STAFF and students at a school fundraised for two years to improve their playground - only to return from the Easter holiday to find it has been vandalised again.

Having been victim to vandals last year, Westlands First School in Droitwich secured funding from Worcestershire County Council for a new perimeter fence to protect the school but just a matter of weeks later vandals have kicked part of it down.

They also ripped down bird feeders made by the school’s reception class and attempted to rip out newly laid astro turf.

Deputy headteacher Amanda Richards said staff and children were devastated to discover the damage to the school play area.

She said: “I’m just lost for words really, it’s such a selfish thing to do. The children were really upset.

“They even destroyed bird feeders that our reception class had made.

“We just don’t know what to do. We’ve worked hard to get the fence and it has been broken within a matter of weeks.

“With the budget so tight, we just can’t afford to fix the damage. It’s going to set us back tens of thousands of pounds.”

The school now fears it will have to use its fundraising money, which was all earmarked for improving the outdoor classroom area, to fix the damaged areas and to install security cameras.

The school has been making attempts to improve the outdoor play area and give the children an engaging environment for outdoor learning.

Ms Richards added: “We think it is really important to have a suitable outdoor classroom and this is what we have been trying to create.

“Because our budget is so tight we have to fundraise but things like this just keep setting us back further and further.”

The school in Farmers Way regularly suffers from vandalism and its playground has previously been littered with broken vodka bottles, beer cans, cigarette butts and drug paraphernalia.

A spokesman for Worcestershire County Council said: “Whilst the fence was paid for by Worcestershire County Council as part of our capital maintenance programme 2017/18 it is the school’s responsibility to maintain this.”