The Yorkshire schools caught up in concrete collapse crisis and what it might mean for pupils

More than 100 schools and colleges up and down the country –including four affected in Yorkshire - have been told by the Department for Education (DfE) to fully or partially shut buildings because of the presence of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac), which could suddenly collapse.

There may even be a return to remote and online learning for some pupils if schools are unable to hold face-to-face lessons.

New information came to light over the summer about the potential risk of Raac, a lightweight material used up to the mid-1990s, and the issue has been exacerbated by the problem of asbestos in schools, which is also being considered said Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt.

The schools affected in Yorkshire are spread across the region.

Work costing £620,000 started in July to replace a roof over the school kitchen at Abbey Lane Primary School in Sheffield after it was identified as containing Raac, Labour MP for Sheffield Heeley Louise Haigh said.

The school is due to reopen tomorrow and a temporary kitchen has been installed.

Ms Haigh said the position schools now find themselves in is “appalling”.

At Eldwick Primary School, in Bingley, West Yorkshire, Bradford Council has said that access to areas of the school where Raac is present is prohibited.

Other affected schools are another school in Bingley, Crossflatts Primary School and also Scalby School in Scarborough.

Schools minister Nick Gibb has admitted more classrooms could be forced to shut and Mr Hunt yesterday confirmed further structural problems could emerge in the coming “weeks or months”.

While he would not speculate on the potential cost of fixing the problem, Mr Hunt did say: “We will spend what it takes to make sure children can go to school safely.”

He added: “We have 22,000 schools in the country and there has been since that incident (collapse of a beam previously considered safe) a huge programme going through this Raac/asbestos issue because we want to be absolutely sure that every child is safe.”

Remote learning should last “days, not weeks” and children will not be left unable to access classrooms for months, the Government has said, but ministers have refused to go into any further detail about when the disruption might ease.

Children’s Commissioner Rachel de Souza welcomed the funding pledge but said “we shouldn’t even have been in this situation” and Shadow Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said: “I can think of no more a defining image of 13 years of Tory Government (than) children being sat in classrooms under metal props to prevent ceilings from falling on their heads.”