Anish Vij
As the school-morning drop-off chaos is well underway, parents are already being warned to apply for 2024 primary school places for their kids.
This comes after thousands of children nationwide returned to school this week, as parents continue to voice their ongoing concerns around the issue of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac).
In some schools, children have been told they cannot return to the classroom after collapse-prone Raac was found in school buildings.
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Last week, more than a hundred schools in England were told to fully or partially close by the Government as a result of safety concerns about Raac.
But the Department for Education (DfE) has still not published the full list of schools affected by the concrete crisis.
School staff have been scrambling to find temporary teaching spaces, while others have been forced to replace face-to-face lessons with remote learning.
Leaders of a coalition of unions wrote to Education Secretary Gillian Keegan on Monday (4 September) demanding urgent answers on the Raac 'emergency' in schools.
School staff are 'managing the anxiety' of parents and carers on behalf of government and they have a right to know how this happened, the unions said.
The letter - from the school leaders’ union NAHT, the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), the National Education Union (NEU), the NASUWT teaching union, GMB and Unison - called for clarity over the support for schools and the funding arrangements for dealing with Raac.
It said: “It cannot be right that school leaders and their teams are charged with making decisions about the immediate risk of harm if they discover or are concerned that Raac is present on their site.
“They do not have the relevant expertise to make such assessments.
“Members of our unions, particularly in leadership positions, may be faced with calls from staff or the public to evacuate the site or parts of that site if there is any uncertainty whatsoever.”
Amid the concrete chaos, parents have also been reminded to not forget to apply for the 2024 primary school year.
UK Gov School Admissions state: "You must apply for a primary school place a year before your child can start school.
"Applications open in September and close on 15 January.
"Your child will be 3 or have just turned 4 when you apply.
"You’ll need to apply then even if you want your child to start part-way through the year."
Also for secondary schools, the deadline for applying is 31 October.