A DEPUTY head teacher has told of her school's devastation after yobs trashed a cherished garden which pupils had spent months cultivating.

The garden next to the playground at St. Paul's RC Primary, off Preston Old Road, Feniscowles, was destroyed before it had even been officially opened.

Staff arrived at school today to find plants and a 25ft fir tree uprooted and the greenhouse's plastic windows badly ripped.

A bench was ripped out of the ground and hurled at the greenhouse and cans of beer were strewn among the debris.

Mrs Jo Rushton, deputy head, said the school had been targeted in the past by youths drinking in the school grounds and writing obscene graffiti but had not suffered anything on this scale.

She said she hoped whoever was responsible would see the upset they had caused so they would think twice about doing it again.

Mrs Rushton said: "We have been developing the garden since February. We have a gardening class each week and the children have been preparing it.

"We have spent quite a bit on it. We have taken some out of our budget and got a couple of grants, but I can't say how much.

"We only planted the tree last week and that has been pulled up. It is absolutely terrible. We are really disappointed about it, upset and angry.

"I suppose we will be able to repair the damage but we only have so much budget, so it could take quite a long time to get right.

"We don't know what we will say to the children but we will just have to explain and I am sure they will be really upset.

"We have had problems before but I we cannot really be better protected. We have a locked gate and a security man walking around.

"We are getting fed up and we hope showing what has happened does some good by showing the person responsible what happened or helping to find out who did it."