AROUND 50 four and five-year-olds were unable to start their first day of school after floods caused £100,000 of damage to their classrooms.

The newly renovated nursery and reception building at St Bernard’s RC Primary School, on Burnage Lane, was left under a foot of water after the nearby brook overflowed on Friday night.

The 370-pupil Burnage school had just put the finishing touches to a £9,000 refurbishment hours before the flood hit the specialist Foundation Unit on September 5.

Reception teacher Janet Hickman said: "We had to turn children away on Monday morning – on their very first day of school. We had a lot of angry parents who have had to sort out childcare.

"It looked like a crime scene, all cordoned off."

She added: "We stayed until 7pm on Friday night to finish off the decorating, parents and staff were all pitching in, and by the next morning everything had been destroyed. It’s a disastrous start to the year."

Cringle Brook, which flows under the playground, had become blocked and the torrential rain forced an overspill onto the yard.

The specialist nursery and reception unit houses two classrooms and a conservatory; the main school building was unaffected by the downpour.

Walls and furniture had all been painted at the newly-finished unit, which included a separate dining area for the younger children.

St Bernard’s teachers contacted as many parents as possible over the weekend, but 25 who could not be contacted had to be turned away when they arrived at school on Monday morning.

A further 45 nursery pupils are due to start term next week; but the school say it is uncertain whether they will have to be relocated to other nurseries.

It is hoped the reception class will be able to begin lessons in two temporary Portacabins next week.

Headteacher Patrick Gallagher said: "The damage was much greater than we initially thought. It looks like the whole floor will have to come up. We are hopeful that we can get the cabins into operation by the end of the week, which were ones we used to use as classrooms for the older children. but the situation with the nursery has reached a bit of an impasse at the minute.

"Our staff are making home visits and it might be possible to bring in temporary nursery accommodation, but that will all have to be approved by the council and diocese first.

"We have long-term building plans for the school, which is why we no longer use the cabins, but now we will have to fit new furniture and use them for the recep-tion pupils."