A primary school has been forced to close for the rest of the week after a ceiling collapsed.

Singlewell Primary School initially warned parents of an emergency closure on its website due to a "building issue".

Kent County Council has confirmed the ceiling above the staff room has collapsed and the damage has affected other areas of the school including toilets, ICT equipment and administration.

Spokesman for the council, Murray Evans, said: “There were signs of structural stress on Friday evening and the collapse occurred last evening (Saturday). The building was empty at the time.

“A structural engineer will be on site tomorrow to assess the damage and produce a schedule of repair.

“The possibility of providing appropriate extra facilities to the newer parts of the school site will also be explored as a matter of urgency so that pupils can return to lessons as soon as it is practical and safe for them to do so.”

Ian Watts, KCC's Area Education Officer for North Kent, says as it happened over the weekend no one was in the building at the time.

"The school remained closed today (Monday) as a result of the collapse," he said.

"Initial remedial work on the affected areas is expected to start tomorrow and because of this, and the ongoing structural surveys, the decision has been made to close the school for the remainder of this week.

"We can only apologise for the inconvenience this will cause families but, as I am sure they will agree, the safety of the children is the primary concern" - Ian Watts

"Parents and carers have been contacted and advised of events that have unfortunately had to be cancelled for safety reasons.

"Due to the extended closure of the school, arrangements have been made for all children to receive homework tasks, via email, to enable them to continue their learning during this period.

"I would like to thank school staff, KCC colleagues and contractors who responded quickly and have been working excellently together to resolve this issue as quickly as possible.

"We can only apologise for the inconvenience this will cause families but, as I am sure they will agree, the safety of the children is the primary concern and we must ensure the site is completely secure before they return to school."

Mr Watts added there was no warning of any problems prior to Friday, but the incident has raised concerns for the rest of the building.

"The safety of pupils and staff is of paramount importance and for this reason, Kent County Council has commissioned urgent, wide ranging structural surveys," he said.

"This issue only relates to the original school building and not to the new block that was installed by KCC to facilitate the school’s recent expansion from 1FE (form of entry) to 2FE."