A Hendon primary school was forced to open late yesterday as a result of a burst water main.

St Joseph’s Junior School, in Watford Way, was affected by a burst water main which closed The Burroughs.

The school’s headteacher, Irene Ciapryna, heard about the incident on the radio and rushed into school early.

She used an automated texting service to contact all of the school’s parents to let them know about the problem.

Ms Ciapryna advised the parents to park further away from the school and to walk in.

To allow them the time to do this the headteacher moved registration from 9am to 9.30am for the day.

The Burroughs is expected to remain closed until tomorrow evening but St Joseph’s timetable has returned to normal now that the parents know to expect the road closure.

Transport for London has confirmed that bus routes 143, 326, 183, 643, 653 and 683 are all subject to diversions as a result of the repair works.

The Burroughs, Brent Street and Church Road are also congested because of the road closure.

The main burst outside Hendon Town Hall at 1am on Monday and Thames Water engineers repaired it by 6am.

However, as they finished mending the original burst pipe, another one sprung a leak.

This second leak caused so much damage that a significant part of the road needed to be resurfaced.

As a result, Thames Water does not expect to be able to reopen the road until tomorrow evening.

In a statement the water company said: “We are still hoping to reopen the road by tomorrow evening.

“The concrete is being poured today and the tarmac is on site ready to be poured first thing tomorrow morning.

“We're really sorry for the disruption but are getting the repair done as quickly as possible.”