By Hannah Goff Education reporter, BBC News

Mr Beaton never thought his job would require him to wear a hard hat

But in two days' time this Hull secondary school, which was submerged under muddy water during June's floods, will open its doors for the new term.

Evidence of the deluge is not hard to spot. Discrete piles of ruined computers and other electronic debris dot the site, along with signs warning of builders working.

But head teacher Kevin Beaton says today's school is a world a way from the scene of "total devastation" left by the floods three weeks before the end of the summer term.

When Alan Johnson said we would never get the school ready in time for September, well we had to do it Kevin Mohan Sydney Smith finance manager

"Every single ground floor room was under water to a depth of two or three feet - some had four feet of water. We had 104 classrooms affected as well as the sports hall."

When site staff arrived to begin the marathon clean-up effort, they could not even open the school gates there was so much water on the site.

But once the fire brigade had pumped it out, staff and their building contractors managed by sheer force of will to bring the school back from the brink.

"We moved everything we could save and then we started ripping out the carpets and taking up the floors, which had all buckled.

"In the first week we were on our own really and we had eight or nine members of site staff who worked flat out from six in the morning to nine at night," said Mr Beaton.

Contractors are working flat out to get the school ready for Thursday

Former education secretary Alan Johnson went to see the destruction at the school and was staggered by the scale of it.

Finance manager Kevin Mohan said: "When Alan Johnson said we would never get the school ready in time for September, well we had to do it - to keep the good name of Sydney Smith."

And they never looked back, working methodically through the list of problems, meeting at the end of every day to decide what should be the priority for the next one. At one point there were 200 workers on the site.

Living in caravans

"You can't panic in these situations - you have got to be calm," says deputy head Jason Blount.

"This flood was our reality. There was no point crying about it. The important thing was the pupils - we just had to do it."

Part of the determination to get the school back up and running was born of a concern for the thousands struggling to cope with the wider effects of the floods.

Mr Beaton said: "We have a lot of families still not back in their own houses. A lot of our members of staff are not back in their homes.

"It is really important that we open because it relieves some of the pressure from these families."

And their efforts have paid dividends with the school due to open, as planned, on Thursday.

Many pupils will be taught in temporary classrooms

However, the unexpected discovery of large quantities of asbestos and a longer than expected drying time have meant it will not be able to accommodate all its pupils in the first week.

So alternative learning has been arranged for a few days, with some spending a day with local businesses and others visiting museums and art galleries. The University of Hull is also helping out.

'Incredible stress'

The hope is that by Monday, the school and its pupils will be back together on one site.

This effort to get Sydney Smith ship-shape has been replicated at many of the 92 schools hit by the floods across the city.

Head of Hull's education and leisure, Judith Harwood, said her team had acted quickly to divide and allocate the necessary work.

As a result, all but two of the 11 schools that were most severely damaged by the floods are fully open.

These are Thorp Park Primary School, whose pupils are being bussed from their home school to two others in the area, and Ganton Special School.

The school was under a few feet of water for a number of days

Ms Harwood is most concerned about this school, which caters for children with severe learning difficulties and physical disabilities.

Its pupils will be bussed to an old primary school that the council has refurbished, to another special school and to a day centre commandeered for lessons.

"These are children with a lot of disabilities. Some are at the extreme end of the autistic spectrum - these children don't respond well to change."

So the council has ensured that each child has a personal care plan that they take with them.

But the majority of children bussed from one school to another at the end of last term in a bid to keep lessons flowing appear to have weathered the inconvenience quite well, says Ms Harwood.

"Mostly they either felt it was all a bit of a hoot or that they were on a school trip."

We will have better facilities in the end Kevin Beaton Sydney Smith head teacher

But she does have very real concerns about the stresses being experienced by some pupils and their families who are still not back in their own homes.

"We know that people are suffering incredible stress from living in caravans and temporary accommodation.

"Once it gets into October and it's dark at 4pm - we can't have the kids going back to a caravan.

"So we need to look at what additional youth activities and services through extended schools we can put on to help out."

The school was determined to be back on track for September

There are some brighter sides to the floods, however.

Ms Harwood thinks that the temporary classrooms are in a better condition than some of the ageing building stock that was flooded out.

Mr Beaton agrees that ultimately the floods will improve things.

Thanks to a one-off exceptional grant of �250,000 from Schools Secretary Ed Balls, Sydney Smith will be getting interactive white boards in every classroom and a plan to supply the children with handheld computers is being brought forward.

"I think it will be a better school. We have to get to the end of November when all the building work will be finished - but we will have better facilities in the end," Mr Beaton said.