Lucky escape for students as ceiling falls in

STUDENTS and teaching staff at a Fenland school had a lucky escape when part of the ceiling in an ICT suite, officially opened less than 18 months ago, fell down. Lessons in the suite at the Neale-Wade Community College were in full swing last Thursday af

STUDENTS and teaching staff at a Fenland school had a lucky escape when part of the ceiling in an ICT suite, officially opened less than 18 months ago, fell down.

Lessons in the suite at the Neale-Wade Community College were in full swing last Thursday afternoon when the incident happened.

Four Year 11 students were hit by the falling debris and insulation, but escaped uninjured.

Gordon Thorpe, assistant principal of Neale-Wade, said the incident was caused by the corner of the ceiling "sagging" but dismissed fears the new centre was not structurally safe.

He said: "The builders came in on Friday morning and checked it over and they found there was a loose fixing in one corner - a fixing screw had gone through a joint rather than into the wooden beam, and the joint has opened up."

The state-of-the-art IT suite was built as part of a £900,000 investment at the Wimblington Road school, carried out after it was awarded specialist school status in mathematics and computing in January 2005. It was officially opened in July last year and supplies 50 computers in one room.

Mr Thorpe said the IT suite remained closed on Friday while investigations and repairs were carried out, and was reopened on Monday morning.