Principal Delwyn Riding said pupils were shocked by the destruction caused by vandals at their school last week.

Vandals who caused thousands of dollars of damage at a primary school also left a huge swastika of tyres in the field and stole their Maori flag.

The attack at New Plymouth's Moturoa School, which has a roll of 102, horrified staff so much they kept it from the students for more than a week for fear of upsetting them.

The most disturbing part of the attack was a huge swastika symbol out of about 46 tyres in the school's field and the theft of the school's Tino Rangatiratanga flag while the New Zealand national flag was left flying, which principal Delwyn Riding said was "pretty interesting".

ANDY JACKSON/Fairfax NZ Caretaker Craig Stills fishes out toilet paper that had been tossed into the pool by vandals.

As well as that part of the wooden swimming pool fence was snapped and thrown into the pool, ripping the new cover worth more than $1900.

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Delwyn Riding The swastika in the field was "bizarre" said principal Delwyn Riding.

Into the pool had also gone toilet paper, hoses and murals painted by the senior students, which had been ripped off the wall beside the pool.

The pool toilet doors had been ripped off their hinges, holes were kicked in the wall and the TV antenna was broken.

The vandals also unsuccessfully tried to smash the glass window of the chemical room beside the pool.

DELWYN RIDING Murals painted by students were ripped off the walls and thrown into the pool.

Riding said the incident was sometime between 5:30pm Tuesday night and 7:30 Wednesday morning last week.

The staff were horrified, she said.

She said there had been a lot of community investment and involvement in the main pool and the project was only completed last November.

DELWYN RIDING The toilet doors in the pool area were ripped off their hinges.

"Then to learn about that was just disgusting," Riding said.

"But we can rebuild. We're resilient. That's one of our core values is resiliency."

The school has contents insurance but faces an excess of about $1000.

DELWYN RIDING The vandals climbed the fence around the pool, snapped off a piece and tossed it in the water.

Riding said she didn't tell the children at first because it would just upset them, as they currently didn't use the pool area.

"But once I wrote it in the newsletter about what had happened, the kids were absolutely shocked."

She said the parents had offered a lot of support, including an electrician who volunteered his time to fix the TV aerial.

Sergeant Bruce Irvine of the New Plymouth Police said an incident was reported to them at Moturoa School and there were currently no leads. However, they were continuing to investigate.