Chesterfield school makes a bridge out of pallets to beat the floods

Pupils managed to avoid getting their feet wet at Hady Primary School after staff used their imagination to make a bridge over the flood water.

Teacher Rebecca Fenby said: "We are used to flooding at our primary school, which the Derbyshire Times has covered on multiple occasions.

"Of course, the flooding yesterday was beyond the norm, but we don't like to let anything get in the way of opening school to ensure our children are receiving the education they are entitled to.

" I thought you might like to see the creative approach we took to avoiding wet feet this morning - the drive and footpath you see in the photos are the only access to school (over 200 metres long) from Hady Lane.

"One of our school governors was onsite before 7am to help the headteacher construct a bridge from pallets for pupils to cross the shallower part of the flooding, which was on the school drive. The footpath was impassable. "We let parents know of our plans the night before and closed the drive to traffic at 8:15 to ensure it was completely clear of traffic when pupils started arriving.

"We've had 85 per cent of our pupils in attendance today (about five per cent of the absence was due to illness rather than flooding issues). We are very proud that we have managed to provide safe and dry passage for our pupils and keep the school open in these adverse conditions. "