75553-08MONTHS of work went up in flames in a fire which forced a Swindon school to close for the day.

The blaze destroyed Gorse Hill Infants School's mobile classroom yesterday morning forcing staff to tell parents to keep 206 children away.

Nobody was injured but headteacher Sue Kershaw said she was devastated that ten weeks of literacy work, which parents and children had worked on together, had gone up in flames.

The fire came just days after the anniversary marking her first year at the school.

"When I heard about the fire my first thought was has anybody been hurt? My second was that all that work, which was beautiful, has been destroyed," said Mrs Kershaw, who arrived at work shortly after the fire was put out.

"Everything else can be replaced but that work can't. I have photos of it but it's not the same. They children will all be devastated."

Caretaker Graham Tudgay, who was too upset to comment, discovered the blaze and called the fire brigade at 7.24am.

Two engines and 12 firefighters from Swindon and Stratton attended.

An investigation has been launched into the cause but it not being treated as suspicious.

"I got a phone call at home as I was getting ready to come to school," said Mrs Kershaw. "Wiltshire Fire Brigade were fantastic in the way they dealt with it."

About 20 staff helped with the clean-up operation yesterday and they hoped lessons would go ahead as normal today.

"A decision was taken to close the school and the adjoining nursery for the day because there was smoke in classrooms and the electricity supply was affected," she said.

Until the mobile, which was used mainly by special needs children and for storage, is replaced, room will have to be found in the main building.

Space will also have to be found for poet Marcus Moore who was scheduled to start working with pupils in the classroom today.

The fire came three weeks after a blaze gutted a computer room at another local school.

St Sampson's Junior School in Cricklade was forced to close two days early before Christmas and pupils had an extra four days off at the end of the break to allow staff to clean up the premises.

Lessons were back on this week as the school tried to get back to normal.

Ben Payne