Schools concrete crisis & start of term

<p>It’s a nightmare start of term for many pupils heading back to class on Monday - with warnings that over 100 schools, nurseries and colleges in England have been built with ageing concrete leaving buildings at risk of collapse.</p><p>Now thousands of children face a return to lockdown-style online learning at home or in temporary cabins.</p><p>The new crisis follows years of underinvestment in school infrastructure and follows reports of sewage bubbling up through floors and one classroom baking in over 30C heat.</p><p>Now, some headteachers will have to relocate children to other classrooms or temporary cabins after potentially crumbling steel-reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) was found, which was used in school construction between the 1950s and 1990s.</p><p>The Department for Education, which will fund the work, has not given a timeline for replacing the Raac, and school leaders have called for an “urgent plan” to fix buildings.</p><p>So, how’s it come to this and what now for lessons after the trials of learning through the pandemic?</p><p>The Leader podcast’s joined by Julie McCulloch, director of policy at the Association of School and College Leaders, and Billy Huband-Thompson, policy associate for The Centre for Education &amp; Youth.&nbsp;</p><br /><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>