A SCHOOL has reopened six weeks after it was forced to close in a radioactive gas alert.

Grove Infant School on Grove Road, Portland was closed at the end of the summer holidays after investigators found potentially unsafe levels of radon gas entering the building.

Builders were brought in to install giant fans underneath the school to flush the gas out and allow it to disperse into the atmosphere.

The fans are now running 24 hours a day and radon gas detectors have been placed in the school and will be checked every two months.

Investigators checked the levels of Radon in the school before half-term and found that they were down to acceptable levels. Grove Infants School pupils shared facilities with St George’s Primary School in Easton for six weeks while the work was being carried out.

Headteacher, Jane Hurdiss, said: “We have lots of monitors in place now around the school and the Radon gas levels are right down and that’s the important thing.

“We are very pleased to be back and it feels like coming home in a way. We are very grateful to St George’s Primary School for allowing us to use their facilities but it’s still lovely to come back.”

She added: “The staff have been brilliant, both in supporting the children while they were at St George’s and in helping to revamp the school in their spare time.

“It’s been good for teambuilding and we have a really strong team here. We have taken every challenge and risen to it and we are looking forward to moving forward.”

Parents, teachers and the community rallied round to revamp the school after the fans were installed and the whole building has been repainted and carpet tiles laid.

Several hatches have been installed that lead down to the fans for maintenance and monitors have been put in place so that if the fans stop the staff will know.

Special thanks were given to Mark Russell, who organised for prisoners from the Young Offender Institution to help with the work and the Jefferys family, who built a huge wooden castle for the younger children to use as a reading den.

Mrs Hurdiss added: “We should know by December what the capital funding is for new buildings for the Portland Academy and we will move ahead based on that decision.”