A SCHOOL is facing a bill amounting to thousands of pounds after vandals smashed eight windows.

Staff and children were dismayed at vandalism which confronted them when they returned to Johnson Fold Community School following the half-term holidays.

The eight large windows were in a classroom used for a daily breakfast club.

Around 40 pupils attending the breakfast club were moved into the main hall away from the damage.

Fed-up staff have boarded up the windows while they decide on how best to repair the damage.

Headteacher Paul Smith said: "It's very disheartening to come in after half-term and be greeted by this.

"I don't want the children to see the damage because it would just upset them.

"We have suffered vandalism in the past and it tends to come and go in small spates."

Police have visited the school to inspect the damage and have taken fingerprints at the scene.

Officers believe that the attack at the school in Worston Avenue, Johnson Fold, took place on Saturday.

The school has been damaged by vandals on a number of occasions over the last few years. In one incident, the school was daubed with graffiti as vandals scrawled inscriptions on shutters, walls and the playground floor.

Eight years ago, 28 windows were smashed.

The past vandalism was condemned by vice-chairman of governors Lilian Kearns, who was awarded the MBE for her tireless community work at the school and around the Johnson Fold estate. She died recently after over 10 years service at the school and staff said she would have been devastated by the latest act of vandalism.

In February, Tory leader Michael Howard visited the Johnson Fold estate to speak to residents.

Members of the Johnson Fold Residents' Committee showed him parts of the estate plagued by yobs and areas blighted by boarded-up homes.