Blue School in Somerset facing uncertainty over concrete issues

Concrete issues at The Blue School led to the closure of 20 classrooms

The fate of a secondary school building remains uncertain after 20 of its classrooms were closed because of safety issues.

A structural inspection at the Blue School in Wells, Somerset, carried out last summer found cracked concrete ceilings and floors.

Since then, students have been learning remotely at home as most of the school building was declared unsafe.

Experts are still assessing the building to see if it can be repaired.

Years 7 and 8 were unable to use classes in the Kennion Building at the site due to significant cracking in the concrete between the floors.

But parents have now been sent a letter by the school, telling them only one year group will have to learn remotely from next week because a portion of the building is safe to use.

Changing rooms have been converted into temporary classrooms while structural assessments on the other part of the building continue.

'It's not ideal'

Maths teacher Emily Williams said making use of current facilities had enabled more children to return to school.

"As you can see we are in the languages department rather than our normal maths room.

"So the old changing room has become the new maths office. It's a little bit cluttered at the moment but we will sort that out.

"It's not ideal but we're making the best of it and we're working really hard to try to make sure that every child is still getting the education they deserve."

Old changing rooms have been turned into a makeshift maths department

An initial investigation of Blue School's site was started after reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) was found at hundreds of schools around the country.

Although no Raac was found, the structural investigation of the Kennion block at Blue School - built in the 1950s - uncovered a "major problem".

A structural engineer found "significant cracking" amongst all of the concrete floors and was concerned about the design of the concrete flooring joists themselves.

Head teacher Mark Woodlock said the future of the school building remains in doubt, but is hopeful that they can salvage something of the site.

"The structural investigations still haven't been completed, so we have those to look forward to in the next week or two. That will tell us something about the next phase.

"What the next few weeks will buy us is a bit more time to, again, play around further with what we've got available, see what other opportunities come up and see if we can do something different.

"We want to get all the students back in as quickly as we can."