IN PICTURES: Headteacher thanks local community

Published Monday, 15th May 2017

A HARTLEPOOL headteacher has thanked the community for their generous donations following a major fire to the school nursery.

Rift House toys 1

Some of the donated toys.

The Rift House Primary School nursery building, which incorporated a year three classroom, was completely destroyed in a fire on Sunday 7 May.

Luckily the nursery was separate to the main school building so most pupils only missed out on two days at school.

Rift House

Demolition work in progress.

David Turner, Headteacher at Rift House Primary School, said: “I’ve been overwhelmed by the support from the whole Hartlepool community. Everyone has been absolutely fantastic and I’ve been inundated with offers of help townwide.

“Thanks to the resilience of our children and support from parents, families, staff, education colleagues, the local authority and the Hartlepool community, the school has bounced back following the incident and everyone is looking ahead to the future.

“The donation of toys and other items for the nursery in the aftermath of the fire have been unbelievable. However, we have received so many donations we do not need any more. Every day, dozens of people have been bringing items into school but we have run out of space to store them.

“I am very grateful to all those who have made donations and they will be invaluable to us when we are able to get our replacement nursery up and running.”

A demolition team is on site this week clearing the remains of the nursery building.

PICTURE GALLERY