Rayleigh and Wickford MP Mark Francois has warmly welcomed the news that modern, temporary classrooms will now be on site to provide teaching facilities for pupils, when Hockley Primary School reopens for the new academic year, on the 4th of September 2023.
Mark has been actively lobbying Education Ministers in support of the school, which has had to close because of the discovery of Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC), in some parts of the school building. While detailed engineering studies are being carried out, to evaluate the full extent of the problem, pupils have had to be temporarily educated in classrooms in other local schools, including Greensward Academy and Plumberow Primary Academy, both of which, like Hockley Primary, are run by the Academies Enterprise Trust (AET).
However, it would be difficult to sustain this arrangement into the autumn term, which begins on Monday 4 September, so both AET and Mark have been lobbying the Department for Education and Essex County Council to ensure that modern, temporary classrooms would be made available on site, in time for the new term. This has now recently been confirmed, via the DfE.
Commenting on the good news for Hockley Primary School, Mark Francois said:
"I am very pleased for pupils, parents, and staff at Hockley Primary that both mine and AET's representations have been successful and that eight new, high-standard, mobile classrooms will now be provided, on the school site, from early September. These classrooms, which should expand in number to twelve by mid-October, are a modern, effective design, far removed from the often windy 'demountables' which some people may remember from the 1970s and 80s. These new classrooms will help to bridge the gap while we await the results of detailed engineering surveys, which should help indicate whether Hockley Primary can be successfully and safely repaired, o whether the school will eventually have to be rebuilt. In the meantime, I would like to commend pupils and parents for their patience but also all those at AET, who have worked so hard to provide a continuance of education for Hockley pupils in this challenging situation - they have done a great job."
