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Pupils eating in tent a year after school closure

Emilia Martinez-Barnfather
BBC North East and Cumbria
BBC A white gazebo-style marquee in the middle of a muddy grass field. The marquee has glass French doors on its right hand side. There is a light-coloured paved path leading up to the French doors. In the background, a blue sky and leafless trees. BBC
Pupils at Hazlewood Primary School have been eating their dinner in this marquee tent for more than twelve months

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 has shoulder-length blonde hair and is wearing a black hooded puffer coat. She is standing in front of a large white marquee tent which has one of its glass double-doors propped open.
Jo Lowry said parents feel "extremely let down"

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 has short, light-brown hair and is wearing a navy-blue hooded puffer coat while standing in front of a grass field. Behind him, on the left-hand side, is a large white marquee tent.
PTA Chair Rob Mathieson said "no-one is taking any accountability"

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."

An exterior view of light-grey, two-storey "modular units", similar to pre-fab classrooms. A walkway, lined with wooden fencing attached to a metal handrail, leads up to the double entrance doors.
Lessons were moved out of the marquees and into newly-built modular units in September

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."

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