Leaking roof and no dining hall at listed building

When temperatures plunge pupils have to be sent home from Elliott School.

Built in 1956 and Grade II listed, the Putney comprehensive's walls are single-glazed, metal-framed glass panels which provide scant protection from the cold.

It would cost £12 million to double-glaze the building, twice as much as the council can afford, yet its request for Building Schools for the Future funds was turned down. Head Tony Willis said: "The building is very susceptible to north-east winds and it becomes bitterly cold.

"Recently, there have been two days when we have had to send some children home. The metal frames are ill-fitting and the draughts can be quite amazing. The glass walls are just worn out."

Another design flaw at the school - whose past pupils

include 007 actor Pierce Brosnan - is the gym roof, which once let in so much rain the parquet floor buckled. Space and light is a key design element. Instead of dingy corridors, the school has wider "foyers".

"But we don't have a dining hall and we have to use the foyers, which are really corridors," Mr Willis said.

The school also needs several fire doors in the science area to comply with new fire regulations.