THE DEPUTY headteacher of Bream Primary School says the school has been "hit in the pocket" after thieves stole four laptops from a classroom.

Daniel Youngs announced during the school nativity play to parents that the school had been broken into through a window overnight and laptops in the reception class had been taken.

The laptops which are worth between £1,200 and £1,300 were bought out of the fundraising pot that the school had collected through holding events this year. They are used to aid the learning of the four and five-year-olds.

He said: "We are absolutely devastated. We believe that the incident happened between 7.15pm and 10pm on Tuesday, December 10, but the laptops won't be of any use to those who took them as they didn't take any leads with them. Also the laptops are marked with smart water and they can't operate without our server.

"We have looked at trying to claim on our insurance policy but our excess means that it's not worth claiming, therefore we have been left hit in the pocket and will look at replacing them through fundraising. Naturally the children are upset that they have been taken. If anybody is offered a laptop please contact the police they have the serial numbers of each machine logged and can match it."

A concerned parent at the school was present at the school's nativity play and contacted the Review saying how "appalled" he was to hear of the break-in. Mr John Budge, who has a son in Year Two, said: "Mr Youngs informed us of the news and we couldn't believe it. It is just disgusting - you wouldn't think that something like this would happen in Bream. I don't see how those who took them will benefit as they didn't take the leads and they don't know the passwords to access the system. I just hope that if anybody has any information that they get in touch with the police and the scumbags are punished. They have not only taken from our school but our kids. It is appalling."

Anybody with any information should call 101 quoting incident number 84 of December 11.

•Year Six pupils at the school have raised £250 to help build schools in Burundi.

They have been busy selling Burundi knitted bears for the last three weeks and have sold 250 bears. The bears have been sold as part of the 'Brick by Brick' project that is being organised by the charity Facilitaid, who aim to use local materials and labour where possible to build schools in central Africa.

Sally Horton at the school said: "The children have been selling each bear for £1 which buys four bricks towards the school building project in Burundi. So they have bought 1,000 bricks which is superb. I think the reason why they have sold so fast is because it's for a good cause and they make a nice stocking-filler."