School to remain closed due to worsening cracks
BBCA Northumberland primary school which closed early for Christmas due to structural damage will remain closed pending more safety checks.
Mowbray Primary School shut towards the end of the autumn term after cracks in the building, part of which date back to the 1920s, got worse.
The school, in Stakeford, currently has about 250 pupils.
Northumberland County Council said more survey work was needed, with pupils being educated at nearby sites while a temporary alternative facility is set up at Foundry House in Bedlington.
The council said it had been monitoring the condition of the school building when some cracks started to appear.
Northumberland County Council's head of school organisation and resources, Sue Aviston, said: "It's got to the point where we need to do further, more intrusive investigation."
At a meeting on Thursday, she said pupils had been relocated "on a temporary basis for the next few weeks while we look at doing further investigation".
Aviston said there was "potential of moving pupils to Foundry House to come together as a school".
"I was at the car park yesterday morning at around quarter past eight to see the children loaded up on to buses to go to their new locations," she told the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
"There were lots of excited children and parents seem happy – we haven't had any complaints," she added.
Surveys in 2023 found that the school did not contain any RAAC after the material forced the closure of schools across the country.
The council said wraparound care for working parents would continue to be offered, with the Church of the Holy Family on Stakeford Lane being used as a temporary venue.
