Roofing Damage - Open Letter
Monday 18th March
Dear Parents
I am writing to you to inform you that, unfortunately and annoyingly, over the weekend we had a number of leaks from the new skylights including the new Year 6 skylight which has leaked and has damaged a large amount of the Year 6 exercise books containing the pupils’ work. I feel devastated for the children whose work has been damaged, as it is something they had put a lot of effort into and demonstrated the progress they had made so far in Year 6. Thankfully, Mr Hann regularly reviews where the children are and makes records of progress and levels of assessment and so this information is current and we are fully able to identify the levels each child is working at. Fortunately we managed to get to the work early enough so that the majority of this work is salvageable.
I contacted the manager of the roofing company on Saturday morning, as we had noticed a tiny leak in one of the skylights in Reception on Friday night after the workmen had gone, and it had started to rain quite heavily. He sent the workmen to school on Saturday morning and they undertook repairs on the skylights which were leaking and Mr Maries then conducted an internal inspection of the school for me. At this point the Year 6 skylight was apparently not affected.
On Sunday morning, when Mr Maries came into school to check that everything was alright, he found the original skylights and one of the Year 6 skylights were leaking significantly. He moved the Year 6 work, which was beneath the skylight, away as soon as he could and contacted me. As soon as I was aware of these latest developments I called the manager again and informed my contact for this work at Warwickshire County Council. I then came into school to assess the situation, start the drying process with the work and to see what could be salvaged.
I met with the manager, workmen and Mr Maries this morning and expressed my annoyance and disgust with the situation, with regard to the damage to the children’s work as well as the damage to the internal fabric of the building in a number of the classrooms including carpets and ceiling tiles as well as some staining.
Throughout today we have moved the children away from the affected areas, which has meant Year 6 working in the Year 5 classroom, Year 5 working from the large workroom and Reception being in the hall. This is not desirable but my only alternative was to keep both Year 6 and Reception off school and this was a far better solution in terms of the continuity of their education. We should be back to normal tomorrow as I have been given 100% assurance that the areas where the leaks have occurred are structurally sound and safe. I have been in daily contact with Warwickshire County Council about this since Friday and will continue to do so.
Yours sincerely
Mrs Hine
(Headteacher)