Friends of Eye School raise £2,500 for St Peter and St Paul’s in Church Street after heating oil theft

Parents have rallied together to raise thousands of pounds in the immediate aftermath of a school being targeted by thieves.

The Friends of Eye School, which is made up of five parents, set up a fundraising page after St Peter and St Paul Primary School in Church Street had 2,000 litres of heating oil stolen last month.

The theft left staff and pupils without heating during one of the coldest spells of the year.

Lucy Cruickshank, who organised the fundraising campaign, said: “We know the tight budgets that schools work towards, so every year we put on various events and fundraisers to help boost school funds and to benefit the children.

“We knew this incident would put such a strain on that budget for this year, so we, as a group, and many other parents, began asking what we could do to help.

“The school’s budget should be for the children’s’ benefit and spent on the everyday costs of running the school and paying for the resources desperately needed to support their learning journeys, not on something as terrible as this, which was out of its control.

“Lots of parents offered to donate towards replacing the heating oil, so we decided a GoFundMe page would be the best option to take the project forward.”

Within the 24 hours of the page going live, the community had donated £2,000 to the cause – enough to help to keep the school warm for the rest of the cold season.

With the total having since reached its £2,500 target, the group say that any additional funds will cover any associated costs of replacing the heating oil.

Mrs Cruickshank said she cannot thank the public enough for their quick and generous response.

She added: “We are just so incredibly proud of our small community and how the parents and local people pulled together so quickly and positively.

“The Friends of Eye Primary School really want to thank everyone for their huge kindness and support with this.

“It really means a lot to us and our school to know just how many caring people there are out there in our community.”

A Suffolk Constabulary spokesman said investigations into the incident were still ongoing and if anyone saw anything suspicious in Church Street between January 17 and 23, they should contact them.

Anyone with information about the theft can contact Suffolk Police on 101 or through its website, quoting the crime reference number 37/4263/25.

Alternatively, contact Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555111.

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