Leaky tank causes major flooding at primary school

A head teacher has said staff are working hard to fully reopen a primary school that had to close after a leak caused extensive flooding.

Students at d'Auvergne School in Jersey were told not to attend after the leak in a hot water tank flooded the first floor overnight.

Head teacher Sam Cooper said there was about 3in (8cm) deep water in some corridors and parts "felt like a swimming pool".

All classes apart from Year One and Year 5F were able to return from 12:30 BST but all classes would definitely be back on Friday, he said.

The St Helier school is the biggest primary school in the Channel Islands with about 550 children and staff.

Water supply to the school was cut off so pipework could be fixed, and the lack of running water was another reason why the school could not open, said Cooper.

"We've got flooding on the first floor, on the ground floor, ceiling tiles, corridor spaces have been damaged, toilets flooded," he said.

"More importantly, the infrastructure stuff we can fix, it's the inconvenience to the children and to the families which we're most concerned about and I'm really trying to mitigate at pace."

Cooper said the school was notified of the leak at 06:00.

He said: "When we came in, there was two or three inches of water on the first floor in specific locations pouring through the ceiling through to the ground floor... this has possibly been on for 10 hours overnight.

"It was pretty extensive, it was a bit like a swimming pool on the first floor."

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