The Knights Templar School’s on-going fight against leaking roofs was dealt a bitter blow after the History department was hit with a deluge, writes N Archell-Green and R Wilmore
*In K-Block, T-Block and Library
Two classrooms (K21 and K19) at KTS Towers were flooded and knocked out of action earlier this week. This calamity has come weeks after the Department of Education refused the school’s £1.4 million pound bid for funding to fix leaking roofs - for the third year in a row.
The extent of the damage has caused not only disruptive room changes for students and teachers, but also rendered parts of the KTS Library out of action - much to the disappointment of Mrs Martin and the library team. (See video above) “We’re really sad that we can’t use the whole of our library due to rain damage,” Miss Martin said, rightly upset that a core part of the school has been partially closed off as a result of water ingress. Sections of the library had to be shut off as book boxes were positioned to collect the drips from the split roofs.
“The continual deterioration of our roofs means they would cost £1.4m to repair” Mr Swift
The History Department, the English corridor and the Library took the brunt of the storm. The interior downpour that K21 experienced was so extreme it soaked the classroom below. Writer R Wilmore knelt down to take a photo of the destruction, and the carpet was so wet it soaked through to her knees in seconds. The stench of wet carpet could be smelt even when the door was closed. “The history classrooms are awful,” said NewsKnight’s Louis. “The smell was unbearable, particularly bad in K21. The carpets have not dried out yet.” (See picture below)
There are rumours that the current plans for the Baldock expansion may include relocating the school to a different site entirely, so with that in mind, is the Department of Education’s reasoning for refusing the funding due to their assumption that this plan will go ahead? Even if the rumours prove true, waiting for the council’s permission to rebuild the school, and then waiting for said build to be completed may take years, decades even. Does the Department of Education appreciate the conditions that staff and students have to work in?
While KTS avoided the RAAC epidemic that swept the nation earlier this year, the presence of asbestos in some parts of the building is still a danger with the increasingly recent floods that risk disturbing it. According to the website NHS Inform, asbestos poses a danger if “...material containing asbestos is chipped, drilled, broken or allowed to deteriorate…” Considering the declining state of the school, how much longer will we have to endure this extreme weather as of late until the Department of Education starts taking our pleas seriously?
“For the last three years, we have bid for replacement flat roofing in areas of the school where roofs have been graded as 'life expired' and 'in urgent need of replacement'," said Mr Swift, the School Business Manager. “Because of the continual deterioration of our roofs, last year’s bid grew to a project sum application for £1.4m of funding. The bid scores and evaluation process in the last two years has shown that our bids have come close to the required bid score for funding to be awarded, but were not above the threshold required. Trustees will decide whether we choose to bid for a 4th year running over the coming weeks, as the December 2024 bidding round approaches."
In the neighbouring county of Bedfordshire, many schools have received funding and extensions in order to accommodate the influx of students, as more and more housing continues to be built in the area. Their schools are not falling down, and yet the Department of Education prioritises them as we in Baldock are forced to live and work in clammy classrooms. However, with the Labour government now in charge of the House of Commons after 14 years of Conservative rule, will this be our chance to secure our ceiling tiles, and our future? NewsKnight hopes North East Herts MP, Chris Hinchliff, is reading this article.
Photographs: R Wilmore, N Green
Comments