Angry parents today told how they took their children to school for the first day of the new term - only to discover four classes were closed due to a heating breakdown.

Coppins Green Primary School in Clacton took the decision to close the reception classes for 120 youngsters when the equipment failed.

Head Robert Emuss said due to the timing it was impossible to give any prior notice and apologised for the inconvenience.

Leigh Wright, of Rush Green Road, was one of the mothers who turned up with her four-year-old daughter, Ellie.

"All we found was a big sign up saying that the reception class would be closed for two days because there was no heating," she said. "Some of the parents had to get to work but there was no time for them to make alternative arrangements."

Mrs Wright said they could not understand why the school could not have used one of its two halls for two days until the problem was fixed.

"We felt they could have made an exception - especially bearing in mind the lack of notice," she added.

Mrs Wright had to go to Point Clear to look after her grandmother, who has just left hospital after a knee replacement.

With no school, she had to take Ellie with her. Mr Emuss said the heating problem was discovered on Tuesday.

An engineer who was on site checked over the system and the distribution board blew up.

"He has got to get a new board and the decision was taken to close the reception classes until Friday," he said.

"It was something absolutely out of our control and our first concern was for the health of the children."

Mr Emuss added that fan heaters had been tried out but were not effective.

"There was no way of contacting parents as it was the first day back," he said.

"Transferring to the halls was not an option as they are used for other purposes such as PE and dinners for the primary school. Also we could not just put 120 children in there with no proper resources."

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