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School’s shattered

Kate Stirrup
29/ 4/2004

PUPILS were forced out of school ahead of important exams after vandals caused £10,000 worth of damage at Barlow Hall Primary.

Almost every window at the Darley Avenue school, which is built around a quadrangle, had been shattered by thugs on Sunday night, spreading shards of glass across every classroom, the hall and the library.

It would have been too dangerous for youngsters to go into the school, so teachers turned them away at the gates on Monday morning. The school was due to reopen today - Thursday, April 29. A massive clean-up operation had to be mounted, with glaziers called in to replace the 97 windows that were destroyed.

Headteacher Tony Scally told the Reporter: "It was a shocking discovery for staff. There was glass everywhere. We think the windows must have been hit with real force, with a golf club or baseball bat."

"Something like this affects the whole community as parents have to make other arrangements for their children. And our year six pupils are preparing for their SATs, so have lost out on important preparation."

Mr Scally says the culprits must have got into the quadrangle, where they couldn't be seen, and then started to smash the windows. He estimates that the destruction must have taken just half an hour.

Every classroom at the school, and all storage boxes and trays, had to be cleared out to check for dangerous shards of glass.

The school's computers cannot be used until they are professionally cleaned; meaning more disruption to the pupils' learning.

Mr Scally, who was alerted to the damage by the caretaker just after 7am on Monday added: "We don't know who has done this. But the police have been here and hopefully they can catch those responsible. It is wanton vandalism and goes against everything we try to teach."

"We have been lucky not to experience vandalism on this scale since the late 1980s. But with the days getting longer and warmer, a school is an easy target for those who are bored or frustrated."

A spokesperson for the local education authority said: "This has come as a shock to us because this sort of incident has not happened at the school for quite some time."