WHITEFIELD High School teacher, Christine Hickson, was preparing to jump 2,500 feet from an aeroplane. It was to be the art and commercial teacher's first ever parachute jump, which she hoped would raise funds for the school's outdoor pursuits centre: From the Guide files of November 21, 1980.

A CLASSROOM was almost destroyed in an arson attack at Park View Primary School, in Prestwich. It is believed vandals pushed lighted paper through a window in one of the rooms which usually housed middle infants and secondary juniors.

ELDERLY residents of a block of flats near Besses Junction were evacuated by firemen after toxic smoke from a blazing pram filled the corridors and communal staircase of the building. Vandals were blamed for setting fire to the pram, which was left in the hallway of flats in Charles Walk and the fumes were described as being similar to those created in the Woolworths disaster the year before.

VANDALS were also busy at Stand College, leaving the building flooded and the school honours board daubed in paint.

Intruders removed the waste traps on 13 washbasins in the boys toilets and flooded out a nearby laboratory and six classrooms to a depth of three inches.