A family with two brothers at a school unable to cope with the concrete building crisis have shared their experiences as they call on the Government for action.
Jacob Knowles has just started in year seven at St Leonard’s in Durham while his older brother, Thomas, is in year ten.
But they are unable to attend full time because reinforced concrete in many buildings at the secondary school has been deemed unsafe.
There are not enough classrooms for children so many are being taught in a sports hall or online at home.
Their parents Dave and Hannah, from Great Lumley, are calling on the Government to speed up the planned rebuilding of the school and to support the school finding temporary learning spaces for pupils.
Hannah said: “Home learning does not work for us.
“We tried it during Covid and it wasn’t compatible with our kids’ needs.
“In terms of concentration it is a no-go.
“We have not been told about any long-term plans that are in place at all. There are no definite ideas so we cannot plan anything.
“I feel we have been forgotten.”
Dave said parents were supporting teachers and the school but said the Government needs to take immediate action.
He said: “We are quite lucky because we can be at home with the kids but a lot of families work full time and they cannot plan just one week at a time because they have work to think about.
“Considering the school has had Covid to deal with recently they have done wonderfully well under incredibly difficult circumstances so we cannot fault the school in any way shape or form.
“We want to make that really clear, but the Department for Education needs to come to the table and get involved.
“The school was going to be rebuilt anyway but that needs to be very much fast-tracked.
“They also need to get back to face-face learning because there are those with additional needs.”
Jacob, who is autistic, said volume of noise by having so many children together in one space made school particularly hard for him.
He said: “It has been quite weird because I am in a hall with 200 other people and I cannot hear because I am at the back.
“Because there are so many people in the hall and they are talking the teacher is blowing a whistle and because I have autism I am really affected by that.”
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His brother Thomas, who chose geography, history and engineering for his GCSE options, is not able to get into classes for his more practical subjects.
He said: “It is very worrying for me because I do not know what is going on week-to-week.
“I have no clue and I don’t think the teacher have any idea either.”
A peaceful demonstration is being planned at the school on Wednesday morning to coincide with a visit by Baroness Diana Barran MBE, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Education.
The DfE has been contacted for comment.
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