Leaking Roofs Drip for Another Year

Despite the best efforts of the site staff, led by Mr Swift, KTS has failed in a bid to weatherproof our leaking roofs... again, writes R De Faveri and D Boar.

Mrs Martin is fed up with leaks in the library

As your humble NewsKnight reported last year (click here), Baldock’s favourite senior school has been afflicted with water dripping in from above in many rooms throughout the school. The only positive was R Wilmore winning a Shine Media award for best writer in June for the piece above.

“It is very disappointing that... the school has been unsuccessful in getting the funding it needs to fix our roofs"

Many school roofs have hardly been updated for decades, and this has caused extensive issues and concerns throughout the years. The KTS library, K and T blocks have flat roofs, and water simply sits on the roofs until either evaporates or seeps through the ceilings (please see below).

Brown stains caused by water in the library

The council have recently spent over £7 million on changing the speed limit in Hertfordshire across three years according to multiple sources. While this bid for safer streets is well-meaning in principle, it may not be the smartest allocation of funding when our classrooms are in jeopardy and lessons face disruption. It’s deeply concerning that the government can leave students and staff left under leaking roofs. This signals a severe misalignment in priorities, where headline-stealing projects are favoured over the building blocks of education. Investing in school infrastructure isn’t a luxury, it’s a duty.

Water settled on roofs and seeping in...

Areas that have been particularly badly affected in recent months are the English, History, Technology and PE departments in addition to the school library. NewsKnight’s top snapper, Harrison, went around the school and captured some harrowing and telling photos of water ingress.

NewsKnight met up with the  Business Manager of KTS, Mr Swift, for his views on the failed bid: “It is very disappointing that despite annual bids to the Department for Education’s Condition Improvement Fund, the school has been unsuccessful in getting the funding it needs to replace numerous leaking roofs around the school site. This is now the fifth year of KTS bidding for funding from DfE, but just like every previous year, it has been dismissed promptly.

Lunar landscape caused by water ingress

 “Water ingress into our school buildings creates an unsuitable learning environment for teaching and learning,” he continued. “In certain parts of the school during winter, and causes much disruption to the school timetable due to lessons having to be re-roomed away from the affected classrooms. Our staff and students deserve better and we will continue our efforts in gaining the necessary funding for the roof refurbishments.”

Head of Media, Mrs Pedder, who teaches in NewsKnight’s news office, has been putting up with poor roofs for ages. “I’ve been teaching at KTS for 11 years,” she says, “and the roofs have been leaking throughout. But it’s getting worse. The water comes through the lights and also runs down the walls in the corridor and forms puddles down the stairs. I feel frustrated.” 

For the fifth consecutive year, it looks like the Knights Templar roofs will continue to be in a dire state of disrepair, and we will have to wait another year to bid again.

Photos: H Eaton