Blocked drains, mystery stinks – heads warn of schools repair crisis

Headteachers tell of the damage caused by years of cuts to their capital and maintenance budgets

In one of the classrooms of Gillotts secondary school in Henley-on-Thames, there is a mysterious, acrid smell. It is a school day but the room is empty because this "awful" scent, a mix of damp and chemicals, clogs children's throats and clings to the teachers' hair and clothes long after they go home.

"That classroom is shut and unusable because of the smell - and I could really do with that classroom," said headteacher Catharine Darnton. Her state school has 900 pupils and, like many other heads across the country, she has struggled to maintain her dilapidated building in the face of the government's austerity cuts. As well as the stink, heating failures and electricity blow-outs have led to partial temporary closures of the school and blocked drains have threatened to leak raw sewage onto the playground. Darnton has been forced to take money intended for the education of students and allocate it to repairs and even capital expenditure. The low point came when, in winter, the building was so cold and dark she had to consider closing the school. "It was insane," she said.

By not maintaining our schools, we are storing up problems and the cost is higher when we have to do it in an emergency.