Ref. 25581-7A SPECIAL needs school has been ransacked by burglars for the third time in three months.

Uplands School in Leigh Road will have to pay thousands of pounds after computer equipment was stolen from its specialist mobile classroom for autistic children.

The classroom was broken into on May 10 when a digital camera and television and video combination were taken.

Then on June 2 the room was again burgled although no major items were stolen.

The final attack came overnight and was discovered on Saturday morning.

Phil Joyner, who teaches the secondary special school's dozen autistic pupils, said: "This is very bad for the children. They don't know what is happening or what to expect.

"Autistic children like things to be predictable, and they like to be in control of things.

"Computers are ideal for that as they are in total control over what happens. Now they have been completely thrown because their normal activities are not available.

"We have not just lost the computers but all of the work and software on them. I have lost hundreds of hours of work from lessons plans to end of term reports."

As well as two computers, the other items taken include a printer, two monitors and two specialist keyboards.

The school will have to find a large sum to pay for repairs to the 30-year-old building after the door was broken by the burglars.

Headteacher Mary Bishop said: "Everyone at the school is very sad that there are people out there who will choose to pick on some of our most vulnerable youngsters.

"Those youngsters are working very, very hard to learn to respect other people's property.

"This makes our work harder as we are telling them one thing but the children are seeing something else happen.

"It is obvious to people that we are a special school, and it is not only the cost of the stolen goods but also the repair work.

"Our priority is teaching, and being forced to spend on incidents like this takes away from what we can afford to give our pupils."

The school is scheduled to move to a new building in the next two to three years on one of the two secondary school education campuses as part of the £50m Private Finance Initiative.

Anyone who witnessed the burglary, or who knows the whereabouts of the stolen goods, is asked to call Swindon police on Swindon 528111.