A SCHOOL has pledged to rebuild a playground hut after it was burned down in a suspected arson attack.

Youngsters at Fir Tree Junior School, in Wallingford, discovered last week that their Anglo-Saxon style mud hut, worth about £4,000, had been destroye.

It was particularly upsetting for the children, who used the building for play and choir practice, as they had spent the previous week and a half digging clay and refurbishing the wattle and daub structure.

However, the children have vowed to rebuild the roundhouse and make it even better than before.

Headteacher Lee Ryman said she believed the fire could have been started by teenagers smoking.

Ms Ryman said: “The children were absolutely gutted when they made the discovery.

“They had spent the past week and a half lovingly restoring the building.

“We had even been down to Castle Meadows to dig for clay and collect cow dung to refurbish it.

“Now these swines have come along and burnt it down, and all there is a black hole.

“The children loved the building and would sit inside it on logs and talk and play.

“They are determined for it to be rebuilt and we hope it can be.”

The alarm was first raised a week last Sunday when a resident phoned the fire service after spotting smoke coming from the school grounds.

A fire engine was sent to tackle the blaze from Wallingford and after about 25 minutes the firefighters had extinguished the flames.

Police were then contacted as it was believed the fire was started deliberately.

Nine-year-old pupil Ellis Franklin, from Wallingford, was involved in the refurbishment project.

He said: “We were really devastated when we found out what happened because we had worked really hard building it back up and then when we came back to school it had gone. Now we’re hopefully going to rebuild it.”

Friend Charley Green, 10, said she was shocked.

She said: “I used to love the roundhouse because we used to play games in there and also I’m in the choir and we used it for singing. It’s really sad that it’s been burned down.”

If you have information about the fire, call police on 08458 505505.