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Staff and parents are ‘reeling’ after vandals target the nursery garden for the second time in one week.

Pirniehall Nursery, part of Pirniehall Primary School, share their grounds with St David’s Nursery and had their beloved “story hut” burnt to the ground the day before the teachers returned after lockdown.

Mrs Ryan-Gillespie, the headteacher of Pirniehall told the Edinburgh Evening News: “It’s a small hut you can buy with seats and cushions, and the children could play or sit and read.

“It was burnt to the ground the day before the children started back.

“You can imagine the amount of work put in by the staff and local community, who showed fantastic kindness, to clear up the mess and get it nice again.

“It was all about creating a lovely outdoor environment for the youngsters.”

Plant pots and flowers were donated after the vandalism to create a new and cheerful display for the young children.

On Monday morning, staff arrived to find that these plant pots had been smashed, flowers had been pulled out and scattered around and sand had been thrown at windows.

Mrs Ryan-Gillespie continued: “The staff and families have been left reeling.

“We’re all hugely upset, it’s just mindless destruction, and that’s what really gets you about this, it’s just mindless.”

The nursery garden is used by children ages three and four from both Pirniehall Nursery and St David’s Nursery on West Pilton Crescent.

Picture credit- TRIM and Friends of West Pilton

The staff who discovered the damage this morning worked hard to clear up the mess before the youngsters arrived.

Mrs Ryan-Gillespie concluded: “All the parents who were passing saw the mess. The whole community feels for us at the moment, it’s so unfair on the children, and that’s who really matters here, the children.

“Hopefully the vandals will say now, enough is enough.”

Local community group TRIM has been raising money for the nursery and were specifically mentioned and thanked by the headteacher as being instrumental in the garden's upkeep.

TRIM and the Friends of West Pilton grouped together to raise £2,000 to replace the hut that the vandals burnt down.

A spokesperson for the group said: “The team are delighted that the community rallied round again and raised over £2,000 for a local nursery after there was fire damage to it.

“We were absolutely devastated to see the vandalism to the flowers which had been donated by another organisation.

“But we are delighted that we will be able to hand over £2000 to the nursery in order to replace the wooden play equipment which was damaged.”

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Pirniehall and St David’s Nursery: Vandals target children’s garden for second time