Pupils at a school hit by an asbestos scare returned to classes today after safety assurances.

A handful of parents at Ryshworth Middle in Crossflatts had kept their children at home in the run-up to Christmas after it was revealed experts were checking the building for traces of the potentially deadly fibre.

However, the inspection and subsequent report by the Health and Safety Executive has given a qualified all-clear that as long as the asbestos is not disturbed, the school is a safe environment.

Ryshworth headteacher Sue Naylor said the survey should reassure parents. All the children who had been kept away from school before Christmas had returned today.

"The HSE had the power to close the school if they thought it was unsafe and they did not," said Mrs Naylor.

"They were not unduly alarmed and the HSE is an authority on these matters and they thought it was perfectly safe.

"If they say it's a safe environment, I believe them. They are the experts and I am not."

Mrs Naylor said up to 10 children were kept away from school in the immediate aftermath of the revelations. But over the course of a few days, the numbers absent dwindled to less than a handful.

Asbestos is not present throughout the whole school in Morton Lane, she said, but is located in some ceiling panels, some toilets and some wall panels. The situation is monitored and an asbestos register is kept.

Ryshworth was the first of five schools swooped on by the HSE in the Bradford area in a general drive to check out procedures for monitoring and dealing with asbestos.

Ryshworth, Gilstead Middle, Woodend Middle, Ladderbanks Middle and Parkside Middle were all due to go in the spotlight since all were built to the same design at roughly the same time in the late 1960's and early 1970s.

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