Two local schools are set for rebuilding and one will receive a grant following RAAC discoveries last year.
The Department for Education has confirmed what government-funded measures each school identified to have Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete(RAAC) issues will see as it published the final list of schools with confirmed cases.
There are seven Hertfordshire schools on the list, including three in Watford and Three Rivers.
- 'Frustration' as Watford Grammar School for Boys finds Raac
- Hertfordshire schools surveyed over collapse-risk concrete
- Rickmansworth's St John's Catholic Primary in Raac list
Watford Grammar School for Boys has been confirmed as one of the schools set to receive a grant as its route to RAAC removal.
It found the collapse-risk concrete in its sports hall in September, meaning the affected area could not be used without mitigations. The hall was built in 1981.
Meanwhile Bushey and Oxhey Infant School, in Aldenham Road, Watford, and St John’s Catholic Primary School, in Berry Lane, Rickmansworth, will see “school rebuilding programmes”, meaning work involving one or more buildings being rebuilt or refurbished.
St John’s Catholic Primary School’s issue had been identified in 2022, before the material came to national attention. Its lessons are continuing in a temporary modular building on site ahead of a rebuild that already had funding and drawn-up designs.
Bushey and Oxhey Infant School’s RAAC was also identified in 2022 and it is understood that remedial work was completed last year. It is not clear whether the “school rebuilding programme” referenced in the government list refers to further works or those that have already taken place.
The Department for Education said its identification programme is now complete as "100% of schools and colleges" with blocks built during the target times have responded and have been surveyed if they suspected they had RAAC.
It added that “a small number of schools and colleges are carrying out additional checks for further assurance in some spaces”.
Across the UK there are 234 education settings with confirmed cases. Of these, 119 schools will have one or more buildings rebuilt or refurbished through the School Rebuilding Programme.
A further 110 schools and colleges will benefit from grant funding to remove RAAC from their buildings, where works will typically be smaller in scale.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here