School concrete crisis: Abingdon school to shut

Parents have been told the John Mason School will be shut on Monday

A school is to close due to unsafe concrete, after previously assuring parents it had no reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) on its site.

In a letter to parents, Abingdon Learning Trust said the John Mason School in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, would be shut on Monday.

It said an earlier survey had revealed no Raac but "further information" had since come to light.

Schools have been advised to vacate areas containing Raac.

'Urgent contact'

The trust that runs the academy school wrote to parents on Friday saying it believed a recent survey had revealed no Raac but that it had discovered its presence that day.

The letter to parents said the trust was in "urgent contact" with the Department for Education (DfE) and was "awaiting their guidance".

"In the meantime, we are closing the school on Monday while we explore how to ensure education for students can be provided effectively, and to ensure that the Raac concerns are addressed," it added.

Last week, the DfE advised schools, colleges and nurseries in England to vacate areas known to contain Raac, unless suitable mitigating measures had been put in place.

The government has named more than 140 schools that need to partially or fully shut buildings amid safety concerns over Raac, a lightweight material that was used in construction between the 1950s and the mid-1990s.

Other public buildings across the UK, built or modified between the 1950s and the mid-1990s, are also affected.