School reopens after being hit by flooding

Year four teacher Julie Hemming said her classroom remained out of action

A primary school has reopened after it was forced to close due to flash flooding that hit the West Midlands last week.

St Laurence Church Junior School in Northfield, Birmingham, was one of several schools to remain shut on Friday after floods the day before.

According to staff, water “gushed” through classrooms and hallways, submerging the building’s boilers, and the pupils had to be moved upstairs.

Following a weekend-long clean-up effort, supported by the community, headteacher Andy Murphy confirmed the school was able to open on Monday.

He told BBC Radio WM: “The staff were brilliant from the word go. As soon as those rains came down, we had brooms in hand and hoovers pulling out the moisture in the carpets.”

He said the year four classroom remained out of action, adding that some of the carpets remained sodden and a few books had been “ruined”.

Mr Murphy praised the parents for their help and said more than £3,000 had been donated to a fundraising initiative set up by the parent-teacher association (PTA).

He said several people also brought in dehumidifiers and many former staff members got in touch to see whether they could help.

Dehumidifiers were brought in to help dry out the carpets

Julie Hemming, a year four teacher, said she remembered things suddenly going dark on Thursday not long after the rain started.

When she got to her classroom, she saw water “gushing” through the walls and door before working to save as many items as she could.

“We just ran and saw the chaos in the hallway and were just trying to get everything out,” she added.

The year four classroom remained closed off on Monday, with pupils being based in a different room while clean-up work continued.

The school was one of several to be hit by flooding on Thursday, which also caused severe disruption on roads and rail services across the region.