'Tricky' time as pupils still await school return
BBCPupils unable to return to their school two years after it was deemed unsafe are facing a "tricky" time, their headteacher said.
Youngsters and staff from Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School, in Barrow, Cumbria, were ordered to leave the site on 16 January 2023 after building inspectors said the ground floor could collapse.
Headteacher Simone Beach said the situation had had an "impact on learning time" and she had not yet had confirmation of a restoration timeline.
The Department for Education (DfE) previously said work to repair the school, on Lumley Street, could take between three and five years.
Children have been travelling by coach every day to alternative provision at St Bernard's High School, while two nursery classes are taught at the town's Greengate Children's Centre.
More than two years after they were told to leave the school building, Ms Beach told BBC Radio Cumbria: "We definitely did not expect it to take this long [to be resolved].
"A routine building inspection discovered dry rot in floor joists and then subsequent surveys found other things wrong.
"We were told that day to get out. It was deemed a danger to life."
The headteacher said some of the children have had six temporary locations in two years.
"It's been tricky," Ms Beach said.
"There's an impact on learning time."
In October, the DfT lodged plans with Westmorland and Furness Council to construct a temporary nursery and junior school on the playground.
It said this would allow the school to operate for two years while the main building was rebuilt using DfE funding.
Ms Beach welcomed the return of a longer school day that would come with the temporary accommodation, but said the school would still be separated as a result.
She said: "In terms of a timeline, it's still quite tentative in terms of the long-term solution.
"I think the legacy on this community is unfair and unjust."
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