Equipment theft upsets school staff

File photo

Thieves have stolen thousands of dollars worth of equipment from a Masterton school depriving children of "things that enhance their learning".

Lakeview School has been the target of a string of burglaries, the latest of which was last weekend, principal Ed Hodgkinson said.

Televisions, iPads, laptops and most recently a camera were taken during three break-ins.

The equipment was worth $5000 to $7000.

"It's just annoying and disappointing that whoever is doing it would want to do that and rob the children of Lakeview of things that enhance their learning.

"For the teachers, it's their rooms and for the children so they feel very attached to these things, there is a sense of people invading personal space and that's not nice," Mr Hodgkinson said.

She said although just one camera had been stolen in the latest burglary, a vast amount of damage had been done as well.

"This weekend it wasn't so much anything [much that was] stolen, we'd made sure that most things were not around that they would have enjoyed stealing, instead they just did a lot of wilful damage, they knocked things over and destroyed them.

"When the teachers came back after the weekend some cupboards had had that happen so they had a lot of cleaning up to do, it was a waste of time and destruction of property that did not need to happen."

Mr Hodgkinson said the burglaries had been reported to police and the school was installing more security cameras.

"We're hoping that by doing that we'll be able to catch the culprits if they do it again but we'll just have to wait and see."

Masterton acting senior sergeant Ian Osland said Solway Primary and one other Masterton school had also been targeted in recent weeks.

"We're actively patrolling to try to prevent further complaints and we're working with the schools over some prevention initiatives," Mr Osland said.