"We just don't get incidents like this happening here. It's really disappointing, to say the least. We don't lock our school grounds because we like the community being able to come down and play touch on our field or play in our sandpit - we're not going to start locking out the community. We're hoping this was just an isolated incident."
Mr Sinclair said the theft "hit harder" because the school was in a "lucky little pocket with a great community".
"These sort of burglaries are really disheartening as they show a complete lack of care or consideration for our tamariki. It makes you wonder what kind of person steals from kids?"
He said the cost of losing the equipment was "a pain" but the bigger disappointment was the disruption to the pupils' learning.
"We can always replace the electronics, what we cannot replace is the time and learning opportunities our pupils have missed out on.
"The pupils and teachers have come to rely on the added resource and this incident has been a setback."
Senior Sergeant Malcolm Collins of Rotorua police said schools were often seen as targets by thieves so needed to be extra careful with storing valuables.
"The problem is children go home all excited and tell their families they have all these new devices at school, then they tell someone else and they tell someone else and before you know it, people who you don't want to know have found out."
Police regularly monitored buy, sell and swap Facebook pages as stolen property was often offered for sale there. He warned people to be wary of items such as electronics being sold cheaply.
"If you buy a $10,000 car for $500 surely you'd know that something was up. It's the same with cheap iPads."
Buyers had responsibilities to ensure they were not charged with receiving stolen property. "Saying 'I didn't know it was stolen' isn't a defence."
He recommended buyers noted serial numbers.
-Anyone with information should call police on (07) 348 0099. Information can also be provided anonymously to Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.
