Parent breathes ‘sigh of relief’ at son’s A-level results after concrete issues

The mother of a boy whose school building was largely closed due to substandard concrete is breathing “a big sigh of relief” after he received his A-level results after a “year from hell”.

Nicola Cook, 53, whose 18-year-old son attended St Leonard’s Catholic School in Durham, told the PA news agency that her child achieved his results despite a year of disruption.

Students at the school were forced to undertake lessons remotely and in alternative venues after reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) was found in the school building.

Ms Cook’s son, who she did not want to name, was predicted three A*s, achieving those grades in psychology and media as well as an A in music.

“Overall, it’s a big, big sigh of relief,” she said.

She added the morning had been filled with “quite a lot of tears” among students at the school “because the anxiety has been so great”.

Ms Cook, a company director from Durham, was eager to stress that her son achieved the positive result despite the anxiety experienced by her child, his peers, parents and teachers over the past year.

“He got that win on his absolute own merit, down to his resilience and his hard work and the exceptional hard work of the teachers in that school, and not down to any support from any government organisation or other external agency,” she said.

“If they’re going to try and take credit for this, then they shouldn’t, they cannot, because you cannot diminish the impact that the last year has had, mentally as well as academically, on these children.

“It’s in spite of all of the disruption that they’ve had.

“It’s not all smiles but generally, overall, it’s been a positive day.”

An “exceptionally bright” student with autism, Ms Cook’s son will be able to study psychology at the University of York, which was the “one university that would actually meet all of his needs because of his additional Send needs,” she said.

Ms Cook described the stressful conditions experienced by St Leonard’s Catholic School over the past year, due to the presence of Raac.

The students were taught in various locations throughout the year, including an office building in a nearby town, a “non-soundproof” converted sports hall on the school grounds, and in a conference room at the Radisson Hotel in Durham, in which several lessons took place concurrently, Ms Cook said.

“For the first full term, the kids couldn’t even get access to their textbooks or their previous coursework, or if you had a musical instrument in the music department, you couldn’t even get that back.”

She added: “The temporary accommodation to rehouse the school wasn’t usable until after Easter, so our kids have had a year from hell.

“The minute the school was closed, all children with Send needs lost all reasonable adjustments, because it just wasn’t the environment to provide them.

“(My son’s) mental health suffered drastically, and he went into a very dark place around about October, November, and we had to do an intervention and step in and get him some mental health support.

“Thankfully, the school was very aware and was able to support him because his depression and anxiety was off the scale, so it’s been a really tense time.”

A report by academics in January called for pupils at schools where teaching has been badly affected by the Raac crisis – such as St Leonard’s Catholic School – to have their exam results lifted by up to 10%.

But a one-off dispensation has not been granted to all pupils in exam years who faced disruption to their learning and teaching due to Raac.

Speaking the day before the A-level results were given, Ms Cook said parents were feeling “a deep sense of unfairness, a sense of disbelief, a sense of extreme anger at the whole situation”.

“The kids are very aware, and they feel like they’ve been completely forgotten and ignored, and that they’re not important, and they feel like they’re collateral damage in a political game that wasn’t of their doing,” she said.

St Leonard’s Catholic School told PA: “Students at St Leonard’s Catholic School, Durham, after a challenging year around Raac, have pulled together to achieve another set of fantastic results of which we could not be prouder.

“40% of A-level entries were awarded top A*/A grades compared to 33% last year. 82% of students are moving on to their first choice of university, including 10 students to Durham University.”

The school said an “outstanding” 51% will be heading to Russell Group universities, with five successful applicants heading for Oxford and Cambridge, as well as many moving on to a range of apprenticeships and achieving distinctions in their BTec results.

PA has contacted the Conservative Party for comment.