THE headteacher of a Northwich special needs school that was attacked by ‘mindless vandals’ during the Easter holiday has told the Guardian that the incident has left the school in financial disarray.

Last week theGuardian reported that the school in Greenbank Lane, which offers education and residency to children with special educational needs, was left with £10,000 worth of damage after vandals trashed the building over the Easter break.

A Just Giving page has now been set up to help raise funds for the repair work.

Headteacher Mike McCann told the Guardian that vandalism is not covered by the school’s local authority insurance and therefore the school is now left struggling to fund new computers and transport for students.

Mr McCann said: “I'm desperately sad and disappointed. The estimated repair bill is not covered by our insurance as well, which means buying new computers for the pupils as well as transport is going to be very difficult.

"I’ve been really worried about the impact this would have on the children as a lot of them see our school as their safety net.”

The vandals struck at some point between 4pm on Tuesday, April 9, and 11.30am on Wednesday, April 10, and smashed up nine skylights.

It is believed that the perpetrators were riding bikes along the roof of the building and one bike had fallen through the roof and is now being looked at by police for forensic evidence.

But despite the trauma caused to the school community, Mr McCann says he’s thankful the vandals were not hurt.

He added: “Despite what has happened I am just grateful that none of the children who did this fell through the skylights on their bikes because they could have been seriously hurt.

“We will be reviewing our security systems to make sure this does not happen again.”

The cost of the repair work has now left the school with less money to spend on their students.

However, some members of the community have already come forward to offer their help in any way they can.

Mr McCann said: “After we posted the incident on Facebook the response really showed me how well-thought of our school is within the community.

"We have had a number of businesses offer to carry out some of the repairs free of charge and others have offered to host fundraising and sports events for the children.”

Police are investigating the incident and are now appealing for help from the public to find the offenders.

Anyone with information or CCTV footage that could aid detectives with their investigation should call 101, quoting IML 370292, give the details via cheshire.police.uk/contact/general-enquiries or contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.