Following the discovery of RAAC at The Magna Carta School last year, I am delighted that the Government have confirmed the work to address this will be funded through the School Rebuild Programme, and that temporary science labs have been installed and are now in use, ahead of permanent remedial works to be agreed later in the year.
I have been hugely impressed with the dedication, quick response and future planning of the leadership team at The Magna Carta School, who at all stages have worked tirelessly to ensure the needs of students are met and any disruption to learning was minimised. While initial measures were put in place to ensure students had access to practice science teaching, prioritising those studying for exams, the additional classrooms now in place will provide even more capacity and certainty on site for students and staff.
The discovery of RAAC in the Tower was hugely concerning, and addressing this has been a priority for the school, myself, and the Department for Education. We have remained in close contact throughout this process, with Education Minister Baroness Barran also visiting the school at the start of the year to see the issues and hear directly what the school needed.
The leadership team has made clear their ambition to not just restore the Tower, but to replace it with new and improved facilities on site. I fully support this and have raised this to the Department of Education who are currently reviewing proposals, with a decision expected by the summer.
Of course we wish RAAC hadn’t been found in the school, but it is only right that we now seek to achieve maximum benefit from the investment the Government has agreed to provide. I therefore fully support their plans and will continue to campaign and support The Magna Carta School in their aim of replacing the Tower with new, state of the art facilities.
