UPLANDS School has been faced with its second blow of the week after a fire broke out in the plant room.

Staff at the school, in Tadpole Lane, had been working around the clock since Monday morning after thousands of gallons of water burst through the ceiling in the main foyer.

But the school was dealt another setback on Tuesday night when flames broke out in the plant room, where the flooding had originated from, because water got into the electrics.

The building was made safe again and was still able to open yesterday.

Headteacher Jackie Smith said: “The safety of both students and staff has been paramount in all our decisions.

“Parents and carers have been kept fully informed by their child’s teacher and dedicated staff were woken at 6am by a call from myself to ensure we could open the school safely for the students today.

“Unfortunately our most vulnerable students are at home again today.

“We are hopeful of no more disasters and are looking forward to the school being back to normal.”

Uplands School is a purpose-built secondary special school for 11 to 19-year-olds who have severe or profound multiple learning difficulties.

Due to the hard work of the Uplands community, the school was able to reopen after being closed for only one day on Monday.

About 10cms of water fell in some parts of the school, causing damage to the reception area, store cupboards, offices, hall and the ball pool.

The school partially opened to students on Tuesday while engineers and staff worked to get the school back to normal, and was due to fully reopen yesterday.

Parents of the school’s 114 pupils could decide whether to send their children to school yesterday because the hot water and heating were off as a result of the fire.

Temporary heaters were brought in and students’ lessons were relocated to different areas of the building.

Mrs Smith said they had about a 70 per cent attendance.

The hot water and heating were expected to be back on today.

The school will continue to be repaired over the half term holiday with everything back to normal for the first day of the new term.