URGENT NOTICE - CAN YOU HELP US? SUCH SAD NEWS TODAY...

We came into school this morning to find that your children's school had been significantly vandalised over night. We are so disappointed and it has upset the children and staff to see the mess that vandals have caused. We have informed the police and the Sunderland Echo has also published a story about it. The link to the article is below.

We have had a lot of vandalism over the past couple of years and we have decided not to publish the details as it is upsetting - but we feel that enough is enough! We have spent money, that should be spent on your children, repairing our school site to make it safe.

WE ARE FED UP WITH IT!!!!!!

Do you know who they are and can you help us to put a stop to this?

There are a group of youths [some of them believed to be ex-pupils of the school] who have been on the school site from around 4pm over the past couple of nights. They access the school roof and have broken drain pipes and sky lights as well as causing damage to the actual building. Last night felt a bit worse as it is believed someone entered the building through a broken window and damaged the garden projects that the caretaker had been working on. We are trying so hard to make the school look lovely both inside and outside and it feels like a huge kick in the teeth to be faced with this.

Our staff are frightened and are worried about their safety and I am also worried about leaving them on the school site alone. Things are bad enough at the minute and this just makes things worse. Our school has not been closed at all since lockdown to provide care for vulnerable and key worker children - the staff have been amazing and it just feels so unfair to think we are dealing with this.

Someone must know who they are. If you are a parent / relative of a teenager who was out of the house yesterday evening, and possibly came home with glass on their clothes please bear in mind that it could have been them. Please let the police know or have a talk with them to tell them how distressing this is for us all at Hasting Hill.

Over the past couple of months when the school has only been open to certain children, we have had three of the school windows shot out with what we believe is a slingshot. Some of this happened during the day when the staff and pupils were on site. We believe that the person must have been in a property or garden in Turnham Road, as all of the windows that were damaged were at the back of the school. Could this be your child / teenager? Please try to make them stop.

We have taken the decision to pay for additional security on the school site each night from a local security firm so that we can keep the buildings and staff safe. This is again money that we should be spending in your children's education.

I have been headteacher at the school for almost two years now and the one thing that I know about the Hasting Hill community is that you will be as devastated about this as we are. You are always so supportive of the school and I hope you can help us to safely put a stop to all of this vandalism.

https://www.sunderlandecho.com/news/crime/headteacher-hits-out-mindless-vandals-after-hastings-hill-academy-trashed-2874560