Disruptive building work during term time

[SatsumaZoom]

Has anyone got any experience of this - they are bulldozing half my kids school and the classrooms are full of dust which is far from ideal, the noise is incredible and the playground area has temporarily gone so kids don't get PE. Don't schools have to follow health and safety rules about this sort of thing does anyone know? The windows need to be open because of covid but construction dust is meant to be incredibly bad for you so not ideal for them to be breathing in day in day out. One year 6 classroom is less than 2m from the main building site so they can hardly hear the teacher! Has anyone any knowledge or experience with this? Tia

What does the head say? I suppose it depends how vital it is and what the alternatives would be. Why are they bulldozing half the school? How long will the work last? Could it be done in a holiday or not?

I worked in a school where we were in temporary classrooms while they built the new school around us. Very small playground, noise and dust, but we just got on with it. I'm sure the head was doing everything by the book as that's just the kind of head they are. They didn't work right next to the nearest fence if they could help it during term-time, though.

This happened when I was at school. It was pretty fun watching the builders and the dust wasn't forever. Surely the bulldozing part is only a few days.

We had portacabin loos in the playground, 2 temporary classrooms on the car park and one wall of the school missing a few years ago. Not the most fun I’ll admit.
However, we needed the space, the new classroom are nice to teach in and it all feels like a distant memory now.

Unfortunately new buildings can’t be built in the small window of the summer holidays. So unless local authorities close a school completely during building works, or pay additional costs for extensive temporary classrooms (and find the land to put them on), construction works have to go on during term time.

The windows won't need to be as wide open now, but all pretty normal when schools going through building work.

I guess I'm just being oversensitive. My son's classroom is basically in the middle of the building site, today they were cutting concrete and it was so loud he couldn't hear in class and his classroom was full of dust particles. I worry about his lungs and I worry about the distraction during his sat prep. I guess it's just normal but it seems rubbish, he has nowhere for p.e. when the ground is wet now and he won't benefit from any of it....

Schools or LAs that bid into the Capital Improvement Fund last year had their successful bids announced late and it was difficult to find enough contractors who could do the work during the summer holidays (many had other projects booked by then). Several schools are are having to have them done while schools are in session or they'll lose the funding.

It was a government delay and out of the school's control.

I sympathise. My DC had 2-3 years of disruption. Roof, windows, playground, buildings etc