THEY had planned to showcase the school to dozens of prospective parents today.

But instead teachers and pupils at a Southampton comprehensive were met with tonnes of rubbish after it was dumped in the entrance to the school by fly-tippers.

Teachers were unable to drive into St George's School this morning because of the rubbish mound that included at least 30 car tyres, cans of paint, solvent and motoring industry trade waste.

Head teacher at the all-boys Catholic school, Helen Knight, said: "We had planned to have a open morning today for prospective parents to visit the school.

"I hope people will be able to see through what has happened overnight and see the school working in the face of adversity.

"Whoever did this should be ashamed. We are trying to instill good values in our students and this is no sort of role model at all. They are having to see what others have done to their school and they are upset by that. We are all appalled by what we have seen dumped outside.

"We are going to carry on with our school day. We will not be disrupted by vandals."

Firefighters were called out at 5.25am after the incident was reported to the police as a potentially dangerous chemical spill.

A thorough risk assessment was carried out on the 620-pupil Leaside Way school and although solvent-based liquids were identified, none of them were believed to have been harmful.

A spokesman for Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service said: "Concerns were obviously raised about the nature of the liquids so we did investigate. After a thorough examination we were able to hand the incident over to the council to clear up as the materials were not deemed to be hazardous."

City council cleaning teams were drafted in to deal with the huge clear-up operation.

Eight staff were still clearing the site this morning, which included removing the tonnes of heavy duty waste before thoroughly washing down the area.

A city council spokesman said: "The matter is in hand and there are four teams helping with the clean-up. Sand will be used to help clean up the wet paint and the council's graffiti team will attend to do the final clear-up."

The operation was due to be completed by 9.30am today.