Children and teachers were saddened on the first day back after the holidays to find that raiders had targeted their school during the long summer break.
Lead sheeting 100 metres in length was torn off the flat roof by thieves sometime at Highbury P
rimary School in Portsmouth.
Damaged stonework around the edges of the roof had to be fixed before the children were allowed out in the playground in Dovercourt Road, Cosham.
But fortunately rainwater had not seeped
into any of the classrooms despite August's wet weather. The theft was discovered yesterday but it's not known when it happened as nothing amiss was noticed at
the school throughout the six-week summer holiday.
The school's business manager, Nathan Waites, said: 'Everybody came back with a positive attitude ready to start the new academic year.
'It's heartbreaking that vandalism and theft has taken place on a public community building.
'We've had to have maintenance contractors in to make the stone
work safe on the corners of the roof so the children can play in the playground.
'I believe lead fetches quite a high value for scrap metal making it profitable.
'But it's quite surprising there's a market for it. It's hard to believe
merchants think the lead has been come across genuinely.'
Lead strips are put in roofs to make them more watertight.
It's not yet known how much it will cost to replace the lead but it's thought to be thousands of pounds.
The police have been called and will investigate, although it seems likely much forensic evidence would have been washed away by the weather.
Mr Waites said: 'We don't know when it happened. There's no rain water in the classrooms so it might have happened very recently or the roof has just been very good at keeping the rain out.'
Anyone with information about the theft should contact Portsmouth police on 0845 045 4545.
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