PUPILS at a Chelmsford school were devastated to discover heartless vandals have wrecked their conservation area.
Youngsters at Baddow Hall Junior School returned from the Easter holidays to find the bird boxes they had helped build and a willow dome they had planted had been destroyed.
Newly planted saplings had been pulled out, established trees dug up and information boards wrenched from their concrete bases.
Holding one of the smashed bird boxes that he had helped to make, nine-year-old Tom Wetherall, a member of the school's Green Team, told the Chronicle: "I was devastated when we were told what had happened during the holidays.
"I cannot see the point of this vandalism. I'm speechless."
Fellow Green Team member Nathaniel Fuller, nine, said he was equally stunned.
"I cannot believe this happened to all our hard work. I am confused because it is madness."
The entire project is being overseen by Baddow Hall's community cohesion coordinator Anita Kidd, who spotted the vandalism during the holiday.
She said: "I stopped by with my family and we tried to replant as much of the willow as we could to keep it alive. It is so disheartening to see all the children's work destroyed in this way.
"The Green Team have been actively involved in all projects within the conservation area and were both saddened and angered to hear of the vandalism.
"They do not understand why people have destroyed what they worked so hard to achieve.
"We work hard to teach the children to care for the people and things in their community – what sort of message are they getting from these vandals?"
The damage comes just as a new outdoor classroom is being installed next to the conservation area. Environmental volunteers from Great Baddow and Galleywood have been at the New Road school working alongside staff and pupils installing wooden seating last week and this week.
Head teacher Guy Niven said: "The children have since worked with both enthusiasm and pride in the repair and construction of a new outdoor classroom, which will hopefully be finished in the next few weeks."
