Government guidance on fire safety in school buildings is being ignored in the “rush to build new schools as cheaply as possible”, it has been claimed.

Current guidance on new school builds – the Building Bulletin 100 document – states that all new schools, with the exception of a few low-risk schools, should have sprinklers fitted.

However, since 2010, only 35 per cent of new schools have been fitted with sprinklers.

The National Union of Teachers (NUT), Fire Brigades Union (FBU) and Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) have written to education secretary Justine Greening raising the issue.

The letter also seeks confirmation that the government is to abandon its plans to allow new schools to be built without sprinkler systems.

The DfE had been proposing to revise the Building Bulletin to remove the expectation that sprinklers be installed. However,

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