TWO primary schools in Burnley have been raided by thieves within 24 hours of each other.

St Mary Magdalene’s, in Wellfield Drive, and Holy Trinity, in Raglan Road, had laptops used by teachers and electronic notepads used by pupils, worth just under £2,000, stolen.

Headteachers have slammed the ‘heartless’ thieves’ behaviour.

Offenders targeted St Mary Magdalene’s between 12.30am and 1.30am yesterday, stealing six Samsung notebooks used in lessons.

Headteacher Julie Frazer said burglars who target schools do not realise how much disruption they cause for the children.

She said: “I think it’s absolutely appalling that anybody would take anything used in children’s education.

“It’s disgusting and shameful. The children here are just lovely and it’s upsetting to think somebody would do this.

“We’re very security conscious. I don’t know what more we can do without making the school look like a prison.

“We aren’t sure how they broke in, but luckily, because there is no obvious damage to the building, the children are quite oblivious to the burglary.”

At around midnight on Tuesday, thieves forced open a ground floor classroom window at Holy Trinity and stole two Toshiba laptops worth £500 each, which were used in lessons by teachers.

Headteacher Rev Catherine Braithwaite said: “It’s just sad. People don’t realise that we’ve lost time when we should have been working while the police have been here, and waiting for the window to be fixed.

“I don’t think they realise that there’s a school budget. We don’t just get everything from the county.

“The money that will have to be spent repairing the damage and replacing the equipment is money that would have been spent on the children’s education.”

PC Tom Gibbons, of Burnley police, said officers would be keeping an eye on the area to ensure there isn’t a spate of similar incidents.

He said: “We’re going to make sure we’re visible in the area.

“Unfortunately, schools can be easy targets, depending on what offenders are looking to steal.

“I would like to say that if anybody tries to sell you one of these laptops, please call 101, it would be very helpful.”