A PRIMARY school headteacher has said he is sick of vandals damaging school property after discovering two of their new Wendy houses had their windows smashed.
Staff and children from Ysgol Maes-Y-Llan in Ruabon, returned from the half-term holiday to find two playhouses for the school children had been damaged by vandals.
Headteacher, Phil Hamilton, has spoken of the school's dismay over the incident.
Two of the school's new Wendy houses had their windows smashed
“I got a phone call from one of my staff who let me know that four of the windows in our new model village had been broken, it appears they’ve been kicked in.
“It’s really disappointing because everyone knows how tight school budgets are today. We’ve had to do grant applications and extra fundraising to try and get the money for these miniature playhouses, which we only bought in March.
“They are primarily for our 3, 4, 5 and 6-year-olds, but the children all the way up to Year 6 love using them, they’re not only used daily during playtimes and lunchtimes, but also curriculum time as well.
“It’s been perfect so far but now we’ve got to stop the children from using it for the time being until we can pay to get it fixed.
“As I say it’s just really disappointing for the staff and pupils of the school, who have put in so much effort and hard-work to get these facilities for the school, for one person or a group of people to just ruin for everyone, for no reason.”
However, this is not the first instance of vandalism that the school has experienced.
Two weeks before the half-term holiday, the school’s bird hide was broken into and damaged, forcing teachers to cancel planned lessons for that building. Last year, an offender broke into the school’s lunchtime shed, destroying some of the children’s playtime equipment.
Mr Hamilton added: “The incident last year forced us to upgrade our CCTV facilities, but we’re well and truly sick of this now.
“We will keep trolling through the CCTV in the hope that we can identify the person involved, but of course this could have happened anytime during the half-term so without knowing the exact date and time, it’s going to take a long while before we may find anything.
Headteacher, Phil Hamilton
“We’ve got seven CCTV camera’s around the school, with seven days’ worth of footage to get through, and it is not time well spent for staff to be watching these, when they could be focusing on teaching and planning lessons.
“If there is anyone that does know anything, or who may have seen anything suspicious happening around the school during the half term, and can help us identify those involved, then please do get in touch with us.”
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