FREEZING conditions caused havoc for Boyton Primary School this week after a pipe burst above the girls’ toilet leaving two-thirds of the school flooded.

Executive head Mr Antony Fugill said the site supervisor came in on Monday, March 5, to open up the school and was surprised when he could hear running water. Upon further inspection he discovered a pipe had burst causing the ceiling in the girls’ toilet to collapse.

Mr Fugill said: “The entire ceiling came down in the girls’ toilets. There was a puddle that ran through about two-thirds of the school and we had rising damp. We made the decision to close but took swift action to tackle the problem and remove the damage.

“We immediately got plumbers and electricians in to ensure the site was made safe.”

Mr Fugill said they believe the problem was as a consequence of the recent poor weather: “One of our pipes froze and split in three places. Unfortunately that pipe was part of our high pressure heating system and it burst. The water was absolutely hammering out but I have to say a huge thank you to our staff who worked hard in the clear up process. I also want to thank the community for their kind offers of help but we managed to sort it out within our academy support system.”

He said thanks to the use of humidifiers and hard working staff he hoped the school would reopen tomorrow (Wednesday).