AN EAST Lancashire school plagued by vandalism and anti-social behaviour has won a national award for fighting back at the yobs.

Pendle Primary Academy, in Brierfield, was shortlisted for the 2015 Education Business Awards after installing security systems.

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The school, which was previously Walter Street Primary School, had been besieged over the weekends and during the evenings.

Teachers said they were ‘suffering from intruders and vandalism on a daily basis, smashed windows, damage to property, destruction and graffiti; not to mention verbal abuse directed at pupils and teachers’.

In September 2013 teachers took the step of drawing up a Site Security Policy to safeguard pupils – with a scope covering assault, injury, theft, burglary, criminal damage, vandalism, trespass and nuisance, offensive weapons and drug dealers.

Principal Julie Burnside travelled to London for the presentation event, which was headed up by former Bucks Fizz singer Cheryl Baker.

Julie said: “We made it into the top three - quite an achievement considering the awards covered schools across the whole of the UK.

“We had been plagued for years by intruders and vandalism; smashed windows, damage to property, destruction and graffiti and abuse of pupils and teachers, but everything changed from the day the new system went in.

“The improvement has been remarkable and it has proved a great investment. Our school is now a much safer place.”

Julie, who has joined at the presentation by Trevor Shanley, managing director of Alert Fire and Security Ltd, the Burnley-based firm that installed a state-of-the-art surveillance system at the school on Walter Street.

Mr Shanley said: “The system was tailored to the specific needs of the school, with the main area of focus being HD CCTV which offers 360 per cent remote viewing .”

They were joined at the ceremony, at the Grange Hotel, by PC Tony Feather, of the neighbourhood police team in Brierfield and Reedley.