Fear school crisis could grow

MORE schools in Manchester may have been built with concrete which could suddenly collapse - but the town hall doesn't know it yet.

-  JOSEPH TIMAN

So far, only one school in the city containing reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) has been told by the government that part of its building is currently unsafe.

All Saints C of E Primary School in Newton Heath has had to close its hall after the lightweight building material used from the 1950s to the mid-1990s was found in the roof. It comes after schools were asked by the government to fill in a survey to establish whether RAAC has been used in any of their buildings.

But earlier this week, Education Secretary Gillian Keegan said that around 1,500 schools are yet to return their surveys. Manchester council has asked the Department for Education (DfE) whether any schools in the city have not completed the questionnaire - but this information has still not been provided.

The council has confirmed that all 71 schools it is directly responsible for have submitted their surveys as have the schools in the city run by dioceses. But the local authority is still awaiting information about academies run by trusts.