STOWMARKET High School has finally been reconnected to mains power after a series of problems which left the school shut on a number of days.

STOWMARKET High School has finally been reconnected to mains power after a series of problems which left the school shut on a number of days.

The school was closed on Tuesday just a week after it was first forced to shut because of electricity supply problems.

It has caused massive disruption to parents and the 1,000 pupils, and also angered staff.

It first had to close last Monday because of snow. It reopened on Tuesday, but there was a power cut at 11am forcing pupils to be sent home.

Since then, a generator, supplied by the energy company, has been in use but it has broken down three times and, on Tuesday, forced the school to close again.

A spokeswoman for EDF Energy said: “Regrettably the generator went off again at 11.30am on Wednesday morning while our engineers were there and we were working to repair the fault and restore the regular power supply as quickly as is safely possible.”

Headteacher Keith Penn has launched a scathing attack on an energy company for putting children's education at risk because of the power failures forcing the school to close, as students preparing for their GCSE coursework can ill afford time off.

He said today: “When the power clicked out again at about 11.15am on Wednesday the EDF engineers' response time, previously between two to four hours, was 20 minutes, enabling us to stay open all day.

“Furthermore, they brought forward the planned re-connection work from a future unspecified date and connected us back to mains supply on Wednesday evening.”