At one Devon primary school, the temperature drops to the point where students wear coats and gloves during part of the lesson.
The head teacher claims he has been informed the school is not eligible for additional funding for repairs, even though there are areas that appear to be impossible to heat.
Student and staff safety, according to the Department for Education (DfE), is “paramount”.
The government estimates that the average primary school in England requires maintenance or upgrades worth £300,000, while the average secondary school requires upgrades or maintenance worth an estimated £1.5 million.
What some of that damage and decay means for students and teachers who deal with it on a daily basis is revealed by BBC Panorama’s investigation. We discovered:
A secondary school in Dumfries and Galloway with sticky labels stuck to drafty windows
Another in North Yorkshire that uses marquees to teach lessons was rendered unusable due to the discovery of potentially hazardous concrete, known as Raac, and two-thirds of the building remained unusable.
Another Essex secondary school has been declared a no-go area following a Raac issue that resulted in the asbestos discovery.
Greater Manchester’s primary school has had to be evacuated several times due to flooding and dangerously high levels of potentially explosive sewage gas.
Built in the 1960s as temporary structures, “the sheds” are unheated modular buildings used by some students at Budleigh Salterton, Devon’s St Peter’s Church of England Primary School.
