Donations pile in to help flooded special school

More than £6,000 has been raised to help a special needs school which was flooded during heavy rain on Thursday night.

An online appeal was set up by Liz Chambers, a parent of one of the children at Victoria School in Birmingham.

She said it had "suffered an absolutely devastating flood" causing damage estimated at thousands of pounds.

Head teacher Gary Coffey said it would be closed on Monday and Tuesday and that staff were "so upset with the damage to the classrooms and the impact that the closure has on our students and families".

Ms Chambers described the school as "special place" and a "safe haven" for children like hers and that they were upset to wake up and hear what had happened.

She said the school had flooded after more than 10 hours of rain, and the money raised would be used to "help replace some of the equipment that our disabled children need".

Mr Coffey said the school would be talking to a number of agencies on Monday to discuss a recovery plan, but had taken the difficult decision to close until Wednesday at the earliest.

He said: "The site is still badly damaged and there is a lot of dirt and water and we do not have electricity in half of the school."

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