A primary school staged an “elf murder” in one of their classrooms as part of a writing exercise – and people weren’t happy about it.
Flowery Field Primary School in Greater Manchester set up the fake crime scene in one of its classrooms, including cordoned off police areas, fake elf blood splatters, and an elf outline on the floor.
The school shared pictures of the scene on Twitter, writing: “Year 4 writing detectives are on the case! What has happened in [class] 4VS today? Collecting as many clues as we can find...”
The idea was for the eight- and nine-year-olds to play detective to make their writing exercise more exciting.
However some parents disagreed with the task set and said it didn’t go down with well with their kids. One mum, who didn’t want to be named, told Manchester Evening News: “The idea was elf had been murdered by another elf. My daughter came home and she was absolutely traumatised.
“I’m not the only parent who felt like that. A lot of the kids in Year 4 were unsettled by it.”
The school’s headteacher, Ian Fell, responded to the complaints. “The children were all excited and they really did buy into it,” he said in a statement, according to the MailOnline. “Of all of the 90 children who took part, none of them showed anything but full engagement.
“I am delighted also that the topic appealed to children with SEND [special educational needs] difficulties or those who find accessing work more difficult too.”
HuffPost UK has contacted the school for further comment and will update this piece when they respond.