An award-winning children's author has used his social media platform to draw attention to a Barrow primary school.

Frank Cottrell-Boyce expressed his fury after an Ofsted inspection of Sacred Heart Primary School in Barrow.

Pupils of the school, on Lumley Street, had to leave their school in January 2023 after inspectors said the building was unsafe.

Sacred Heart achieved a ‘Good’ Ofsted rating despite considerable disruptions. While this sounds like a positive outcome, the author pointed out that the school should not have to put up with these conditions.

The author took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to pull back the curtain on the disappointing conditions both staff and children of Sacred Heart are coping with.

Mr Cottrell-Boyce began a ‘furious’ thread - saying the report was ‘not a good news story’.

He said: “Let me tell you why and fill you with fury.”

The Ofsted report said Sacred Heart ‘sourced additional premises’. The author pointed that the report failed to mention that this refers to a few classrooms in a secondary school. He also pointed out that some of these classrooms are on the third floor.

He went on to say that, as infants cannot share toilets with teenage secondary school pupils, the whole class is disturbed every time a young pupil needs to use the bathroom.

Mr Cottrell-Boyce said: “If a four-year-old wants a wee the entire class has to troop down to the playground and wait around in the wind and rain.”

He drew attention to how staff and pupils do not have access to shared spaces so one-to-one work is often carried out on the floor in the corridors.

The author said: “They obviously can’t share a playground with the teenagers.”

Because the primary students need an outdoor space separate from the bigger, older children, they are taken into the tennis courts at break time.

Mr Cottrell-Boyce said the tennis court gate is closed and the kids call the chain-link enclosure ‘the cage’.

After reading the comments from the award-winning author, Simone Beach, headteacher of Sacred Heart Primary School said: “It was reassuring to see people are interested in what is happening at our school. Frank is the new children's laureate so we feel privileged that he cares about the children at Sacred Heart. “

Having previously shared how challenging the past 18 months have been, Ms Beach said: “We are so proud of the resilience of the children.  Staff have tried their best to mitigate any issues. We couldn't have managed without the kindness of volunteers from the community, the support from the trust, and other local schools.”

The headteacher revealed that a meeting has been held where a ‘tentative timeline’ of the next steps from the Department for Education (DFE) was shared.

Ms Beach said: “Whatever happens, we will work as a team for the best outcomes for our children and their families.”