School trips go up in smoke

SHOCKED . . . head teacher Martine Buckley and deputy Rais Bhatti with the wrecked minibus

FUN days out for thousands of Oldham children have turned to ash after vandals set fire to a school minibus.

Firebugs struck in the car park of Yew Tree Primary School in Chadderton where the 17-seater was being kept during the holidays.

The £8,000 bus is used by five other schools in the area, including the 1,500-pupil Radclyffe School and South Chadderton — which caters for 1,000 children.

Yew Tree teachers have so far been forced to cancel two trips planned for the new term. Deputy head at Yew Tree, Rais Bhatti, said the head teacher was alerted to the problem late on Thursday night when near-by residents alerted the fire brigade.

He said: “We worked hard for three years raising the money to get the bus and now it’s gone up in flames.”

Staff at the school are now faced with the daunting task of re-arranging the timetable only days before pupils are due to return from their summer break.

Mr Bhatti added: “We might have understood if somebody had targeted the van to steal it, but to just set fire to it for no reason is just wanton vandalism which makes everybody suffer for no reason.

“The worst thing is the people who did this could have brothers or sisters at the school.

“People don’t think about the disadvantages and the fact that it could affect someone they know.

“Children get a lot out of school trips, it makes learning come alive when they touch and see things as well as just reading about them in a book. Somebody has ruined that for them.”

Steve Oliver, from Chadderton fire station, said: “It appears some local youths made their way through via an unlocked gate in the school field.

“We will be talking to school about improving their security.”