Demolition and rebuild plans for a school that was found to have unsafe RAAC have been green-lit.
The main school building at St John's Catholic Primary School was identified as having structural instability due to being built with Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete(RAAC), during an inspection in March 2022, before the material’s issues came to national attention.
Since then, lessons have continued in a temporary building in the former sports field which “does not meet the needs of modern educational practice”, according to a plan to rebuild it submitted to Three Rivers District Council in October last year.
- Watford secondary among local schools receiving RAAC funding
- Rickmansworth's St John’s Catholic Primary in Raac list
- St John's primary school in Rickmansworth receives Government funding
There is suspected asbestos within the existing building and "the presence of an unsafe building within children’s play areas poses a concern," the report added.
The school in Berry Lane, Rickmansworth, therefore successfully applied to be included in the Department for Education’s funded school rebuilding programme last summer and plans were drawn-up.
Its new purpose-built teaching block will be built within the footprint of the two existing teaching buildings, which will both be demolished.
This means that lessons can continue from the temporary block and the sports field will be available again once work is complete.
The design is arranged in broadly the same way as the existing block but will be more “condensed and rational”, leaving more outdoor space.
The school’s swimming pool, which has never met the National Curriculum requirement for swimming, will be filled in and replaced with a new multi-use games area. The existing multi-use games area is also set to be upgraded.
The proposal would not directly expand the number of children who can attend, which will stay at 210 pupils.
The planning documents concluded: “The proposed teaching block will bring new life to the school site and surrounding areas and provide a brand new, permanent educational facility for the staff and pupils of St John’s Catholic Primary School.”
Three Rivers District Council approved the planning application yesterday (May 9).
Across the UK there are 234 education settings with confirmed RAAC cases. Of these, 119 schools will have one or more buildings rebuilt or refurbished through the School Rebuilding Programme.
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