A PRIMARY school plagued by vandals and thieves has spent more than £5,000 repairing broken windows and replacing equipment since last April.

As reported in last night's BEN, Highfield County Primary School in New Bury, Farnworth was attacked again at the weekend. It was the latest in a string of window smashing incidents at the school.

The vandals hurled bricks at three large reinforced glass windows, forcing pupils to spend their first lessons on Monday morning in the hall while broken glass was cleared. It was considered too dangerous to allow them into the class-room because of the shards of broken glass. Head teacher Janet Woods said the cash to repair the breakages came directly from the school budget because the insurance company would only cover them for thefts and not damage.

She said: "This is costing us a fortune because not a week goes by without something like this happening and we are going to have to look at a range of things to stop it.

"The money we spend comes straight out of our school budget and that is money that we could be spending on books and resources." The school is now looking at the possibility of employing a security guard as well as closed circuit television or shutters at the windows.

Frank Vigon head teacher at Turton High School, which was also attacked at the weekend, said smashing windows was "becoming a national pastime" and called on the community to try and find a solution.

Four youths were arrested and released on bail on Saturday morning pending the result of forensic tests after 36 windows at the school were smashed.

Mr Vigon said that if the culprits were caught they would be expected to pay for the damage. He told the Evening News: "Sections of the community have to come together to condemn what has become a sort of national pastime. If people are caught they should be dealt with in such a way to ensure that other people don't do the same again."

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