Second nursery is targeted by thieves 'who saw tablets on Facebook'

Brownshore Pre-School Playgroup, based at the community centre in Hobnock Road, had its windows smashed in the raid.

It follows on from a similar crime at Wolverhampton's Eastfield Nursery School, where vandals wrecked the building before stealing the youngsters' Children in Need money and five iPads.

Staff at Brownshore said they had been devastated by the break-in, which happened last weekend.

Windows were smashed to gain access to the main office and then petty cash and two much-needed Hudl tablets were taken. The machines had only recently been presented to the school by Tesco.

Lynn Taylor, a committee member at the pre-school, said: "The tablets were the first technology we really had at Brownshore, so it was a really important thing. We'd posted on our Facebook page about them, so it's clear the thieves must have known exactly what they were looking for.

"It's disgusting what the world is coming to. We now have to look into increasing the security, which is more money that could have gone on the children."

The items had been kept in the office, one of the few places in the pre-school without an alarm sensor.

Brownshore offers low-cost education to young children of underprivileged families and supports its running costs mainly through fundraising. It is part of the Think2 scheme, which gives 15 hours of care for free to parents that are unemployed or on low income. Staff had recently thrown a charity race night and regularly run toy and bake sales.

"They probably thought we kept all that on site as well. They only got around £10 that we kept for petty cash. It's not a lot, but it's the principle," Mrs Taylor said.

"We struggle to meet our operation costs. Both parents and staff have been devastated by this break-in."

The area was cordoned off on Monday but the pre-school was open as usual. Tesco has told staff that it will donate two more Hudl tablets very soon and Oxley Glass replaced the broken window free of charge. Fife Installations and Maintenance also donated and fitted an additional alarm sensor for the office.

Eastfield Nursery School on Griffin Street received thousands of pounds worth of donations last week after £900 raised for Children in Need and five iPads were stolen.

The front door had been ripped off, phone lines cut, windows had been smashed, cupboards torn apart and alarm sensors had been destroyed.

Former pupils, local residents and businesses gave money to the unfortunate nursery, even donating gifts, such as a signed Wolves shirt.