CLASS ACTION

Parents set up rival teaching hub after fears cheap-build school is about to collapse

- VIVIENNE AITKEN

PARENTS at a school built with a dangerous concrete substitute are so afraid for kids' safety they've set up a rival primary next door.

About 20 pupils at Gatehouse Primary in Gatehouse of Fleet, Kirkcudbrightshire, are being kept away by parents, who fear it could collapse after reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) was discovered inside.

The material was responsible for a school roof in Kent caving in.

The parents claim Dumfries and Galloway Council is not taking their concerns seriously.

For two weeks some of the school's 81 pupils have been at home. This week the parents set up an alternative "school" in the community centre next door and are teaching them themselves.

They are led by parent council chair Rebecca Vasey, whose daughter Izabella is a pupil.