VANDALS have caused more than £1,000 worth of damage to a Ramsbottom school.

Seventeen windows were smashed during the weekend attack on Woodhey High School and thieves broke in through one of the windows to steal equipment . It is believed they were disturbed when the alarm went off.

This week headteacher Mr Martin Braidley appealed for information to catch the vandals.

He said: "Saturday evening's attack has upset both staff and pupils and cost the school at least £1,500, which should have been spent on books and other resources."

"We did not lose much in terms of equipment but the cost incurred by the broken windows is astronomical, " said Mr Braidley.

He has spoken to all the pupils during assembly in a bid to find out who the vandals were and is now appealing to local residents.

"I do not think it was pupils at the school, but Ramsbottom is a close knit community and someone may know who did it."

Mr Braidley added: "The school and the parents work extremely hard by staging events to raise a few thousand pounds for the school, and attacks such as this wipe out all the hard work in a matter of minutes.

Anybody with information can contact Mr Braidley at the school on 01706 82 5215.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.