The mum of a teenager with special educational needs (SEN) has spoken out about the “impossible task” she and her son have been faced with in the wake of school closures.

Taylor Forbes, 15, was set to return to Ferryhill School next week, but his mother Michelle was notified that the school would not be reopening this week.

Read more: Ferryhill School delays term after RAAC found in buildings

More than 100 schools and colleges were told on Thursday (August 31) to partially or fully close the buildings just days before kids are set to return after the summer holidays, as Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC), a kind of cladding used is some school buildings, is crumbling en masse.

The Department for Education (DfE) said a minority of the state facilities may have to move completely and some children may be forced back into pandemic-style remote learning.

The Ferryhill family has been thrown into “chaos” after the school confirmed that two of its buildings are affected by the potentially dangerous RAAC.

The Northern Echo: Ferryhill School has delayed the start of the school year after RAAC was found in two of its

As Taylor has autism, he requires one-to-one tutoring for both English and maths. Through lockdown, he struggled with the schooling-from-home format and became so disengaged with school that Michelle “struggled to get him to log on” in the mornings.

She said: “It’s been completely out of the blue, and our whole year has been thrown into chaos by the school getting in touch to say they aren’t opening.

“They’ve told us that it is going to take at least six weeks for the works to remove the concrete to be done – by which time it will already be the October holidays, so it is going to be months before Taylor is back in a classroom.

15-year-old Taylor is in year 11, and is set to do his GCSE examinations this year – but mum Michelle believes that this change in situation will have a “really big” impact on his grades.

“I’ve got a four-year-old and a one-year-old, so the house is not the best place for a teenager to be studying for his exams.

“My toddler has just learned to walk, and Taylor doesn’t react well to noise when he is concentrating – we’ve just been really let down by the school.

“At Ferryhill, he is in a group of about six or seven students who all have special learning needs, and all of those families will be in the same position as us.”

Taylor is already around two years behind his classmates after not gelling well with online learning through lockdown.

Read more on the RAAC schools issue here:

Only a few days left to get three months of our digital newspaper for just £3. Click Here.

Michelle says it feels like an “impossible task” to get her son “anywhere near caught up before his GCSE exams in the summer.”

The school said it plans to welcome new Year 7 starters the following week on Monday, September 11 in unaffected parts of the school but other students will be forced to return to online lessons.

A school spokesperson said: “Our main priority is to ensure that all of our students receive face-to-face education as soon as possible and so we are sourcing alternative venues, as a matter of urgency, in the local area that we can use to ensure students receive high-quality education.”