PUPILS had their return to a Newport school after the summer holidays delayed by a £3,000 vandal attack. Around 40 windows were smashed at Maindee Infant and Junior School on Corporation Road on the weekend.

The pupils were due to return from their summer holidays today, but will now have to wait at least until tomorrow.

The school's headteacher has hit out at the fact that CCTV planned for the building had not been completed before the summer break.

Angry headteacher Jeff Beecher (pictured), said: 'We had a lot of vandalism over the weekend, with windows smashed around the rear of the school and around the classroom areas. The glass in the classrooms is so bad that I couldn't have the children back in yesterday.

'There is a big clean-up operation going on and we are hoping to be open tomorrow morning. Some of the windows will be able to be replaced, but others will have to be boarded up, so it will look like Beirut. Thats certainly how it looked on Sunday night.'

The school was the latest in a string of targets along Corporation Road, said Mr Beecher, and it was not the first time the school itself had been hit. Just a few months ago all the skylights were pushed-in in another incident.

'We have had problems before, but this was a pretty bad attack,' he said. 'Last week, the school looked beautiful and clean, ready to start, and all the teachers had been in during the holidays to prepare. It was such a shame as we were going to be in School of the Week soon, doing a piece on how good the school is, and this is quite a contrast.'

He said council workers had worked 'non-stop' over the last few days to make the school safe, but also criticised the authority over the installation of CCTV cameras.

'We campaigned for about 18 months to have CCTV put up in the school and we were put on a priority list to have it installed, he said.

'Finally, just before the holidays were about to start, the council sited the poles, but we had no cameras. I am annoyed with the authority that it wasnt finished.'

A spokeswoman for Newport county borough council said she believed the CCTV installation was ongoing and had reached the halfway point, with the remainder of the work set for the coming weeks.

Mr Beecher added: 'It is very important to have a sense of humour in all this and the teachers are looking on it as extra time to prepare for the new term. We will get over it.'