Pupils defiant after break-in

Burglars’ wrecking spree shuts school

“WE won’t be beaten by burglars” — that was the defiant message from children and staff at Westwood Primary School as they overcame a destructive break-in to return to class.

The Middleton Road school was forced to close yesterday when staff were stunned to find a catalogue of damage caused by heartless thieves.

They stole 20 new children’s laptop computers, worth around £6,000, and left a trail of vandalism that led to classes being called off for safety reasons.

But the community rallied round with parents offering to help with the clean-up and the 240 youngsters were able to return this morning.

The break-in has been linked to a second burglary three hours later at Blue Coat School, Egerton Street, Oldham, where a number of computers had also been stolen.

At Westwood, the burglars forced open a tiny toilet window to break-in and took the laptops before ransacking the school offices, stealing another laptop, electrical goods donated by businesses including a DVD player, £20 petty cash and, bizarrely, five large boxes of laminated pouches.

The heavy duty door to the head teacher’s office was ruined and cupboards and other doors ripped open in a wrecking spree that caused thousands of pounds of damage.

But the burglars, who left footprints and fingerprints, triggered an alarm that alerted Oldham Council’s First Response team, which contacted the police and the caretaker at 5.20am.

Two men who had forced open another window on the top floor in a bid to escape were caught on the school roof and arrested.

But others had already got away with the goods.

Head teacher Nicola Brogan said: “They ransacked the secretary’s office and forced open every locked door and cupboard.

“They just trashed the door to my office.

“We had to close the school as there was glass all over and it wasn’t appropriate for children to be there.

“The children were very sad because it’s their things.

“Staff and parents were very upset but were ringing up to offer to help clean-up and see if there’s anything they can do.

“That’s how we will cope as we have fabulous families, wonderful children and great staff.

“We will be up and running and back at full strength, minus a few computers, and we will get on with it.”

Mrs Brogan said she was glad no one was hurt, adding: “It’s going to cost a lot of money.

“But computers and such we can deal with, it’s the people side of things.

“It’s just sad. It’s not just the

financial implications. The children have a right to be in school and be educated and feel safe.

“This affects the whole community and makes everyone feel vulnerable and that’s not right.”

Scenes of crime officers were still at work yesterday afternoon gathering evidence.

Metal grilles will be fitted over vulnerable windows and First Response will step up monitoring.

The laptops are insured, security marked, password protected, have no chargers and only educational programmes on them, so are of little use outside the school.

A police spokesman said two men arrested on suspicion of burglary remain in custody for questioning.

A third offender ran off and is being sought by officers.