AFTER witnessing the horrific sight of Brindle Gregson Lane Primary burning to the ground, headteacher Viv Clark resolved to rebuild her village school, whatever it took. She tells DAVID HIGGERSON how she has done it.

VIV Clark can remember the day her world was turned upside down as though it were yesterday.

In fact, it was more than year ago when she received the call that her school was on fire.

"Driving towards Hoghton at 5am on a Saturday morning, I was hoping it wouldn't be anything too serious," said the head of Brindle Gregson Lane Primary School.

"It was a beautiful clear spring morning, not a cloud in the sky. Then I turned the corner and ahead of me, in the sky, was this massive black cloud. I knew then that something was really, really wrong."

There was. Her primary school, which she had been in charge of for five years, was burning to the ground. By the end of Saturday, May 12, 2001, Viv Clark's school, which had been at the heart of the Gregson Lane, Hoghton, community for nearly half a century, was little more than ash, with a few rogue columns of wood still standing.

"We stood there watching as the firemen did their best to try and put it out, but it had just got hold," Viv says, looking out towards the blackened site as she speaks.

"Pupils past and present were watching, crying. They couldn't understand why this had happened or why somebody would do it."

It later transpired that the two juveniles who had set fire to the school hadn't intended to. They thought it would be fun to set fire to a bin, which unfortunately set fire to the school as well.

But faced with the prospect of ashes where her school stood, everything inside burnt to a crisp, and no idea of what to do next, Viv delved deep into her character and resolved to get her school back.

"It would have been so easy just to walk away, but I have had change thrust upon me throughout life," she said.

"My father was in the armed forces and so was my husband, so I am used to adapting to circumstance and taking challenges as they come along, and this was a big challenge!"

Within weeks, a temporary hamlet of portable classrooms had been placed next to the burnt foundations of the Gregson Lane of old, while Viv and her staff worked tirelessly to fill them with equipment for the pupils to return, which they did, just before the summer holidays.

"One of the things I learnt was never to assume things about what might happen. For example, you'd think children would love the thought of a few weeks extra off, and I think normally they would. But they told me it didn't feel right being at home, knowing they didn't actually have a school. They wanted to come back.

"We had to start from scratch. Everything had gone. Records, files, work done by the youngsters. It was like starting all over again. I learnt skills I never thought I would have to use as a teacher.

"One minute, I might be taking a school assembly, the next I might be talking to contractors, handling a new budget for the repairs, then deal with an irate parent over something.

"Then we would have to make sure that the youngsters were coping, that they knew they could talk to us.

"I have worked seven days a week for the last year now, and we have had to balance the running of the school with making sure the new one is perfect for our youngsters, who suffered a lot of pain at seeing their last school vanish.

"I've had to learn to prioritise more and say to myself 'enough for now.' There are only so many hours in a day and if you spin too many plates at once you are in danger of losing more than just your crockery.

Work begins this month on a new, state-of-the-art £2million school -- which will come fitted with sprinklers.

For Viv, the last 12 months have been an experience she never dreamed of encountering when she began training to be a teacher after starting a family.

After settling in Lancashire, and in her 30s, Viv trained to be a teacher and gradually worked her way up to the post she has now.

Although her new school will be complete next year, she believes it will take a lot longer for the community scars to heal.

"There are children here whose parents came to school here. They can no longer walk past the school and say 'that's my school' because it doesn't exist any more, or at least the building doesn't.

"Another problem has been the fact that so little is known about the punishment given to the two teenagers involved.

"They have been put under a supervision order which entails doing work for the good of the community. Because people don't publicly know who they are, they feel as though there has been no punishment.

"If people can find out what the youngsters have had to do, I think they will feel that they have been punished.

"There is still a lot of anger about the fire and there will be for a long time yet. The pain, grief and frustration don't just go away. However, I think the community has come out stronger for it.

"The support from family, friends, colleagues, pupils, parents has all meant so much to me. It would have been so much harder without them, it really would.

"The task seemed surmountable at first, but you can't give in."

Sitting on a chair donated by one school, next to a table from another, Viv added: "People often look up at the headteacher to make decision first and know what to do in every circumstance.

"The truth is that you are as unprepared as the next person when disaster strikes.

"For me, the words of one parent who sent me a card very soon after the fire made me smile, and were a turning point.

"They said: 'Pick yourself up, dust yourself down, and start all over again.

"So I did."