North East schools shut over risky concrete

About a third of the buildings at Ferryhill School will be usable

A number of schools across the North East have been told they cannot open as they contain crumbling concrete.

Ferryhill School and St Leonard's Catholic School, in Durham, and St James's Catholic Primary, in Hebburn, have been shut.

In Darlington, St Teresa's Catholic Primary School will close and Carmel College, while affected, will open.

Safety measures have been put in place at 52 schools in England, which were deemed at risk of sudden collapse.

Head teachers are now scrambling to make alternative plans days before the new term.

Easington MP Grahame Morris named St Bede's Catholic School and Byron Sixth Form in Peterlee as also being affected.

Some students will have to be taught online and new starters have had their start dates pushed back.

City of Durham MP Mary Kelly Foy called the situation "utterly shambolic".

The issue is around reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete - or RAAC.

A total of 156 schools in England have been confirmed as having RAAC so far, with 52 deemed a critical risk where safety measures have already been put in place.

Mel Robson said remote learning would not work for her son

Ferryhill School, which has about 800 pupils, will be using some online learning until 18 September.

Mel Robson, who runs a travel agency and has two school-aged children in the town, said she was concerned about their start to the new term.

She said one of her children was about to start secondary school and would start a week late, with the other pupils taught online.

"Myself and my husband both work full-time," she said.

"We've got one child who's just started their secondary school journey who's going to be in an isolated year group, not having the full experience.

"My son's starting his GCSEs this year. We don't know how it's going to work logistically. Remote learning didn't work for him during Covid.

"He's going to have to be home until they find temporary buildings.

"Nobody's going to be there to monitor him. He's a teenage kid with an Xbox at home."

Conservative Paul Howell, MP for Sedgefield, which includes Ferryhill, said "my understanding is that the government is doing what it can do".

"Each school, as I understand it, is being allocated a case worker, any costs that are being incurred in terms of trying to get through this rectification process are being supported by the DfE," he said.

'No-one likes short notice'

Schools Minister Nick Gibb earlier said the urgent rethink had been taken in England after a beam at a school collapsed over the summer that had been considered safe.

Mr Howell added: "The advice that ministers have been given has now had to be accelerated at very short notice

"I don't think that anybody likes that it is short notice but surely that is better than risk of putting our children in the wrong space."

Nick Hurn, chief executive of Bishop Wilkinson Catholic Education Trust, wrote to parents of students at St Leonard's Catholic School in Durham to say a DfE-commissioned survey identified RAAC panels were used to build it.

"As a result, the DfE directed the trust yesterday afternoon that they have taken the difficult decision to temporarily deem St Leonard's School as a site that must not reopen next week," Mr Hurn wrote.

"We understand the disruption this will cause, however we have not been left with any choice than to temporarily close as we put emergency measures in place."

Darlington Council said it was "working hard to minimise any disruption to children's education as a result of these new measures".