Some schools facing closure over concrete fears have NOT yet been told, minister admits

Some schools facing closure due to crumbling concrete have not yet been told, the schools minister has admitted. More than 100 schools and colleges were yesterday told to partially or fully close buildings as children prepared to return to classes after the summer holidays because of fears over concrete which could suddenly collapse.

The Department for Education (DfE) said a minority of the state schools may have to move completely and some children may be forced back into pandemic-style remote learning. But asked this morning whether all affected schools had been informed, schools minister Nick Gibb admitted some had not yet.

He told Sky News: "The vast majority have. We have been calling them yesterday, but there are a few more that we're calling today, and those schools are now talking to parents about what's going to happen in their school."

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And Mr Gibb also admitted more schools could be affected. He told GB News: "We are putting large amounts of capital into the school estate to improve the condition and, by the way, RAAC applies only in the period (between) the 1950s and the 1990s, so schools built or extended before that period or afterwards - which is about half the school estate - will not even need to consider whether they have RAAC.

"The issue is any extensions or schools built in that period, and that's where we’ve been focusing our surveys and evidence-gathering since 2022, so we know where RAAC is in the school estate. It's in 156 schools.

"There may be more after that as these questionnaires continue to be surveyed and we continue to do more surveying work."

The Government has refused to publicly reveal the