A PRIMARY school has become a target for yobs with bosses saying it has been blighted by incidents in recent weeks.

The latest act of vandalism saw windows in the new nursery building smashed at St Leonard’s Primary School, in Moor Lane, Padiham.

And last week willow shelters that children had spent hours building were wrecked overnight.

Headteacher Julie Bradbury said staff were running out of patience with vandals who were destroying everything they tried to do for the community and the children.

Police said they had been called to the school a number of times and were working closely with management there to try and find a solution.

Mrs Bradley said: “Everything we do is destroyed. The community here are amazing, they are so proud of the school, but a minority of people in this area that are just intent on destroying everything we provide.

“The windows being smashed is the straw the broke the camel’s back, we have reached the end of our tether and we just don’t know what to do anymore “When the children came in and saw that the willow shelters they had built had been broken they were heartbroken. It’s just not fair.”

In the summer term the children planted 500 saplings in the school grounds, but when staff arrived the following day every one of them had been ripped up and snapped so that it couldn’t be replanted.

Mrs Bradley said: “We were having windows smashed during the summer term several times a week, it was costing us a fortune in repairs, so we had to put perspex over the windows to stop it happening.

“But now we can’t open the windows and when it is hot it can be stifling in some of the classrooms.

“We have CCTV installed but these people don’t care. We have a lot of land at the school and we have so many great ideas, we want to use the land for the community but we know what what ever we do will be destroyed.

“We can’t plan to do things for the community and with the children because we know it is just something else for them to come and break.

“Windows can be replaced, although we don’t have a bottomless pit of money, but seeing the children so upset when things they have created are lying broken on the floor is heart breaking.”

Sgt Duncan Arthur, of Padiham police, said: “We are investigating specific offences and will be including the school in our anti-social behaviour patrols.

“We are working closely with the school to try and find a solution.”