firm – warns it could take up to seven months in some cases to provide a replacement classroom:

David Wernick says there is "no capacity problem" despite the rush to find temporary classrooms for schools with RAAC problems.

The industry is used to responding at speed to situations like Covid, he says, when hundreds of temporary Covid testing sites were rolled out.

The initial emergency response could be mobilised very quickly he says - if the temporary classrooms could be sited on tarmac - but on softer ground it would take longer to lay suitable foundations.

A simple portable building in a playground would take days - a couple of weeks maximum.

However, a bespoke modular replacement would take 16 weeks to source and a further six to eight weeks on site to assemble and rig with heating, light and water - six to seven months in total.

A facility like this would ballpark cost around £2,000 per square metre. So two stories at 30m x 10m = 1200 sq meters = £1.2 million.

RAAC has been found in roof planks at St David's Hall in Cardiff - the famous venue which is home of BBC Cardiff Singer of the World.

A spokesperson for Cardiff Council said the venue has been inspected for more than 18 months and specialists told them "there has been no deterioration in the condition of RAAC present at the venue".

"It remains safe to operate as normal," the statement continued.

To ensure the venue remains safe in the short-term, Cardiff Council has implemented a building management and health and safety strategy.

Plans are in place "to undertake the remedial work required in the medium to long-term".

Image source, PA Media

We are now two days into the new academic year in much of the UK, and disruption is continuing for schools which have this unstable building material known as RAAC. Here's what we've heard this morning:

• A number of schools are returning some year groups to online learning as classrooms are closed over safety concerns
• One governor of a school in Essex told us of troubles finding a surveyor available to do structural checks
• Schools Minister Nick Gibb said extra resources are on hand, and that heads can source their own Rics certified surveyors
• Labour said the situation was a shambles after PM Rishi Sunak rejected claims he cut funding for school rebuilds when chancellor
• The government is proactively seeking more evidence about RAACs, Gibb said

Hina Robinson, chair of governors and a parent at Wyburns Primary School in Essex, told the BBC earlier about being unable to source surveyors to conduct structural checks at the school.

She's been on Nicky Campbell's 5 Live show where she told him that they knew the school had RAAC and were told initially it wasn't a safety risk.

Last week they were informed they had to get a new survey, but she said “to get hold of someone to do the survey is next to impossible”.

Robinson explained that by taking these school buildings away, there is no consideration to “the important stuff that takes place, and it’s key to understand those children and the future of the country need a good, consistent, educational level”.

“Covid was unavoidable however, this seems like it should have been avoidable because we knew it was 30 years when it was first put in, there should have been a plan in place to deal with that,” Robinson said.

James Saunders is a head teacher at Honywood School in Essex, where about half of the rooms are unusable due to RAAC.

“In the meantime, we’re setting up a community parent group to look at local services in the area that can support us,” he told BBC Radio 5 Live.

However, as Saunders’ school is in a village setting, local resources are few and far between.

He says that he’s even explored the option of setting up marquees outside the school as “they’re quicker to set up than a mobile classroom”.

Honywood School will be putting a proportion of its students back onto remote learning using methods employed during Covid: “It gives us a bit of a running start.”

“It’s familiar territory really, we’re quite used to giving late notice for guidance changes” he says.

Image source, PA Media

While the extent of the problems with RAAC only came to light last Thursday, we know around 50 schools had been warned previously to take steps to ensure the safety of their buildings.

Corpus Christi Catholic School in south-west London told parents several weeks ago that they would be starting the new term at St Martin-in-the-Fields Girls' School, around a mile away.

Corpus Christi said they would be carrying out further assessments on their own buildings and the move is temporary.

"We were told two weeks ago there was an issue and what the solution to it was, so whenever the main news headlines came out we're already quite ahead of the curve," Michael Donnelly, whose son is affected, tells the PA news agency.

"I think because the solution is so good, people aren't particularly concerned," he adds.

Image source, EPA

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has said it was "unforgivable" that children were missing the start of term due to fresh safety concerns over unstable concrete.

"Children are not at school today because of the action the government has failed to take in relation to schools. That is unforgivable," he said, addressing his newly-reshuffled cabinet.

"We have got to hold the government to account on so many issues," he added.

Starmer went on to describe the situation as a metaphor for the government's "sticking plaster politics: never fixing the fundamentals, always sticking plasters".

Image source, PA Media

Here's how the different nations of the UK are responding to concerns about RAAC:

England

Dozens of schools have either fully or partially shut after more than 150 were identified to contain the potentially unsafe material. As of yesterday, 5% of schools were yet to return surveys aimed at identifying where RAAC concrete may be present.

Scotland

RAAC has been found in at least 35 schools and 24 university and college buildings in Scotland. First Minister Humza Yousaf said work to investigate the use of RAAC across the public sector will "take some time".

Wales

Two schools in Anglesey are closed after RAAC was found. Work is continuing to assess the scale of the problem, with results expected in two weeks, the Welsh government said.

Northern Ireland

Last week, the Northern Ireland's Department of Education said schools were being checked for collapse-prone concrete as a matter of urgency. It said it had commissioned the Education Authority to carry out structural surveys across NI schools.

Image source, PA Media

Schools Minister Nick Gibb says the government had got more firms on hand to help schools deal with RAAC.

Earlier, we heard from a school governor in Essex who said the Department for Education had provided phone numbers for engineers, but none were available.

"We increased the number of surveying firms that we use," Gibb said on BBC Radio 4's Today programme this morning, adding that schools could use local surveyors so long as they are registered with the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors.

"We have arrangements in place with utility companies, with porta(ble) cabin suppliers, with companies that put props in to prop up RAAC where that's the most suitable solution, we have property experts available," he said.

Around 50 caseworkers have been assigned to the affected schools to assist with individual needs, he added.

Labour's shadow paymaster general Jonathan Ashworth has also appeared on BBC Breakfast, reiterating his party's position that the situation is "a shambles".

He calls for the government to urgently publish its list of schools built with RAAC public, saying it's "unacceptable to leave schools in the lurch".

Ashworth accuses Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of cutting budgets for rebuilding schools (an accusation the PM has called "utterly wrong"), but does not commit to a number when asked how many schools his party would rebuild if it won power.

Safety consultant, Damini Sharma, says RAAC could be present in more buildings including social housing, courts and hospitals.

On BBC Breakfast she explained it's potentially difficult to detect because it's often covered. "You can only actually detect it if you open it up."

Sharma said it was talked about in the 90s and responses were put in place but not at the pace needed to resolve the issue.