The closure of some school buildings over concrete with collapsing risks is not a return to pandemic-style lockdowns, the education secretary said on Sunday.
The Department for Education (DfE) has told 104 schools and colleges to keep all or part of their buildings shut next week because they contain reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC), a type of lightweight concrete used between the 1950s and the mid-1990s, after a RAAC beam collapsed last week.
