A SCHOOL targeted in a string of hits by vandals is to be fitted with CCTV thanks to generous community support.

The Evening Times told last month how thugs attacks Cardinal Winning Secondary School three times - pausing to eat a McDonald's meal during one raid.

Pupils at the additional needs school were devastated by the break-ins, which saw their art work trashed and equipment stolen.

But residents around the Tollcross school rallied with Arnold Clarke stepping in to install CCTV.

Head teacher Gerard McDonald said teachers and pupils had been "overwhelmed" by the kindness of businesses and residents.

He said: "We have just been overwhelmed with kindness now.

"Both the local community and the business community have been hugely supportive, it has been so inspiring between generous donations from businesses to people coming in giving small donations.

"At the Christmas party this year we were able to give pupils really quite substantial presents.

"Arnold Clarke has taken us to heart and is putting in CCTV cameras.

"All this from the community has been uplifting."

We told how thugs took a McDonald's to eat while they ransacked Cardinal Winning Secondary.

The Tollcross school was first targeted on November 9 when thugs broke in, had a picnic then stole nine iPads containing children's school work.

On November 13, thugs returned but when they failed to get into the building they smashed windows and doors.

On November 21, vandals came back to discover teachers had locked individual classrooms so they trashed the art room, pouring ink and paint on every surface and destroying weeks of pupils' work.

Around a week later the thief returned and was caught by cops who had stepped up patrols around the school.

Mr McDonald said: "The police have also been amazing. They really stepped up and had officers staking out the school for a number of nights and one night they caught someone, which was a relief."

After reading about the attacks in the Evening Times, the school was flooded with support.

Celtic FC Foundation asked Mr McDonald to pick out 10 deserving families to split £2000 between.

He added: "One of our post-16 pupils who left the school two years ago went into her own bank account and told her parents, 'I want to do something to help the school,' so she came in with £50 for us."

The school also wanted to raise funds to replace some of the things that were taken by doing a 3k sponsored walk.

Pupils had planned to do their walk around Celtic Park but the weather got in the way.

Mr McDonald said: "Celtic, who have been brilliant, said we could do the walk around the football ground at Celtic Park but on the day it was too icy, which was such a shame but there's nothing you can do to control it, so we did it around the school.

"I was so proud of our pupils. The community has been fantastic.

"It shows that some good has come from everything that has happened."