Pupils eating in tent a year after school closure

Pupils are still eating their dinners in a marquee more than a year after their school was deemed unsafe because of weak concrete, with parents saying they feel "let down".

Issues with the concrete in ceilings at Hazlewood Primary School in Wideopen, North Tyneside, were identified in February 2024.

Temporary classrooms have been used for lessons since September, but the kitchen and dining hall remain unoccupied with meals cooked offsite and transported to the marquee.

North Tyneside Council said work had begun to bring the hall back into use after the Easter break and it had spent more than £2m so far. The Department for Education (DfE) said it was "working closely" with the authority.

The council said the current work to secure the ceilings inside the school was not a permanent fix.

It said a hall next door to the school had also been used for dining between November and mid-December.

Jo Lowry, who has two children at Hazlewood, said: "We feel like we've had to fight for everything.

"We're a year down the line, and the kids are still eating in a marquee.

"It's really not good enough and we feel extremely let down by the council."

Rob Mathieson, chair of the school's PTA, said: "The Department for Education don't feel like this is a problem they have to fix.

"[They] don't want to visit the school, don't want to contact us about it."

"The council need to come together with the Department for Education to come up with a grand plan of what they're going to do with the school."

North Tyneside Council said it had also spent funds on two other schools in North Tyneside facing concrete-related issues over the past year.

Jon Ritchie, the authority's director of resources, said of the work at Hazlewood: "While this is a temporary solution, we continue to lobby the Department for Education for a longer term resolution for the school building."

A DfE spokesperson said: "We are working closely with North Tyneside Council as the responsible body to determine next steps."