Blood and glass clean-up forces Burntwood nursery to shut after raiders strike

Highfield Primary School's Little Owls nursery in Burntwood is expected to remain shut until next week while glass and blood are cleaned up at the scene.

Headteacher Mark Wilkes said around 25 children up to the age of four were asked to stay at home because of the disruption and other pupils had been left upset.

"We told the children about the attempted burglary and they were shaken and upset about it and couldn't believe someone had wanted to get into their school. Luckily, nothing was taken but they left a lot of mess behind," he said.

"We have done our best to reassure the children though and it is good the alarm obviously worked and scared them off. They managed to get into part of the building and tried to take the alarms off the wall. But that didn't work," said Mr Wilkes.

He said blood had been left on some book bags, which had puppets, soft toys and books inside, which had been created for the children by staff and would have to be thrown away.

Glass had been smashed, a bell and alarm panel pulled from the wall and a bird table had been used to smash windows in an attempt to get into other parts of the building.

"It is upsetting when something like this happens. Our book bags were put together to help children to read and aren't just something you can buy from the shelf.

"We are glad though that nothing has been taken but the whole area will need to be deep cleaned and this is why the nursery has had to be closed," Mr Wilkes said.

Mr Wilkes added they hoped the nursery would be back open next Wednesday.

Offenders forced their way into Highfields Primary School in Elder Lane between 9pm and 9.45pm last Saturday. The nursery school part was closed from Monday.

Anyone with information about the burglary should ring Staffordshire Police on 101, quoting incident number 758 of March 16 or call crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.