School Buildings: Northumberland and Newcastle

Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn.—(Vicky Foxcroft.)

I am glad to have secured this important debate and to see the Members who have stayed in the Chamber and who share my concerns about the conditions of school buildings in Northumberland, in Newcastle and across the country. Speaking on the conditions of school buildings and the education of our young people should not be used for political gain or for making cheap political points—to be clear, I am not here to do that.

I regularly visit schools throughout my constituency. Despite being schools in the largest geographical constituency in England, they are all united by a clear, overarching similarity: the dedication of teachers and staff to ensuring that their students can access the best possible education and resources. From Queen Elizabeth high school to the Sele first school to Hexham middle school and Longhorsley St Helen’s Church of England first school, the list goes on. There is an unwavering strength of community throughout the local schools, fostered by the teachers, the parents, the staff and the students, and it is a testament to the constituency that the region I represent cares so much about the future of our young people.

When we invest in the condition of our schools, we are not just fixing buildings and infrastructure; we are investing in the education of our students and the future of our young people, creating a secure learning environment that should allow all students to reach their full potential. Unfortunately for students of Prudhoe community high school in my constituency, those young people have been let down.

In February, mere months before students were set to sit their GCSE and A-level examinations, structural engineers discovered cracks that threatened the safety of students, staff and teachers. As a result, the school was closed while investigations were conducted. It is testament to the strength of Prudhoe’s community, to the staff and headteacher Annemarie Moore, and to the Cheviot Learning Trust that students have been successfully relocated, with minimal disruption, to a building in Washington.

Relocating IT equipment, removing furniture, and launching cleaning and repairs is no small feat, and I commend everyone involved for their dedication to Prudhoe’s students and to finding the most appropriate location for them to continue their education in what must be some very trying circumstances. I think back to my own experience of doing GCSEs and A-levels not that long ago. It was challenging enough to do them in a school that was great as it was. It is another thing to imagine doing that with the stress and while losing all that time on the bus every week.

Although everyone accepts that the best outcome would have been for students to go back into school to receive their education on site, that simply would not have been safe. I commend the Department for Education for the hard work, support and reassurance that it has provided to the students, teachers, parents and staff every step of the way. However, the situation raises an urgent question: how can a school built less than nine years ago, under the previous Government, be closed due to cracks in the building’s infrastructure? There is one clear answer to me: the blatant disregard of the previous Government for my constituency’s community. The Conservative Government had launched the priority school building programme with the intention of

“rebuilding and refurbishing school buildings in the worst condition across the country.”

They appear to have achieved what could be described as the opposite.

I commend the hon. Gentleman for bringing forward this matter for debate. I spoke to him this afternoon to seek his permission to intervene on him tonight, and he has given me that opportunity.

He is right to highlight the issue of schools and their importance. The most important thing about schools is the children—the pupils—as he has clearly outlined. When a school is only eight or nine years old, there should be a warranty that covers all eventualities. The hon. Gentleman might be coming to that and to telling us where the warranty works and does not work. I would expect, as I am sure he would if he had a house with a warranty on it, that there would be substantial cover to ensure that the school could be repaired and that the children could get back there—because that is the most important thing: the children.

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely correct: the most important thing is the children. This is about the children of Prudhoe and the whole community. If he ever has the opportunity to visit Prudhoe community high school, which I hope he does, he will see the most extraordinary set of students, and staff who are desperate to get their children back on site and back into learning. PCHS was where my mum went to school, so I have a very personal link to it. I have spoken to the headteacher multiple times about making sure that we get those students back on site with the correct support that is needed, so I absolutely agree with the hon. Gentleman on that.

My hon. Friend is making an excellent speech—he is clearly a passionate advocate for his schools in Northumberland. Another school in Northumberland is Berwick Academy, which was Berwick community high school until it became an academy in 2011. Over the years it has been good, but it now requires improvement. In terms of its physical condition, unfortunately the students’ toilets now have black mould, which—he was talking about the previous Government—is a terrible failing. We are still waiting on the plan to rebuild that school. In 2021 the county council had a plan to rebuild it, but we are still waiting on an outline business case. Does he agree that these are just not good enough standards for our students, for our parents and for our community as a whole in Northumberland?

My hon. Friend is a passionate advocate for his constituency and for the north of the county. Too often schools in Northumberland have been victims of the mañana attitude of Northumberland county council. For far too long, whether it is on this or on SEND—special educational needs and disabilities—transport, the council has been asleep at the wheel when it comes to issues affecting the children of Northumberland.

The structural issues at the school have damaged not only the community but the children’s education. One thing that really stuck out to me was a quote from a former Conservative Education Minister saying that those schools were built

“one third cheaper per square metre on average than schools built under the Building Schools for the Future Programme”,

which was Labour’s flagship programme. Educational services should not just be used for political gain when our country and our county’s young people depend on them. The students of Prudhoe deserve and need a safe place to continue their education. They need it in the short term, and they need it in the long term.

When a report was leaked to The Observer that a senior official at the Department for Education had described the “upcoming risk” three years ago that many schools were in such disrepair that they were a “risk to life”, I do not believe that a newly rebuilt community high school in Prudhoe was one of the ones at the top of their minds. The school’s facilities were described as fantastic when it reopened, and they were a welcome investment, but it is clear that something has gone seriously wrong. I completely take the point made by the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) about the need to look at a warranty. For my generation, a warranty is something we consider for a mobile phone, not a public institution like a school, but clearly something needs to be done.

I would really like the Minister to reflect on what can be done to investigate how this went so badly wrong and how this community was let down, because the students of PCHS deserve nothing more. They deserve better. They deserve, at the very least, an apology. To experience a school closing for an indeterminate period of time is a disruption that no student should have to experience. It uproots lives, derails routine and destabilises students. No child should have to go through this. No parent should be forced to watch their child go through this. As the hon. Member for Strangford indicated, school is not just a building where children learn; it is a building where children should feel safe, supported and at home.

I have had a visit today from students at St Wilfrid’s school in Branton—the 17th, of the 43 schools in my constituency, that I have seen or visited—and they spoke about the fabric of the school, and of the importance of the buildings to ensuring not just that students have the right learning environment, but that teachers, parents and the community can feel proud to have a place where children can thrive. The fabric of the building is really important for education. Would my hon. Friend agree that we need to do something for all schools across the country to ensure that their fabric is maintained and looked after?

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Like him, I have done my best to visit as many schools in the constituency as I can—having said that, I can feel letters coming in from headteachers to suggest that I have not yet got around to visiting. The fabric of the schools is important. Ensuring that schools feel invested in is important, whether they are the smaller schools in my constituency like Kielder, which is incredibly small and has a tightly focused and tight-knit group of young people and staff, or some of the larger schools—or, indeed, some of the schools out of my constituency, in Newcastle, attended by some children from Callerton and Throckley.

Some of the damage done to the community in Prudhoe is due to the feeling that they were led up the garden path. Prudhoe is an incredible community. It is one of the shining lights of the Tyne valley. It is one of the best places to visit, and to be, in my constituency, although all towns in the Tyne valley are excellent. It deserves so much more—it deserves a Rolls-Royce of a school—but not only was the last Labour Government’s Building Schools for the Future programme scrapped; the replacement programme appears poorly crafted at best.

I want briefly to mention another school in my constituency. Haydon Bridge high school has a dedicated teaching force and a headteacher, in David Nisbet, who works tirelessly for his community and is focused on innovative ways of improving the school, on employability, on moving forward and improving outcomes for students. I do not want to mislead the House, but I believe the school serves a catchment area larger than the M25. The challenges for such a rural school are massive. I visited the school fairly recently and we discussed some of the challenges it faced, including getting adequate funds and support. It did get some minor investment under the last Government, which is obviously welcome—don’t get me wrong—but it did not touch the sides of what was needed. I would like to see Northumberland county council do something about the state of the toilets in that school, which the headteacher told me was the No. 1 issue raised by the student voice. These are little things that could be done; it is a council-maintained school, and the council should step in and take action.

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Hexham (Joe Morris) for securing a debate on this important subject. I know that he is a tireless champion for children and young people in his constituency, and a strong voice on the matters that he has raised. I also thank all Members who have contributed through interventions.

Education is at the heart of this Government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and give every young person the best start in life, no matter their background. Fourteen years after the cancellation of the Building Schools for the Future programme, this Government inherited a school estate in dire need of repair. We are committed to fixing the foundations for staff and pupils, and determined to drive high and rising education standards for children across the country. That is why we protected key education priorities at the Budget, increasing investment this financial year to £2.1 billion to improve the condition of school buildings —up from £1.8 billion last year—and have committed to continuing the current school rebuilding programme.

We are driving forward that programme, including for five schools and colleges in Northumberland and Newcastle. Starting this April, we are kicking off work on 100 school rebuilding projects and ramping up the pace of delivery, backed by £1.4 billion this year, in recognition of the urgent need to improve the condition of school buildings. We are funding the permanent removal of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete in schools and colleges across England, working directly with affected schools on plans to suit individual needs.

We support local authorities, academy trusts and voluntary aided school bodies, which are responsible for keeping their buildings safe and in good working order, by providing capital funding, rebuilding programmes, and extensive guidance and support. They work with their schools on a day-to-day basis and are best placed to manage their buildings, with local knowledge of individual condition, need and priorities. Where the Department for Education is notified of a significant safety issue with a school building that cannot be managed with local resources, we provide additional advice and support on a case-by-case basis. We want all schools and colleges to have the resources and buildings that they need to give our young people the freedom to learn in safe, high-quality environments.