Thousands of pounds of damage has been caused to a village primary school after a roof leak ruined a reception classroom.

Laptops, books, toys, artwork and other sentimental items had to be binned at Ulcombe Primary School after heavy rain.

Teacher Lucy Boorman, who has taught at the school in The Street for five years, has launched an appeal for donations.

She discovered the mess with the site manager when she arrived on Monday morning to prepare for next term’s lessons.

Emergency repairs were carried out that day and a full refurbishment should be completed by the time children return in September.

Mrs Boorman said: “There’s major damage in the classroom, thousands of pounds of learning equipment including laptops, books, toys, art and learning devices are beyond repair.

“The roof looked as if it was about to come down.

“It’s the holidays now so it’s not putting any of our children in danger. It’s just so heartbreaking.

“Old toys and pieces of work have been lost, so we’d like to launch an appeal for donations.

“If just one person would be generous to donate any sort of equipment or toys, we’d be able to start getting ourselves back on our feet.”

The school will claim on its insurance, but some of the more sentimental items have been permanently ruined.

Executive head teacher Emma Hickling said: “We were very lucky in the sense it’s the summer holidays, so no children are at risk, but it’s very disappointing as we had a lot of work in the pipeline, which will now take a backseat as this becomes our priority.

“We hope to have everything repaired by the time the new school year starts, yet it will take a lot longer to get all of the equipment back.”

A spokesman for Kent County Council said: “Our insurers have been made aware and a property maintenance group were sent to assess and fix the damage to the roof.”

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