Children at a Croydon primary school received a shock this morning when they arrived to find the premises had been damaged by a mystery visitor during the night.

The first signs of disruption at Downsview Primary School were upturned litter bins and puddles of green slime on the playground. Once inside, children discovered trails of mess, oversized, clawed footprints and nests of large, colourful eggs.

CCTV footage shown to the children in assembly, along with other evidence such as singed papers and slashed displays, suggested the mystery visitor was a dragon.

Parents and carers should not be too alarmed, as the visitation forms forms part of a Talk for Writing approach to literacy, which is based on a philosophy that children become better writers when they have exciting stimuli through which they can verbally explore their ideas before putting pen to paper.

Headteacher, Meghan Pugh, said “Well today’s events have certainly got them talking!”

Dragon prints

Children across the school will be using the days as a launch pad for creative writing over the coming six weeks.

Arya, aged 7, said “You won’t believe it but I think there has been a dragon in the school! They’ve made such a mess! But I think it just got scared and panicked like animals do, I don’t think it trashed the place on purpose.”