Two more Suffolk schools added to list of those hit by crumbling concrete

Stour Valley Community School in Sudbury and Glade Academy in Brandon have appeared on an updated list of sites hut by RAAC

Stour Valley Community School in Sudbury is among 17 sites added to the list
Author: Matt SoanesPublished 6th Dec 2023

Two more schools in Suffolk have been added to a list of those across the country affected by crumbling concrete.

Another 17 schools and colleges in England have been identified as having reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (otherwise known as RAAC) on site, bringing the total to 231 as of November 27.

The updated list now includes Stour Valley Community School in Sudbury and Glade Academy in Brandon, although there's no suggestion students at either are having to learn remotely.

It brings the total number of Suffolk educational settings affected by RAAC up to 9. The others identified so far are:

- Claydon High School

- East Bergholt High School

- Farlingaye High School

- Hadleigh High School

- Newmarket Academy

- Stowupland High School

- Thurston Community College

The previous update from the DfE showed there were 214 settings with RAAC across England.

Last year, the DfE issued a questionnaire to responsible bodies for all schools to ask them to identify whether they suspected they had Raac.

Education Secretary Gillian Keegan told MPs on the education select committee that all responsible bodies of settings with buildings built in the target era have now submitted responses.

She said: "So we have 100% of the questionnaires from the settings in the target era - that was the years that could have contained Raac. All the first surveys are complete."

Ms Keegan told MPs on Wednesday that "231 currently have confirmed Raac".

"Now we do expect there will be some more because as we go back for follow-up survey work we will identify a few more," she said.

The Education Secretary added: "There will only be probably a handful more cases because it's definitely massively slowed down."

Scores of schools and colleges in England were told by the Government to fully or partly close their buildings just days before the start of the autumn term amid concerns about collapse-prone Raac.

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