An emergency school closure for major building repairs will see some Bradford pupils return to remote learning before the holidays.

Appleton Academy, Wyke, has closed amid health and safety concerns for students during the last three days of the school term. 

The school has been facing issues with "residual defects" in its large school building, impacting the stability of the dining hall concrete subfloor and much more.

After eight years of "complex and lengthy" conversations, executive headteacher Helen Jones revealed the academy will remove and replace its current concrete sub floor.

In a letter to parents, Ms Jones said the academy and its board had "reluctantly taken the decision" to put an emergency early closure in place.

Work is likely to take six to eight weeks to complete, creating a lot of noise and dust in the process.

Arrangements are being made to provide online and remote learning until the summer holidays begin.

Ms Jones said: "As many of you may be aware, we are now approaching 10 years since the opening of the academy building.

"As those of us who remember the predecessor school sites know, our move to the fantastic facilities we now have in the heart of the community has undoubtedly contributed to the continuing improvements being made at Appleton Academy, which were rewarded with our Good Ofsted judgment in November 2021.

"However, what is less well known is that, as with many large-scale building projects, we have to manage a number of residual defects.

"One such issue is the stability of the dining hall concrete sub floor. Over the years, this has shown signs of deterioration due to faults dating back to when the academy was originally built, and the floor was laid.

"Due to these faults, the academy has had a programme of inspection and maintenance in place that has allowed us to manage the issue.

"However, we have also always continued dialogue with the original contractors and the Council, with a view to eventually replacing the sub floor in the dining hall to resolve this issue once and for all.

"Finding a permanent solution would prevent us having to continue to undertake regular, costly repairs, which are time and resource intensive. These conversations have been complex and lengthy and have frustratingly taken almost eight years to conclude.

"However, we are pleased to say that we have now reached an agreement with the flooring contractor and the Council for work to take place to remove the existing concrete sub floor and replace this, which will provide the permanent solution to the issues of deterioration we have been managing and assure us of the stability of the structure for the long-term.

"This work will be extensive, and in its early stages involves digging up the existing floor and removing underfloor heating.

"The whole project will take six to eight weeks to complete, which makes the summer break the obvious time to undertake this.

"At the beginning of the project, there will be contractors on site doing preparatory work, but we can work around this with relatively little disruption to school.

"However, after long discussion with the contractor, it has become clear that the scale of the demolition and construction work to remove the current floor could present a risk to the safety and wellbeing of pupils, due to the noise and dust that will be generated on site."

Bradford's school holidays will start from Friday, July 22, 2022.

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