LOCAL farmers helped ferry children from Upton CE Primary to school in tractor as the rising flood waters made the town's road bridge impassable to ordinary cars.

Nine-year-old Max MacFarlane and his younger brother Tom, from Kinnersley, managed to get to school on a tractor on Tuesday morning.

"Our house isn't flooded but the road is, so our friend of our mum let us go on his tractor!" said Max.

Jessica and Andrew Short also hitched a lift on a tractor belonging to farmer Stephen Watkins, of Severn Stoke.

They described the trip as "quite fun".

To top the excitement of Tuesday morning's tractor rider, children were being taken home from school aboard Army trucks.

The fun came as a welcome relief for some of their classmates, who have been flooded out of their homes.

Hugo Watkins, aged seven, said the floods has reached the top of his garden.

"I went to stay with my grandparents in Worcester over the weekend in case the water came in," he said.

"I think the floods are boring because there's nowhere to play."

Rebecca Fisher, aged seven, from Upton, described the floods as "horrible".

"Our house has flooded but I don't know how high it is," she said.

"I went to stay at a friend's house and daddy stayed at home to try and keep the water out of the house but now we're going to stay at a holiday house in Malvern."

Mark Mumby, headteacher at Upton CE Primary, said they had to close the school last Thursday and Friday in case children ended up stranded.

"At the moment we can get staff in and we've got about a 90 per cent attendance level," he said.

"Everybody has been trying very, very hard to get in despite all the problems they've encountered."