THIEVES have been condemned for carrying out a pre-meditated raid on a Radcliffe primary school, stealing charity collections, children's dinner money, and tuck shop takings.

Burglars stole a safe, containing cheques and around £1,000 in cash, when they broke into St Mary’s Primary.

The incident occurred during the night of Monday, May 11, with the intruders having to scale a 12-foot high fence perimeter before disabling the school’s alarm system.

Headteacher Paul Heaton wrote a letter to parents the day after the break-in at the Belgrave Street school, saying that life at the school would go on as normal.

He told the Radcliffe Times: “I’m just grateful that there weren’t any children in the school at the time and that there was no violence involved.

“My feeling after I sat down and thought about was that there is a lot worse going on in the world.

“I could be out in Nepal pulling kids from underneath rubble, and that thought puts this in perspective.”

The thieves smashed their way through a number of doors to reach the safe, but did not target any of the school’s computers or other equipment.

Mr Heaton added: “We don’t shut up shop at 3pm and everyone goes home. The school is open until as late as is needed for all the after school clubs.

“Unfortunately that means there’s a bit more vulnerability in terms of the number of people who are coming in and out.

“It was very clear that, whoever has done this, knew exactly what they were doing and had it all planned out.

“They didn’t smash down every other door, they didn’t go for any computers, and there was no other major damage to other parts of the school.

“They’ve had to go through four sets of double doors to get to where the safe was so they obviously knew where to find it."

He added: “It’s sad to see people targeting schools like this. We’re by no means the first school this has happened to in Radcliffe and I think it’s pretty awful that people would think to take money from a primary school.”

The Radcliffe Times reported in December that St John’s Primary, in Johnson Street, had been the subject of a similarly targeted theft when burglars stole hundreds of pounds in petty cash.