SWINDON'S CRUMBLING SCHOOLS: HUNDREDS of Swindon children are being taught in decrepit mobile classrooms as Swindon Council works hard to find the £50 million needed to repair crumbling school buildings.

There are 120 temporary classrooms on school sites across Swin-don with £50 million worth of repairs needed and some headteachers say the situation isn't good enough.

At Commonweal School in Old Town there are 12 temporary classrooms and the whole maths department is housed in a temporary block that was supposed to last for 15 years but has been on the site for 40 years.

Headteacher Keith Defter, chairman of the Swindon Association of Secondary Headteachers, said: "I do know we have got to get our schools back up to scratch and they are currently not. There are far too many mobiles that are not up to 21st century teaching standards.

"As a school the only thing we've failed on in our last two Ofsted inspections was our accommodation.

"We've got mobiles that are in a poor state and they do nothing to help us improve the learning of our children. The temperature in those classrooms is a big issue.

"It can be boiling hot or it can be freezing cold and it's just not very nice.

"Some of the rooms in which the children are learning are just not conducive to a good school.

"We've got a lot of accommodation we would be concerned about in the long term."

Martyn Cowell is headteacher of Toothill School where three classes are taught in temporary classrooms.

"They are quite a drain in terms of maintenance, " he said.

"They heat up terribly in summer and are freezing cold in winter due to the flat roof design.

"It is difficult to install air conditioning in the temporary classrooms and security is an issue when they contain computers. We have had computers go missing in the past.

"The teachers do a wonderful job to make the temporary classrooms look attractive.

"But there is the feeling, as far as the children are concerned, that they are in second class accommodation.

"Toothill is a deprived area and this compounds that feeling.

"It does not do a lot for the children's self esteem."

Mr Cowell has been teaching at the school for 13 years and has had repeated discussions with the council about replacing the mobile classrooms.

He said: "It's disheartening for teachers and it can affect the recruitment and retainment of staff."

David Williams, headteacher of Kingsdown School, has been waiting for four years for a council grant to build new PE facilities.

He said: "Kingsdown seems to miss out on a lot of the new building money.

"The LEA has been promising us a grant to improve our PE facilities but we keep missing out and we still haven't got it.

"They've said we are on the list for the past three or four years.

"But we never seem to reach the top of the list."

Phil Baker, secretary of the Swindon branch of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, said the state of the school buildings could affect pupils' education.

"This is the result of many years of the Government wanting education on the cheap.

"Until 1997 very little maintenance was done on schools and the council is now faced with having to make up the back log.

"The quality of decoration in the classroom can bring about lack of motivation.

"Where schools have been able to spend money on improving the quality of the classroom, research shows that pupils' performance improves."

Diana Milne