The Department for Education has been inspecting 4 Isle of Wight schools to rule out the presence of Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete – known as RAAC.
Last week Island Echo reported that no schools on the Isle of Wight are affected by the Government’s decision to close buildings built with a certain type of concrete. It came after the Isle of Wight Council confirmed that no local schools are thought to be built from this type of crumbling concrete.
However, it has now emerged that the DfE has been surveying 4 Island schools where the Portsmouth Diocese is the responsible body. It is a result of incomplete information being provided back to the Government.
3 of the 4 surveys have already been completed, even though records do not show these schools to be at risk of having RAAC.
A spokesperson for the Diocese of Portsmouth has told Island Echo:
“Our records suggest that no Church of England school on the Isle of Wight is at risk from Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC), and therefore is at risk of closure.
“The advice we received from the Department for Education (DfE) before the summer holiday is that if no internal investigation had taken place recently, a survey should be done as a precaution. We therefore requested DfE surveys in our island voluntary-aided schools, so that we could be totally confident that everything had been done to keep staff and children safe.
“Three of the four surveys have already been done, and a fourth is just about to happen. Nothing of concern has been found so far, and the age of the buildings in the fourth school make it extremely unlikely that RAAC is present.
Article continues below this advertisement “The governors of our voluntary-aided schools are the people responsible for their school buildings. They take their responsibilities seriously, and were therefore keen to take advice from the DfE on this issue to ensure the safety of all involved.”
It was reported this morning that RAAC has been found at the Isle of Wight Council-owned The Heights Leisure Centre in Sandown.
Shame about the Heights having RACC, hope other “new builds” owned by council don’t prove to have it or they will be declaring bankruptcy.
So what’s the result?? Kids are back at school it should of all been sorted before they returned?? If they cared that much about the safety of the kids why had it not been done???
Get the over paid tax credit parent or now more rarely parents to buy a safety hat IF the are more worried about their children than just whingeing or claiming compo
Not a crisis, this has been known about for years
Years in which the Tories did sod to fix it and actually cut back on school repair.