RAAC in schools: The five Yorkshire schools which are affected by the potentially dangerous RAAC concrete

A total of 147 education settings in England are included on the long-awaited list from the Government – which sets out the mitigation measures schools have been forced to take due to the presence of the collapse-prone reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete RAAC on their sites.

It comes after more than 100 schools were ordered to fully or partially shut buildings before the new academic year due to concerns about RAAC.

The list from the Department for Education (DfE) suggests 19 schools in England have had to delay the start of term because of the concrete crisis – two of which are in Yorkshire. Both Holy Family Catholic School in Keighley and Scalby School in Scarborough have delayed the start of term.

Headteacher at Scalby School, Chris Robertson, said in a letter to parents: “We are working to ensure that the impact on students is kept to an absolute minimum. However, I must inform you that school will not now reopen until Monday 11th September. This will allow us time to reorganise the school curriculum, work with contractors to start work to reopen parts of the building and ensure that the school is fully risk assessed.

"Following my initial conversations with the DFE and contractors I must inform you that reopening is likely to be a mix of face to face and online home learning. The details of what this looks like I am not able to share with you currently. My team need time to digest all the information presented to us and work through solutions to get as many students back on site as quickly as possible.

"I appreciate that the timing of this decision, shortly before the start of the autumn term, is far from ideal. This decision has been taken out of an abundance of caution to ensure pupil safety, and we will be doing all we can ensure that the impact on students is kept to a minimum."

Also affected are Abbey Lane Primary School, in Sheffield, Woodkirk Academy, in Wakefield and Batley Girls High School, in Batley, but all pupils are still in face-to-face education.

Earlier this week it was reported that two schools in Bradford are likely to hold lessons in portable classrooms after inspections identified that parts of the buildings were constructed with RAAC. Sections of Eldwick Primary and Crossflatts Primary are likely to be off limits when the school year starts due to the issues, but the schools do not feature on the Government’s list.

Education Secretary Gillian Keegan said: “I know this is the last way parents, teachers and children affected by this wanted to begin the new term, but it will always be my priority to ensure the safety of pupils and staff.

“Thanks to the hard work of schools, colleges, councils, diocese and academy trusts, the majority of settings where Raac has been confirmed have opened to all pupils for the start of term.

“We will continue to support all impacted settings in whatever way we can, whether that’s through our team of dedicated caseworkers or through capital funding to put mitigations in place.

“We are also expediting surveys and urging all responsible bodies to tell us what they know about Raac, so we can be confident that settings are safe and supported.”

The row over England’s schools dominated Prime Minister’s Questions, where Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer claimed “the cowboys are running the country”. He highlighted schools now found to have Raac which would have been replaced under Labour’s Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme.

But Rishi Sunak said the BSF scheme, scrapped by the coalition government, would have been “time-consuming and expensive, just like the Labour Party”.

He defended the Government’s handling of Raac: “We make no apology for acting decisively in the face of new information… Of the 22,000 schools in England the vast, vast majority won’t be affected.”

Liberal Democrat education spokeswoman Munira Wilson criticised the time taken to publish the list of schools affected.

“Sunak and his Conservative ministers have ducked responsibility and blamed everyone but themselves for this fiasco,” she said. “Families deserve to know the truth instead of this endless smoke and mirrors.”

Downing Street declined to say whether the concrete crisis would be resolved by Christmas.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “Whilst there are still some outstanding surveys we cannot put a specific timeline on it. In the instances where we have identified Raac we expect mitigations to be put in place in a number of weeks.”