Teacher 'shot dead' in front of pupils

Some students were said to be “crying their eyes out” after hearing a loud bang and seeing a popular teacher fall to the ground.

Youngsters believed they were taking part in a fire drill when they saw the ‘crime’ unfold – but it was all a stunt organised by teachers and some year eight pupils at Blackminster Middle School, near Evesham, for a science project.

Afterwards, horrified pupils posted comments on social networking site Facebook.

One wrote: “It was sick what they did at school today.”

Another said: “I was in tears...I was really upset.”

A third youngster wrote: “I thought he really was dead.”

Another said: “I don’t ever want to go back there. NEVER.”

The middle school, in South Littleton, caters for children as young as 10.

Yesterday, headteacher Terry Holland was forced to explain to concerned parents that the role play was part of a series of lessons to show pupils how to investigate, collect facts and analysis evidence.

He said the school was sorry for upsetting pupils and would not be repeating the exercise in which a clapperboard was used to stimulate the sound of a gunshot.

He said: “There was a small number of children – maybe half a dozen – who were quite upset and all the staff were immediately supportive and explaining to them there was nothing to be upset about.”

Mr Holland blamed over-enthusiastic acting and said the victim took too long to get up and reveal he was unharmed.

He added: “This was a violent crime and that’s something, on reflection, that was step too far.”

The school will now return to a previously used scenario about a stolen laptop.

He also said he had received more than a dozen calls from parents.

He said: “I said if their children were disturbed by it we were sorry and we’d rectified it as much as we could and reassured them that this kind of role play in future won’t be done in this way again.”

However, Angela Butler, mum to Chloe, aged 12, said her daughter had not been upset.

She said: “It didn’t really bother Chloe at all but she said some of the children were crying their eyes out.”

A spokeswoman for Worcestershire County Council, the local education authority, said: “We can confirm we have not received any complaints to date and that initially, if a person does have a complaint about a school, they should contact the school directly.”