More demolition planned at school undergoing rebuild

Two single-storey blocks could be demolished at a primary school that is undergoing a major rebuild.

Reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) was found at St Francis Catholic Primary School in Ascot in 2023 and the Department for Education (DfE) said the complex had "reached the end of its operational life".

A planning application to demolish and rebuild it, and to accommodate pupils and staff in temporary classrooms during that work, was approved in February.

It had been initially anticipated that two separate 1970s blocks would be kept, but further work has found that would be "neither necessary nor appropriate".

One of the blocks was previously used for a pre-school which stopped operating in October 2023 and the building has been unused since.

Since then, the buildings have "continued to deteriorate", planning agents on behalf of the DfE and contractor Galliford Try said.

They said after the blocks were knocked down, the area left would be "incorporated into a new soft landscaping scheme" to fit in with the wider redevelopment.

The application to demolish the two blocks, submitted to the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, is separate to the rebuild project.

The school currently has capacity for 210 children, which will remain the same once the rebuild is finished.