Kent County Council says it has no further schools affected by a safety scare on a potentially dangerous type of concrete used in their construction.

The government said that it had identified more than 156 additional schools that could be affected and has warned school bosses they must immediately shut buildings made with a type of concrete that is prone to collapse unless safety measures are in place.

KentOnline reported earlier this year that five sites in the county were affected by the issue – with some having to move lessons into marquees.

Now the Department for Education has revealed a total of 156 schools in England are confirmed to have buildings made with reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC).

A report by the National Audit Office (NAO) in June assessed the risk of injury or death from a school building collapse as "very likely and critical".

The schools affected in Kent last term were Godinton Primary in Ashford, Birchington Church of England School, near Westgate-on-Sea, Sunny Bank Primary in Sittingbourne, Palmarsh Primary in Hythe, and St James' Church of England School in Tunbridge Wells.

It is not yet known how these sites are affected by the DfE’s announcement today – or if any more schools in the county are impacted.

Government officials say of the 156 schools with RAAC, 52 already have safety measures, while the remaining 104 are having “mitigations” put in place.

Julie McCulloch, director of policy at the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “The danger of structural failure in school buildings where this type of concrete was used in construction has been known since at least 2018. The Department for Education’s own annual report last year identified the condition of school buildings as one of six ‘significant risks’ it was managing, describing this risk as ‘critical – very likely’ and ‘worsening’.

“It has taken the government far too long to act on a risk of this seriousness. The scramble now taking place to contact affected schools ahead of the imminent start of the new school year is clearly vital, but the actions these schools will need to take will be hugely disruptive, and this will obviously be worrying for pupils, families and staff. The government should have put in place a programme to identify and remediate this risk at a much earlier stage.

“The wider context is that the government has failed to invest sufficiently in the school estate over the past 13 years.

“The ‘useful life’ of this type of concrete – used from the mid-1950s until the mid-1990s – is only 30 years and it is symptomatic of this underinvestment in school buildings that the situation has had to become critical before anything is done.”

KentOnline previously revealed how concerns over RAAC originated at a school in Gravesend in 2018.

The fears over the dangers of particular buildings collapsing has also influenced decisions on which hospitals across the country have received funding.