75789-18 THE headteacher of a Swindon special school was left speechless when it was offered a £5,000 donation.

Bob Walker said the Brimble Hill School would be able to do things he had never dreamed of after receiving the donation from local firm Arval Ltd.

The school, which has 70 pupils with severe developmental and learning difficulties, will use the money to buy play equipment and to help fund school trips.

"I was speechless," said Mr Walker. "When they said they were going to do a Christmas raffle for us I thought that is nice, it will be great to have a few hundred pounds. But this is fantastic."

The school, in Lyndhurst Crescent in Park North, will buy bikes, tricycles, go karts and a new ball pool and it will put some of the money towards two holidays the school runs to Pembroke and the Isle of Wight.

The school, which is relocating, will be able to move all the equipment to its new home on the North Swindon learning campus in September 2006.

Any leftover money will be put towards the school's minibus fund, which currently stands at £9,000. The school wants to raise £15,000 by spring 2006.

Staff at Arval, at Windmill Hill, raised the money with a Christmas raffle, which was advertised at the company with posters drawn by Brimble Hill students.

Peter Kolasinski, who helped organise the raffle, said: "The money is going to a really worthy cause."