School project for 9-year-olds: Find out if Santa is real

AS school Christmas projects go, it could hardly have been less festive… children as young as nine were asked to research whether Santa Claus exists.

Angry parents accused teachers of ruining the ‘magic’ of the season when pupils were set the task for homework before a debate on the issue.

‘This has caused a lot of upset,’ said one mother, who did not wish to be named.

‘Choosing this topic to debate, especially at this time of year, takes away from the magic of Christmas. I don’t think it’s appropriate.’

But while the adults were caught up in the row, with the school defending the project, the children simply got on with the work.

And, to the relief of many, pupils at St Cuthbert’s Church of England Primary in Darwen, Lancashire, decided in their debate on Monday that Santa does indeed exist.

Paul Simpson, 46, an actor who goes into schools to teach festive lessons, said: ‘The children really enjoyed it, coming down decisively in favour of Santa’s existence.’ Festive cheer was also tested at another school that presented pupils aged eight to nine with an ‘elf murder’ to investigate as part of a writing project.

Some parents said their children were deeply upset when they arrived to find a ‘crime scene’, including drops of fake blood, in their classroom at Flowery Field Primary School in Hyde, Greater Manchester, on Tuesday.

A mother who did not want to be named said: ‘There was police tape and a table had been knocked over, and there was blood smeared on one of the tables.

‘The idea was an elf had been murdered by another elf. My daughter came home and she was absolutely traumatised. She had to sleep in my bed.

‘I’m not the only parent who felt like that. A lot of the kids were unsettled by it.’

But headmaster Ian Fell said: ‘The children were excited. One of them said to me, “I am definitely being a detective when I grow up”.’