Crappy concrete crisis

[newme]

I would break the rules and let the kids take off blazers/loosen ties/wear scarves and hats but it was still pretty unbearable.

The blazers thing at my eldest 2s school was ridiculous. Had to be worn not only all the time on school grounds but within a mile of the school. So kids couldn't even take them off when they finished. Especially fun for the majority that walked in. Also how do you know where a bloody mile is from the school as an 11 year old lol. They got in some ex private school head half way through who forced blazers and logos on everything in a rather poor area. Parents were not happy and didn't even have the option of another school anyway without driving. Which was not feasible for most, especially the huge number in walking distance.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

The blazers thing at my eldest 2s school was ridiculous. Had to be worn not only all the time on school grounds but within a mile of the school.

If they lived within a mile did they have to wear them in the bath?

 

[newme]

If they lived within a mile did they have to wear them in the bath?

Given the nonsense the head came out with I wouldn't be surprised if they said yes to this if someone asked.

This is your blazer, there are many like it but this is yours, you will sleep with it you will eat with it

 

[planetgeli]

I get that you used the word in a way indicating you might not really have coped, but Coping is an important life skill that I feel has been left to wither in the tidal wave of excuses that modern parents use for not doing shit that requires actually coping ....unless supplied with a mental health support package and neat label to excuse their child's behaviour which of course has nothing to do with them being a crap parent.

The crap priorities that have allowed this concrete crisis are indeed crap, but I expect Large portions of the feckless parent cadre so prevalent in this country now have another excuse to not get their keep kids to school

School attendance is already a crisis much larger than the concrete debacle and its time people stopped making excuses like "we both work" when its obvious that if you both work then having your kids in school for much of the time is actually more practical than keeping them home as well as right for the child.

P.S.
Children with mild anxiety better off in school, says Chris Whitty

It takes some doing to turn around a concrete issue (see what I did there?) of government incompetence into one about feckless parents.

Wtf are you on?

 

[newme]

Is the daily mail now Injectable?

 

[Orang Utan]

I get that you used the word in a way indicating you might not really have coped, but Coping is an important life skill that I feel has been left to wither in the tidal wave of excuses that modern parents use for not doing shit that requires actually coping ....unless supplied with a mental health support package and neat label to excuse their child's behaviour which of course has nothing to do with them being a crap parent.

The crap priorities that have allowed this concrete crisis are indeed crap, but I expect Large portions of the feckless parent cadre so prevalent in this country now have another excuse to not get their keep kids to school

School attendance is already a crisis much larger than the concrete debacle and its time people stopped making excuses like "we both work" when its obvious that if you both work then having your kids in school for much of the time is actually more practical than keeping them home as well as right for the child.

P.S.
Children with mild anxiety better off in school, says Chris Whitty

Fuck off knownowt

 

[maomao]

Plus they had no adaptations for disabilities - prefabs usually have awkward steps and narrow doors - so a kid with a broken leg in a cast and brace was carried into the pre-fab by other kids because the alternative was being sent to the in-school exclusion unit - and they were a very long way from all the toilet blocks.

I have this problem at the moment. I have a new student with cerebral palsy and she's had to have some of her classes changed because despite everything being accessible on paper the reality is far from it There's a whole block of the school she can barely get into. The block our form room is in has a lift in it but a big step outside. And while I managed to find her a lift buddy and sort out a routine for her as soon as I noticed I had a student with needs we got to the lift and it was out of order and full of rubbish It's mostly sorted now but she got carried upstairs by site team on day one and I really did not feel that was appropriate or dignified.

 

[equationgirl]

I'm also remembering a school I worked at that had lots of pre-fabs, and on especially hot or cold days the headteacher would STILL come round and enforce uniform rules. The school would shut if the temperature was over a certain level, but the thermostat was in the atrium of the main building, which had excellent heating and aircon - it was completely irrelevant to the temperatures in those prefabs. 30 kids in a small room massively raises the temperature too in comparison to a large and airy atrium with very few people in it at any time.

I would break the rules and let the kids take off blazers/loosen ties/wear scarves and hats but it was still pretty unbearable.

We also couldn't have interactive whiteboards or any computers because the pre-fabs were so easy to break into, but teachers were chastised for not using technology in their lesson plans. Plus they had no adaptations for disabilities - prefabs usually have awkward steps and narrow doors - so a kid with a broken leg in a cast and brace was carried into the pre-fab by other kids because the alternative was being sent to the in-school exclusion unit - and they were a very long way from all the toilet blocks.

They're really not suitable for schooling. I know a lot of us "coped" with them in the 80s, but we've probably forgotten just how shit they were.

Oh no, still some 30+ years later I remember how shit they were. They were either boiling hot or freezing cold, paper thin walls so the class next door could be heard. And so creaky, it was like they could fall apart at any minute. Draughty, and the windows leaked.

Fortunately the only class I had in those portacabins was the deadly dull PHSE classes so nothing of any import, and no classes at all at A level, thankfully.

 

[krtek a houby]

I get that you used the word in a way indicating you might not really have coped, but Coping is an important life skill that I feel has been left to wither in the tidal wave of excuses that modern parents use for not doing shit that requires actually coping ....unless supplied with a mental health support package and neat label to excuse their child's behaviour which of course has nothing to do with them being a crap parent.

The crap priorities that have allowed this concrete crisis are indeed crap, but I expect Large portions of the feckless parent cadre so prevalent in this country now have another excuse to not get their keep kids to school

School attendance is already a crisis much larger than the concrete debacle and its time people stopped making excuses like "we both work" when its obvious that if you both work then having your kids in school for much of the time is actually more practical than keeping them home as well as right for the child.

P.S.
Children with mild anxiety better off in school, says Chris Whitty

Any "neat labels" to excuse your hot takes?

 

[Bingoman]

Gillian Keegan attacks ‘sensationalist’ coverage of school concrete crisis

Education secretary says ‘bad press’ over her handling of Raac ‘really hasn’t bothered me that much’

www.theguardian.com

 

[equationgirl]

Gillian Keegan attacks ‘sensationalist’ coverage of school concrete crisis

Education secretary says ‘bad press’ over her handling of Raac ‘really hasn’t bothered me that much’

www.theguardian.com

It hasn't bothered her so much she's told the media how much it definitely isn't bothering her.

 

[Humberto]

I guess their lack of competence and idiocy, embodied in successive blundering oafs in number 10, has caught up with them and has been exposed. Looks like a problem that is going to dog them for some time and can only damage them. They've money but little talent or sense beside it.

 

[Storm Fox]

This is an excellent explanation of RAAC and why it's a problem from a builder.



The problem is scarier than I had realised.

 

[Ming]

It hasn't bothered her so much she's told the media how much it definitely isn't bothering her.

Thing is in our age of media savvy politicians it makes me wonder if it was done deliberately. To show what a straight shooter she is.

 

[pogofish]

School science prep rooms have all sorts of shit that nobody knows how it got there or what anyone was planning to do with it. One school I worked at, they'd somehow ended up with a large quantity of white phosphorus. That stuff the Israelis use for war crimes. The poor lab tech was telling me how she'd had to get on the 'full hurt locker' hazardous chemical gear and spend several days carefully neutralising a tiny bit at a time using copper sulphate.

One of my school prep rooms had a full still line where the chemistry teacher made his own brandy - when we reached the senior years, we were allowed to sample the occasional batch.

In another school I worked-in I met the head of Chemistry clutching a jar one day - he'd just confiscated it off a pupil who had apparently obtained it via his dad who worked in an oil service company - Phosphorous, about a decades supply - the was well chuffed..!

I see the news has just caught-up with the RAAC problems in Universities - However, that hit a few months back. All the Scottish Unis at least were surveyed back in April/May and several do have buildings that needed fully or partially closed. We currently have four affected, three of which are recently fully renovated/upgraded structures and it has been a right pain in the arse finding alternatives.

 

[two sheds]

This is an excellent explanation of RAAC and why it's a problem from a builder.



The problem is scarier than I had released.

He's class but as you say scary.

Perhaps the Scottish buildings have already been surveyed as pogofish mentions, but either way I like his contempt for politicians.

 

[strung out]

in our age of media savvy politicians

When you see one of these media savvy politicians, can you let me know?

 

[8ball]

This is an excellent explanation of RAAC and why it's a problem from a builder.

He is so builder it’s untrue.
Great explanation, mind.

 

[Ming]

When you see one of these media savvy politicians, can you let me know?

 

[SpookyFrank]

I'm covering today at a school that's half closed because it's got the bad concrete in it. It's not on the government list though. So the government list is giving a low-ball figure for the number of schools affected.

E2a: All the students are in but lessons have been relocated all over the place and half of every lesson is taken up with kids turning up and asking where they're supposed to be then wandering off again.

 

[SpookyFrank]

The school doesn't yet know if they'll be back in the building next week, if remedial work is needed or if the building has to come down completely.

 

[May Kasahara]

Our school that's affected (that the DfE told us to close) also wasn't on the government list

 

[gosub]

He's class but as you say scary.

Perhaps the Scottish buildings have already been surveyed as pogofish mentions, but either way I like his contempt for politicians.

Local council offices up here got damaged in a storm back in April turned out had RAAC. We're going to fix it but by early May switched priority dealing with the one school it had been found in.


Does feel like they've been ahead of the curve

 

[SpookyFrank]

TBH most new-build schools are pretty awful. And they're still built on the cheap so you still get leaky roofs, bad wiring etc.

Case in point: I just discovered that the staffroom sink in this building (opened Easter of this year) has an electric current running through it. I'm going to go borrow a multimeter from physics but from the nip it just gave me I'd guess about 24 volts.

 

[equationgirl]

The school doesn't yet know if they'll be back in the building next week, if remedial work is needed or if the building has to come down completely.

Helpful.

 

[SpookyFrank]

Helpful.

Yeah, really helps with the contingency planning. Almost as helpful as finding all this out 48 hours before the school reopened.

 

[newme]

Case in point: I just discovered that the staffroom sink in this building (opened Easter of this year) has an electric current running through it. I'm going to go borrow a multimeter from physics but from the nip it just gave me I'd guess about 24 volts.

shocking

 

[Puddy_Tat]

Case in point: I just discovered that the staffroom sink in this building (opened Easter of this year) has an electric current running through it. I'm going to go borrow a multimeter from physics but from the nip it just gave me I'd guess about 24 volts.

shocking

you should put up some resistance to working conditions like that

 

[_Russ_]

SOoooo......just how many schools/puppy farms/homes for feckless have actually collapsed fatally inconveniencing the occupants then?

 

[Bingoman]

Heathrow and Gatwick airports confirm they have RAAC

Terminal 3 at Heathrow was found to contain the controversial building material, and has been temporarily remedied, while Gatwick said it knew already its buildings used RAAC and monitored it regularly.

news.sky.com