A primary school has been forced to reschedule its sports day and stop parents from attending after 'ex-pupils' vandalised the school grounds.
Little Heaton Church of England Primary School on Boardman Lane in Rhodes, Middleton, was targeted by vandals last weekend.
The school was forced to call the police after youths trespassed onto the kick pitch and caused damage.
In a letter sent out to parents on Monday, headteacher Jo Hulme said the culprits were 'ex-pupils' who are now in years eight, nine and 10.
This means the vandals are aged between 12 and 15.
Current pupils at the school have been 'begging' the vandals to stop destroying the grounds but have been met with verbal abuse.
Sometime between 6pm on Friday, June 28 and 10pm on Sunday, June 30, they trespassed onto school grounds and caused damage to facilities.
With the 'assistance of an adult', they used bolt cutters to cut through padlocks and caused serious damage to fences and gates surrounding the play areas.
The school had to change the location of sports day from the field to the kick pitch because inappropriate and dangerous items were found on the field.
Now, due to the vandalism, the school has again been forced to change the location, meaning parents will 'not be able to observe from a safe space'.
As well as changing sports day plans, the school has had to reorganise a whole week of healthy school activities.
Year six students helped clean up the mess but costs to destroy the damage will have to be taken from other priority areas, the headteacher said.
The school now 'urgently' seek the support of the local community.
Staff have reported the matter to police and informed the high schools of the suspected vandals.
Headteacher Jo Hulme said: “It’s really frustrating to see our school vandalised in this way.
"We are so grateful to the support of our parents and the wider community in helping us report these incidents so that they can be stopped.
"We are doing all we can to further protect the school grounds but clearly I would prefer to spend that money on the education of our pupils rather than having to deal with mindless vandalism.”
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This is not the first time the school has been targeted.
Youths have repeatedly previously climbed over the fences and attempted to gain entry to the school.
Despite installing CCTV, using shutters on the windows and doors and an increased PCSO presence, the school grounds are still being targeted.
In recent weeks, vandals have caused damage to the back playground, school fields and kickpitch, according to the headteacher.
Staff, local residents and pupils have been 'verbally abused' for asking the vandals to move on.
The school is urging people in the local community to call the police if they spot tresspassers in the future.
Anyone with information about the criminal damage is asked to contact police on 101 or anonymously on Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
