A special needs school may have to fork out “tens of thousands of pounds” after being hit with water supply issues.

South East Water has apologised to Five Acre Wood in Loose after staff said they were having to look for a solution themselves.

South East Water has previously blamed the unexpected incidents on burst water mains and problems with a booster pump in Loose.

The school cares for more than 800 pupils with profound, severe and complex learning difficulties.

In the past three years, the site has been forced to close nine times.

Peggy Murphy has been the principal for the last 15 years and says this is the worst it has been.

She said: “It is extremely frustrating, It means we can't put the pupils first.

“We know the difficulties our young people and families are having when we have to close at very short notice.

“A child with autism knows that when they put their uniform on, it means they're going to school.

“But suddenly they’re not. Then you have the inevitable meltdown where they become very challenging and can't understand why.

“Our children absolutely love coming here and we love having them here, so it's disappointing for all parties involved.”

Once staff are notified there is no water, the process of contacting every parent begins.

Staff also have to phone transport companies bringing youngsters to school – many of which have already set off and will have to turn back around.

Very few children live nearby, with approximately 350 arriving via taxis and 150 being dropped off by other means.

Tim Williams, head teacher at the Loose site, added: “The impact upon our youngsters is considerable because they benefit from routine and structure.

"To be cancelling at very short notice beyond our control is frustrating and challenging, to say the least.

“I think the frustration for me is that this could happen again at any time.

"We could wake up tomorrow morning and have to face closing the school.

“There is no reliability, no future-proofing in the system and therefore it remains a constant worry.”

The site is also home to a small farm area which has several animals that need food and water.

The problem doesn’t only affect the school but hundreds of residents and businesses in the village.

One salon owner told KentOnline she stockpiles bottles in her shed in case of emergencies.

A community group has even been set up on Facebook, called Loose Water, so that people can keep up to date.

The most recent outage was in September, which impacted both Five Acre Wood and up to 1,000 homes.

Tim and Peggy have started looking into other options for the school, which would allow them to stay open if the worst should happen.

This includes understanding their water supply and potentially installing tanks on the roof. Both are set to cost “tens of thousands of pounds”.

Tim said: “We're looking at a strategy that would give us the resilience for two or three days.

“It’s very clear that this isn’t going to be a quick solution, but an expensive and resource-driven one.

“We shouldn't be compelled to divert our delegated funding – which is for the education of our children – to support what is ultimately South East Water's responsibility.

“Nevertheless, we want to do our best and have contingencies in place.”

The school made a formal complaint to the utility company at the start of last year and sent a follow-up after the recent problem in September.

Last Wednesday (October 23), staff received an acknowledgement and an apology.

Helen Grant, MP for Maidstone and Weald, visited the site last month and has been working to find a solution.

She said: “Yet again, we are seeing failures from South East Water to perform their most basic function – this time leaving schools in Loose without water and forcing them to close their doors. This is simply unacceptable.

“It was extremely disappointing to see that the fantastic job everyone is doing to make the school such a special place comes to a halt because of water supply issues.

“This doesn’t just affect the pupils; it has a huge knock-on effect on all the parents and teachers at the school and creates enormous disruptions.”

Nick Bell, South East Water’s head of operations for Kent, said: “We are sorry for the problems experienced by Five Acre Wood School and the surrounding area due to disruption to their drinking water supplies.

“This is not the service our customers expect, nor the service we aim to provide.

“The topography of Loose means that it is more susceptible to the impacts of incidents such as burst water mains, extreme weather and power supply issues.

“This is because we use boosters to pump drinking water to our customers there, including Five Acre Wood School, who are on higher ground.

“In the past 18 months, we have refurbished one booster pump and replaced another in Loose, to improve their reliability and resilience to the issues we have experienced in recent years.”

The company is working on its latest business plan, called PR24, which sets out several long-term goals.

This includes increasing the size of the drinking water storage tank that feeds Loose, as well as a new link main from Hermitage Lane to the Linton service reservoir and booster set which will provide a more consistent pressure to the area.

Mr Bell added: “Our business plan focuses on improving resilience and interconnectivity across our network, reducing the risk of incidents impacting our customers’ water supplies, and enabling us to redirect water around our network in the event of disruption, thus keeping our customers in supply.

“We are in ongoing discussions with the school as to how we can best support and give them additional resilience to potential future water supply interruptions.

“Once again we would like to apologise to Five Acre Wood School and the wider community inconvenienced by these drinking water supply interruptions.”

PR24 is awaiting a final determination from regulator Ofwat.