Fire has brought community together - head teacher

Three weeks into her new job as head teacher at St Martins School near Oswestry, Alison Pope received heartbreaking news.

It was a Sunday afternoon, and the school was on fire - flames engulfed the back of the building and five fire crews fought to stop it spreading further.

The school has been closed this week with no clear timeline on when it will reopen. Utilities have been damaged as well as the art centre and dining room.

But, despite this, Mrs Pope said the response had brought the community closer together, seeing locals and teaching staff rally round to keep going.

"When I turned up on Sunday, having had the call that the school was on fire, local residents were out on the road helping patrol the traffic, they were being really supportive with video footage because the fire service needs to work out what happened," she said.

She said the local community centre reached out to offer help, as did the local supermarket, Stan's Superstore.

"It's the only school in the village, so it's their primary school and their secondary school... it's the only school even some residents have ever been to," she said.

"For them to watch that, you could tell when they were standing on the road, it was heartbreaking for them, and for staff.

"Even only being there for three weeks, I can't imagine what it's like for people that have known that school for 20 plus years, even more, to see the flames and the smoke."

The cause of the fire is not yet known - investigators are still on site, but Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service said it was not deliberate.

Since then, the community in the village of St Martins has pulled together - a hub has been set up at the village hall to offer advice from teachers, work for students and to hand out free school meals for those eligible.

A hot air balloon event, organised in less than 24 hours, raised more than £2,500 on Tuesday, to pay for equipment to be replaced.

Mrs Pope has been inside since the fire, and said the brunt of the damage was to the art centre and a corridor behind it, as well as the dining room.

"It's never a lucky time to have a fire, but thank goodness it happened on Sunday, there was nobody on site, nobody in the building," she said.

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