Flash flooding forced the closure of a North Yorkshire school.

Easingwold Secondary School shut early yesterday when a heavy downpour saw water seeping into parts of the property, including toilets, the PE area, a technology room and the staff room.

Head teacher Carey Chidwick blamed “the prolonged, stormy rain shower”, and said all students had had to be sent home early.

However, she said the problem not been as bad as on previous occasions.

“We alerted all the parents by email and text,” she said.

“We can look after some of the students in the main school hall, but the vast majority of parents have emergency procedures in place.”

She advised parents to keep monitoring the school website for a progress report, but hoped the school would be open for Monday.

“It is not a bad flood – not like the one we had four years ago,” she said.

Easingwold School remained closed for a week in the summer of 2005 after flash floods swamped classrooms, causing thousands of pounds of damage to computer equipment and triggering a massive clean-up operation.

Carpets had to be ripped up and disinfected before the school’s 1,355 students could return, while about 30 computers and printers in the school’s IT suit were ruined by the damp, and had to be replaced.

Other places hit by heavy rain included Escrick, where the village centre was deluged with water. Parish council chairman Steve Smowton said drains were overflowing, “disgorging rainwater and sewage”.

The outlook for the weekend looks much brighter than yesterday, with forecasters predicting sunshine and warm temperatures rising to 22C both today and tomorrow.