A PRIMARY school has said a 'big, big thank you' to the Oxford Mail for helping to gets vandalised library bus back in action.

Pupils and staff at St Nicholas' in Old Marston gave thanks as they unveiled their revamped reading room at their summer fete on Saturday.

The bus was restored to its former glory thanks to more than £1,300 raised by parents and supports and a generous pledge from a private company.

Outgoing headteacher Rachel Crouch said she was delighted to cut the ribbon as one of her last acts before leaving the school for another post.

She added: "I would like to say that the Oxford Mail put the story in the newspaper about our school bus being vandalised which meant that a company came forward offering to support us by making Perspex windows and only charging us cost price which saved us about £1,000.

"If it was not for the Oxford Mail we would not have had that done and we would not be able to afford it so a big, big thank you to the Oxford Mail."

Students and staff at St Nicholas' were devastated when they arrived one day in March to find shattered glass littering the playground after vandals destroyed the library bus.

After reading the school's pleas in this paper for help to repair the damage to all of the buses' windows, Dauphin Acrylic Design Ltd, from Tetsworth, came forward to help.

The company replaced acrylic windows on the bus at cost price and spent a day kitting it out ready for the students to use again.

Parent Lisa Abrey also pitched in to help after her ten-year-old son came home devastated by the vandalism.

The mother-of-two and former St Nicholas' pupil set up a gofundme web page, raising more than £1,300 for the repairs.

She told the Oxford Mail that if she had had such a facility while at school, she would have been encouraged to read more.

The library bus first opened its doors in 2015 and proved so popular the school had to enforce a rota for each year group.

Deputy headteacher Julie Holland said: "We are a really creative school and I think the fact that we have a double decker library bus shows that.

"We were all very devastated when it happened and it has been really wonderful to be able to re-open it and have it brought back to life.

"I think the students value it even more since they had it taken away from them.

"We've had a bric-a-brac stall at the fete and all the books that are not won as prizes will be donated to the bus and we will have a big deep clean over the summer so it will be even better in September."

Mrs Holland said she was 'blown away' by the support of the parents, Dauphin Acrylic Design and the school's caretaker Maurice Winstone who worked 'tirelessly' to get the bus ready for the children.'