Rushden school partially closed due to major building being ‘deemed unsafe’ with no time frame for fix
Rushden Academy has been forced to close a building after it was ruled as unsafe, meaning the school has lost access to 22 teaching spaces until the issue is resolved.
The secondary school in Hayway, Rushden has had to close a significant portion of its classroom space after an issue was found relating to the structural integrity of the blue external panelling.
There is no time frame for its re-opening, however a letter penned by principal, Jonathan Firth, says it ‘will take some time.’
In the letter sent to parents at the end of last week, Mr Firth said: “The team has been busy this week working closely with structural engineers to come up with a solution to mitigate all risks, but as you can imagine, a fix for this will take some time.
“We are working closely with engineers to erect an indemnified scaffolding structure around the external perimeter of the building.
"This will ensure that all external panelling is held securely in place. This work will be undertaken in two phases. The first phase is scheduled to start on Tuesday morning, with the process taking several days.
"Phase two will take place in a few weeks time as we need to wait for an indemnified structure to be designed, approved by qualified engineers, and then erected around the building.
"At this moment in time, I am not able to give any indicative timeframe of when this will be completed. Once this external structure is in place, we will then be able to reopen the school fully and operate as normal. Work can then begin on how we repair or replace the existing panelling around the building.”
Rushden Academy, part of the Tove Learning Trust, will be without many of its maths, humanities, modern foreign languages (MFL), and IT rooms, and in total 22 teaching spaces will be unavailable until the fix is completed.
‘Temporary disruption’ to different year groups will mean that some students will return to an online learning model, deployed during the Covid-19 pandemic, with the school being closed today (Tuesday, April 22) and tomorrow to Years 7, 8 and 9.
Year 7 students will then return to school on April 24, following their normal timetable whereas Year 8, 9 and 10 will continue their learning online from Thursday.
Both Rushden Academy and Tove Learning Trust have been contacted for comment.
More information can be found here.