CHILDREN at a school will have a late start to the new term after a £30,000 arson attack.

Youngsters in some classes at Berinsfield Primary School, which starts its new term on Monday (April 20), have been told not to turn up until Wednesday (April 22), following the blaze.

The whole of the junior site of the school - which was visited by the Queen in November - suffered smoke damage in the fire, while one classroom was so badly damaged it will be out of action for an entire half term.

An off-duty policeman alerted firefighters to the blaze on the evening of Wednesday evening's (April 8, and the school's headteacher, Michael Tay- lor, has been inundated with offers of help since it happened.

Mr Taylor said classes one to six should turn up at the start of term as normal, but classes seven to 11 should not turn up until two days later.

He explained: "We have to ensure that the electrics are safe and there's a huge amount of furniture which has to be specially cleaned. We need time to set up the classrooms again."

He said staff, parents and unpaid volunteers have all offered to help, to try to ensure that the school in Wimblestraw Road would be open for lessons at the start of term. One teacher cut short a holiday in Bournemouth to be there.

But Mr Taylor added they could not guarantee being ready in time and took the decision to close for two days, to allow parents to fix up child-care arrangements.

He eventually hopes to get portable classrooms to house pupils while the repair work is being done. The school has 300 pupils in the main school and 79 in its nursery.

The tidy-up includes cleaning books, the roofing and the heating system. "I know the villagers are extremely distressed bec- ause they have felt for some time that Berinsfield is on the up," said Mr Taylor. "They feel this fire is an unfair reflection of the community.

"It's just sad that a very small minority can make such a thing happen, but everybody is rallying round.

"It certainly brings people together."

He added: "I just hope that whoever did this realise the amount of disruption they have caused."

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