IT IS always disheartening to hear of deliberately set fires, doubly so when it involves damage to school buildings. To have two such events happening locally on the same Saturday just before commencement of the new school term is truly shocking.

Of course, one can feel some sympathy for the misguided arsonists. The overwhelming sense of dread and despondency that must have hung over them at the prospect of further weeks and months of blinding boredom, tedium and misery would be enough to ignite even the most dormant passions into flame.

It’s just that one might have expected teachers to have behaved a little more professionally.

Julian R Powell Larch Grove Newport