Flooded school still shut

Old Park Primary in Wednesbury is still not back to normal after being flooded by half a million litres of water on December 28.

Three to five year olds will not return to classes until next Monday.

A temporary boiler has now been installed at the Old Park Road school but only parts of the building were being heated today. Also, only two toilets were in working order.

The restrictions meant only Year 6 pupils came in for part-time lessons this morning and Year 2 in the afternoon.

Headteacher Liz Adams said she hoped the whole building would be heated by Wednesday (13), when Years 1-6 are set to return. Mrs Adams said the younger Foundation-stage children would be off all week.

Old Park Primary has been left with a repair bill of up to £200,000 following the flood in the boiler room. All three boilers were write-offs and it will take up to six weeks to install permanent replacements.

The school's 480 youngsters have been off school since December 18.

Parents came into the school last week to collect work for the children to do at home.

Firefighters were called to the scene at 8pm on December 28 and battled against the waters for six hours.

Around 16ft of water submerged the underground boiler room, wrecking three industrial size boilers and the school's central heating system.