Homework for children aged 9... is Santa 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 Father Christmas does indeed exist.

Festive cheer was also severely tested at another school that presented Year 4 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 in Year 4 were unsettled by it.’

But headmaster Ian Fell said: ‘Of all of the 90 children who took part, none of them showed anything but full engagement. The children were all excited. One of them said to me, “I am definitely being a detective when I grow up”.

‘I have been a teacher for 30 years and this is, in my judgment, an appropriate, engaging and exciting thing that children aged eight and nine have done.’

St Cuthbert’s primary was one of five schools in the area where members of the Years 5 and 6 debating club were given the question ‘Is Santa Claus real?’.

Organiser Paul Simpson, 46, an actor who goes into schools to teach festive lessons, said: ‘It is not about taking away the magic of Christmas but using it to engage the children in a project where they can learn and use new skills in terms of research, public speaking and debate.

‘I am sad some parents objected. Had they spoken to me, I could have explained the project to them. As with every other school, the children really enjoyed it, coming down decisively in favour of Santa’s existence.’

St Cuthbert’s head teacher Michelle Smith added: ‘ The topic was chosen to help get into the Christmas spirit.’