The Know Daily - Monday 4 September 2023

_{Read in 5m 34s ∙ Listening to Griff}

Take a sneak peek at some of the highly commended shots from this year’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition👇. The 2023 winners will be announced in October when the Natural History Museum in London showcases 100 of these incredible snaps - but for now, we’re especially loving Coral connections by Alex Mustard and Forest rodeo by Atsuyuki Ohshima.

🏫 Concrete crisis

More than 100 schools in England are fully or partially closed as the new academic year begins, with the government facing mounting criticism over its handling of potentially unsafe concrete in public buildings.

First things first, why is this concrete so problematic?
Reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) is a lightweight and cheaper alternative to standard concrete, and it was used in some buildings between the 1950s and 1990s. There is “nothing fundamentally wrong” with RAAC as a material, said the BBC, but it only has a lifespan of around 30 years.

The “bubbly” material is also susceptible to moisture which means that, in some cases, a supporting metal could rust and weaken. Because of all this, the government is now warning that some buildings may potentially be unsafe due to the presence of RAAC.

Got it. So how many schools are affected?
While 104 schools have been fully or partially closed due to the presence of this concrete, the true scale of the problem is not yet known.

There have been warnings about RAAC since 2018. In March 2022, the Department for Education (DfE) sent questionnaires to schools asking if they suspected the presence of RAAC in their buildings. If they did, the DfE sent engineers to confirm it. On Thursday, the schools that had been confirmed to have RAAC were told to shut the affected buildings unless they had alternative safety measures in place.

What’s the bigger picture?
Spending on school buildings in England has fallen sharply over the last decade, and a former top civil servant at the DfE told the BBC earlier today that the fund for rebuilding schools was halved in 2021.

Education Secretary Gillian Keegan has confirmed that the DfE will fund temporary works, including the propping up of unsafe structures and the installation of temporary classrooms. However, it remains unclear as to whether the government will provide schools with any extra cash beyond that.