School closure extended over water issue

A primary school forced to close because of water supply problems will remain shut on Monday after staff said the issue was unlikely to be resolved over the weekend.

About 420 pupils at Slade Primary School in Tonbridge were sent home at midday on Thursday because it was unable to operate "without a safe and reliable service".

In a message to parents on Friday, headteacher Viki Garrett apologised for the "significant impact and inconvenience" and said the lack of repair timescales had left the school in "an extremely difficult position when planning for next week".

South East Water (SEW) said: "We remain in close contact with the school to resolve this issue as soon as possible."

Garrett said she had been working with Kent County Council (KCC) since the school shut on Thursday - a week into the start of the new academic year - "to ensure that the right people are involved and that the issue is escalated appropriately".

However, she added that "based on the information currently available to us, we do not believe that the issue will be resolved over the weekend".

Garrett explained that "online learning arrangements" had been drawn up for pupils in preparation for Monday's closure, at which point "a further update regarding Tuesday will be given as soon as there's reliable news to share".

KCC has been contacted for comment.

A SEW spokesperson said: "We were made aware of a water supply issue at Slade Primary School on Wednesday and one of our technicians attended the site on the same day.

"The water flow and pressure were checked at the school boundary and all levels were found to be operating as normal.

"A technician is visiting the school again on Friday evening to determine if the issue is within the school grounds."

They added that "as a result of the hot summer weather, we are continuing to see a high number of burst water mains and leaks across our network".

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