School’s garden is targeted by vandals
CHILDREN were left distraught after an outdoor area they helped create was ripped apart by vandals – then broken again after repairs began.
Denise Thompson, head of Ravensworth Terrace Primary School in Birtley, said her students’ ‘forest school’ has been targeted two weekends in a row.
Tyre swings were torn down, ponds ripped from the ground and a ‘mud kitchen’ was destroyed, she says.
The incidents took place over the weekend of May 5 and 7, and then again last weekend, between May 12 and 13.
Staff who came in after the bank holiday weekend found the garden in a mess.
They started to clear up some of the mess, and were just about to start repairing anything that wasn’t too broken to salvage.
But just a week later, vandals struck again.
Ms Thompson said: “The children and staff worked really hard to develop the area – we’re a brand new school, so it was a blank canvas.
“It’s a really natural area where they get to experience outdoor activities like cooking on a campfire, building dens, as well as observing nature and getting some fresh air.
“The children obviously love it so they are really upset and angry about it, because it’s their special area that they’ve helped create. We feel that whoever has wrecked it knows they’ve come in and wrecked somewhere special. They are really struggling to understand why somebody would deliberately do something like that.”
Ms Thompson said the school’s community has ‘really rallied round’ to support help staff and pupils.
She said: “The community have been really outraged, we’ve had lots of messages of support.
“One grandparent has even offered to pay for cameras. The children have got an attitude of ‘we’re not going to let this spoil it for us.’”
A Northumbria Police spokesman said the force was notified of the damage and had identified two boys, who attend different schools, as the culprits.
Staff at Ravensworth decided not to take criminal action but instead to speak to the children about the impact of their behaviour.