AFTER months of fundraising, Haygrove School has unveiled a brand new minibus to replace the one stolen last year.

The bus was taken by thieves when a group of staff and students were on a trip in March 2019, and the school’s insurance settlement was ‘significantly less’ than they had hoped for.

A Just Giving page raised £500 shortly after the incident, and a further £8,500 was used from various fundraising events that had taken place over the last six years.

The Haygrove Friends Association, which has since been disbanded, made a small donation from the funds they had raised when the group closed down.

There was also an elderly gentleman who came into the school one day and donated £100.

He had been a pupil at Dr Morgan’s all boys school, his children had gone through Haygrove when they were young, and now his grandchildren were pupils at the school.

The final insurance settlement of just under £9,000 was also put toward the purchase.

A spokesperson for Haygrove School said: “The new minibus cost £26,000, and the remaining amount was thanks to Mrs Lee, our director of finance and operations, who managed to source the money through her creative accounting skills.

“We would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who donated to the cost of this new minibus, we really couldn’t have done it without the continued support of our parents and people in the wider community.

“This minibus will allow us to offer even more extra curricular activities and opportunities than what we do now, and it will be used for a variety of school trips, sports fixtures and school events.”