PEOPLE made offers of help within hours of hearing about a vandalism spree early on Tuesday at High Wycombe Primary School.
Principal Rick Walters said the break-in extended to smashed windows, ransacked classrooms and broken furniture in school buildings.
He described the damage as the worst he had seen in 30 years of teaching.
Get in front of tomorrow's news for FREE
Journalism for the curious Australian across politics, business, culture and opinion.
READ NOW“We must have had more than 20 offers of help with the clean up the next day and some of the offers came from people not connected with the school, the calls were from the wider community,” he said.
“People posted messages on social media and some people phoned the school with offers to replace equipment and help with the clean up,” he said.
Extensive damage to the early childhood area and other buildings forced education authorities to close the school for a day to allow time for the repairs.
Mr Walters said the ‘raft of tradespeople’ organised by the Education Department included glaziers to replace the 51 damaged windows and teaching staff later rearranged classrooms “as they should be” in time for Wednesday lessons.
Parents thanked teachers when the school reopened and the school’s P&C organised a show of appreciation by providing a staff morning tea.
A Department of Education spokeswoman said the estimated repair bill of $50,000 would be covered by insurance.
“Our aim is always to get students back into school as quickly as possible, so trades work quickly to make that happen,” she said.
Two teenagers have been charged over the vandalism.
MORE: International Women’s Day: seven women who are sharing responsibility to #PressforProgress
