Black Firs Primary School has been closed since Wednesday due to a "catastrophic" failure of their hot-water system.

In an email sent to parents on Thursday, Black Firs Headteacher Martin Casserley said: "As you will be aware, school is closed due to the catastrophic failure of our hot-water system early Wednesday morning; the pressurised water cylinder burst flooding our boiler room.

"We are also unable to provide school lunches, none of our dishwater systems will work and we will struggle to meet appropriate hygiene standards with school cleaning.

"I have been working on nothing else to try and resolve this issue since 7.30am on Wednesday. After contacting many companies, we have found someone who has the resources to be able to prioritise getting the system replaced urgently."

Mr Casserley stated that although school was shut on Thursday, he made the decision to accept some children because he appreciated that working parents would struggle to find last minute childcare after the school closure announcement was made late Wednesday afternoon.

The email from Mr Casserley on Thursday added: "However, as the whole school-site has now been officially closed, I have now been instructed to not accept any children from any year group until we have a working system commissioned and are given the go ahead to open school again for the children."

Mr Casserley stated that as of today, no school children will be permitted onto school-site.

Mr Casserley added: "We are working hard to find a fast solution to this issue. We are in discussion about weekend working.

"We wholly appreciate the mayhem this has caused particularly for our working parents, but unfortunately, these circumstances are out of our control.

"Hygiene controls dictate that we cannot allow any children onto site until the issue is resolved."