The headteacher of a school in Dalton revealed what happened during the ‘chaos’ of an attempted burglary.

Chapel Street Infants and Nursery School was the victim of an attempted burglary last week.

Nursey and preschool classes were temporarily cancelled following the incident which occurred late at night on Wednesday February 31.

At around 11:15pm, headteacher Scott Macmillan was made aware of the school alarm going off and rushed to check the building.

He found one of the side doors, which gave access to the pre-school classroom, had been damaged.

Mr Macmillan said a glass pane had been smashed in and there was evidence that they had tried to kick the door in, as it was marked by footprints.

He said there was glass everywhere, it had reached all the way across the room, covered the floor and made a real mess.

The headteacher said: “We think they came over the back wall because there were a number of plant pots knocked over, it looks like the alarm scared them off.”

Nothing was taken, although Mr Macmillan suggested the school’s recent fundraising efforts, which saw them advertising prizes, could have caught the attention of the would-be burglars and made the school a target.

After calling the police, Mr Macmillan stayed at the school until 1:20 am to give his statement.

The pre-school and nursery were shut on Thursday February 1, while crime scene investigators attended, and evidence was gathered.

The room where the attempted burglary occurred is a space for three year olds, so a thorough cleaning was undertaken to make sure the environment was safe before children were allowed to return. The door was repaired, and the glass has been replaced.

The headteacher said: “When something like this happens, it makes people nervous. It has been a busy and chaotic week since the incident but luckily the school community rallied round to get things fixed.”

Mr Macmillan said that he later heard two or three properties were tried and several houses potentially experienced an attempted burglary on the same night. This probably occurred as the suspects made their way to or from the school.