THIEVES have ransacked a Barnsley school, stealing specialist equipment and several chickens which pupils had been looking after.
Goldthorpe Primary School invests heavily in its outdoor learning provision, in which pupils get hands-on experience tending to plants and animals and learning about nature.
But when staff and pupils returned to school on Monday, they found a large animal feeder had been stolen, with ‘hundreds of pounds’ worth of food discarded on the floor - and six chickens which the children had been rearing nowhere to be seen.
Outdoor education teacher Chris Wharton-Lovett said: “They’ve emptied a couple of hundred pounds worth of food onto the floor and stolen the feeder.
“And I came in on Monday and the kids were asking where all the chickens had gone.
“You wonder what’s going on, have they got an allotment or is there something more sinister going on?”
Chris was called to the school on Saturday after police were alerted by a local resident, who saw several men dressed in dark clothing climbing over the fence.
“They must have been desperate,” said Chris.
“They knew the area and knew the school, so it must be someone associated with the school or who’s been here before.
“And they didn’t come in with torches so they might have known the layout.”
Chris said the school, which has been open since 2016, has been broken into around five times.
In 2016, vandals broke into the grounds and covered the building in graffiti, and the following year equipment costing thousands of pounds was stolen from the outdoor area. And the village of Goldthorpe has seen a spike in anti-social behaviour in recent weeks.
“Everyone’s feeling it around here, there’s a lot of trouble on High Street,” Chris said. “People are saying it’s just as bad as the town centre.
“There’s plenty of negative news, but we try to promote the positive. The lady who reported it isn’t associated with the school, it’s really good she’s come forward.
“It’s crazy really.
“If a school can’t be safe from thieves and vandals, what can be?”
The school prides itself on its outdoor provision, but Chris warned that could be lost if the school continues to be targeted.
He added: “We invested in the gate, and they ripped that up.
“So we welded it shut and they started jumping over it.
“There are only so many times we can keep replacing stuff.
“People keep supporting the school and funding us, but it will get to the point where there will be no money left.”
Anyone with information is advised to phone police on 101 quoting crime number 14/43338/19
