A school has pushed back its return from the summer break and ordered temporary classrooms amid concerns over RAAC, as the long tail of the crumbly concrete crisis re-emerges. Leaders of St Joseph Catholic Primary School in Buckinghamshire made the decision after experts sent in ahead of a planned rebuild questioned whether building reinforcements fitted seven years ago met latest best practice standards. It comes after the previous government made a last-minute order in 2023 for dozens of schools to partially or fully close due to the dangerous material, though St Joseph identified the issue years earlier. Headteacher Caroline Lovegrove believes it would have been “wrong for us to use any spaces with the existing鈥 mitigations, as the academy awaits the results of further Department for Education assessments. ‘Prepared for all eventualities’ 鈥淲e are preparing for all eventualities,鈥 Lovegrove said. 鈥淭emporary classrooms, in the form of steel structure marquees, are going up in the school grounds should we need them for a short period of time. We may also have to look at things like how lunches are provided.鈥 The collapse of a primary school鈥檚 flat roof in 2018 鈥 at a weekend and with no casualties 鈥 is believed to have brought the potential danger of RAAC鈥檚 fragility into the government鈥檚 focus. In September 2022, the Office for Government Property issued a safety briefing warning that RAAC was 鈥渓ife-expired and liable to collapse鈥. But it was not until August 2023 that ministers ramped up their RAAC policy by ordering 104 schools containing it to partially or fully close. This action was previously only taken in the worst cases. 234 RAAC schools This came after officials learned of cases over the summer where buildings with the material collapsed despite not showing any signs of deterioration. The government鈥檚 final list of settings with RAAC, published in February, included 234 schools. St Joseph was one of . It was also among 119 of the affected schools added to the school rebuilding programme. However, the primary had been aware of the dangerous material鈥檚 presence 鈥渇or some time鈥, having installed 鈥減recautionary structural reinforcements鈥 in 2018, before completing additional work five years later. Lovegrove stressed 鈥渋ndependent and professional monitoring has been undertaken very regularly since then鈥, with experts 鈥渁lways鈥ery comfortable that our buildings were safe鈥. But a 鈥渨hole different set of contractors鈥 visited as the school prepared for its new building, planned for construction 鈥渋n the next few years鈥. Questions raised It was during their checks that 鈥渜uestions鈥 were raised over whether the seven-year-old reinforcements 鈥渕eet the best practice standards that have been developed in more recent times鈥. The school is waiting for the results of further DfE-led surveys. 鈥淲e believe it would be wrong for us to use any spaces with the existing reinforcements in until all parties have full and robust assurance about any possible risks 鈥 however small or remote those risks may be,鈥 Lovegrove continued. 鈥淭his is not how any of us wanted to start the new year, and we are determined to do everything we possibly can to ensure that our children are back learning with us and having fun as soon as possible.鈥 The start of term, originally scheduled for September 3, will now take place on September 8. This will allow the school to 鈥減ut in place all sorts of possible mitigations if they are needed鈥, Lovegrove added.