Primary school staff 'heartbroken' and 'devastated' after school equipment vandalised

Primary school staff have been left devastated after finding their school playground completely trashed.

Meadowbank Primary School's playground was targeted by vandals after the Atherton Carnival.

The school regularly opened their school fields for the carnival and were left heartbroken with multiple areas of the school being damaged or destroyed by children who attended the event.

Areas included the KS1 area, their reception outdoor play area, the lighthouse outdoor provision, and the students' home huts that have caused 'thousands of pounds worth of damage.”

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Headteacher, Nichola Hill, 51, spoke about the damage, “to come in on a Monday morning and see it in that sort of state was really really heartbreaking.

“It will certainly make me think twice about being kind and generous and offering our school playground.”

She continued: “We pride ourselves on our learning environment. So to come in and see the environment left in this way is really really heartbreaking as it is one of the most important aspects of our education.”

The extent of the damage has also caused future issues for the school with larger equipment becoming a health and safety issue.

"Our rope bridge, a part of our adventure trail has been completely unwound. It has been completely disconnected and there's wires that are sticking so we can't use that anymore.

"That is a really expensive piece of equipment that needs to be replaced, talking in the thousands to be replaced," she added.

However there has been a supportive response from the event organiser, as she said: “The person who organised the event is just as devastated as we were to see the mess that had been left.

“They have offered their support, and offered to come and help tidy up the mess.”

Damage around the school play areas have seen a devastated response amongst the community, one spokesperson on the schools social media said: “Utterly heartbreaking, and how disrespectful.

“You have always took pride in having such a fantastic learning environment with so much hard work and effort going into creating and maintaining it.”

Another comment added: “This is so heartbreaking for meadowbank school and staff. This is so disrespectful.”

The heartbroken response from the community, Mrs. Hill mentioned that there has been a positive reaction from the school’s parents.

“Our parents have been very, very supportive. It was actually one of our parents that suggested starting a GoFundMe page because they wanted to donate some money to the school.”

She continued: “And those that have donated there have brought money into the school office to put towards the contribution.

“They are really upset because this is the environment that their children come into everyday to play with, and they are gutted it has been left in this way.”

And with the extent of the damage being a safety issue for the children, areas of the school playground had to be cordoned off.

She said: “None of the children in the early years and key stage one could actually access their outdoor play because it was in a state that was safe enough to do that.

“There’s areas that are still out of bounds, which is a shame because we have had the best week of weather that we have had in such a long time.”

With the school's values being ‘Be Kind. Be Ready. Be Respectful’, Mrs. Hill spoke about the impact this damage has had on the pupils.

“The children were really upset, and they’ve worked really hard to uphold those values in school, so they were really upset that someone else hadn’t shown those back to them.”

And with students being affected by the damage Mrs. Hill went on to add the impact it has had on their staff: “It’s pulling staff away from their responsibilities with the children teaching.

"We have had to use their time to clear up the mess outside when really they should be inside supporting the children.”

Brian Seddon, 80, Chairman of the Atherton Carnival Committee, spoke about the damage: "The school worked really hard to set up these play areas, and then for someone to come along and disregard the work is disappointing.

"Its such a shame because we had such an incredible day, me and my wife were on cloud nine." He continued to add that this was the biggest attendance that they had ever had in the 16 years that he had been running the festival.

Brian went on to add: "My committee will be donating, we need to see how much we will actually give.

"We will make sure that it isn’t going to cost the school anything that's for sure."

With the issue seeming to be unattended children, Brian spoke about the issue: "The big problem when you are doing an event like this is that families come and it's brilliant but unfortunately you get some of the parents who use it as a day out for themselves.

"Unfortunately when parents are having a good time they knock off a bit of the responsibilities of their own children."

He finished by saying that for both parties it is a "lesson learned."

The Schools business manager, Jenny Parkinson, 55, also spoke on the impact this will have on the community following the event.

"This is an event where 2,000, maybe 3,000 people turn up,” she continued: “For this to have happened it has really put a negative on the event, which is not what we want.”

“To see the mess that had been created, with there being mud everywhere, and when you have been good enough to let people use a certain area it is just upsetting.”

Mrs Parkinson also continued to credit the response, “the community has been amazing, we have had a lot of people offering their help, we have had some really really lovely comments.”

However, she was quick to note that the school premises will be locked off for the foreseeable future after the significant damage.