Safety warning after school ceiling collapse

Scottish councils are being told to be aware of "potential issues" with certain roof types after a school ceiling collapsed in Aberdeenshire.

The dramatic partial collapse was discovered at Slains School in Collieston on Monday 10 March, before children had arrived for the day.

BBC Scotland News has seen a confidential Aberdeenshire Council report, which blamed "deficiencies in the poorly constructed roof trusses" in the school, which was built in 1967.

The report said a briefing note would be issued to the Scottish government and other Scottish local authorities to make them aware of the "potential issues" with certain roof structure types. Aberdeenshire Council confirmed this had been done.

The gym hall ceiling collapse report - dated 13 March - reveals that on Sunday 9 March the head teacher of Slains School identified a "change to the appearance" of the ceiling.

The area was cordoned off until further investigations could take place, and only the head teacher was in the building at the time of the collapse the next day.

The school was then closed to allow investigations.

The school's 22 pupils are now being taught six miles (10km) away at Port Erroll school in Cruden Bay.

"Initial findings have highlighted a failure of the roof trusses due to the structural design and construction method at the time," the report said.

"There is no evidence of any water ingress which could lead to deterioration of the roof structure and no previous signs of any imminent failure.

"Before the widespread adoption of modern trussed roofs, the prototype Timber Development Association (TDA) roof truss was developed in the 1950s, when material resources were still limited following the war. The same truss type was used at Slains School."

The report states: "The primary cause of the partial roof collapse can be attributed to deficiencies in the poorly constructed roof trusses at the time of installation."

Demolition is seen as the only option, the report said, adding a further seven schools were confirmed as having TDA trusses.

These were Monymusk School, Fintry School, Arnage School, Cairney School, Craigievar School, Midmar School, and Gourdon School, and inspections were launched.

In addition, there were 37 schools where desktop surveys were unable to identify the type of roof structure, so further surveys were said to be needed.

An investigation found there were "no concerns" about other schools after the primary school ceiling collapse, according to the chair of the council's education committee last week.

The confidential council report added that a UK-wide check could not find any reported failures of TDA trusses.

The only possible similar case they found was a timber truss failure in a school in 2012, however this was a different type of truss, and the failure was caused by snow loading.

The council had initially said it had identified a "small number" of schools that had the same type of roof construction in certain parts of their buildings.

The authority said at the time the circumstances around the failure of the roof were because of a "cumulation of factors which appear to be unique to Slains School".

Aberdeenshire Council confirmed in response to questions about the confidential report that a briefing note had been issued to the Scottish government and all other Scottish local authorities.

The council said that 21 schools - including Slains - were found to have TDA roof construction.

All have been inspected by property inspectors with nine of them - including Slains - having been inspected by structural engineers. The structural engineer's initial observations of these investigations found no systemic, or common, issues.

A programme of inspection of the remaining 12 schools will be undertaken by structural engineers over the next few weeks.

Aberdeenshire Council said in a statement: "Following a further review of findings, our structural engineer contractor has updated their report which attributes the ceiling collapse to a failure of the connection between the ceiling joists and the rafters.

"The primary contributing factors were insufficient fixings, additional loading from modifications since the school was built, and workmanship during the original construction."

The Scottish government said it had "engaged directly with Aberdeenshire Council on this issue and stands ready to offer support to assist recovery and minimise disruption to the pupils' learning".