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Sutton St James: Head praises teachers for keeping pupils calm
Police in Sutton St James on Wednesday. Photo: David Lowndes/Peterborough ET
PUPILS at a primary school less than half a mile from the siege in Sutton St James near Holbeach on Tuesday, were told to stay indoors at lunch for a ‘wet play time’ during the tense stand-off.
Youngsters in Sutton St James Primary School, in Bell’s Drove, were kept inside during their lunch break while the drama unfolded.
The school is a short distance from the house in Chapelgate which was surrounded by armed police between 11am and 11pm on Tuesday.
They found out about the drama in the usually quiet village after one of their teachers drove past police cars shortly after midday.
The school’s head teacher Steve Cleland telephoned the police, who told him about the ongoing investigation and their fears a gun was involved.
Mr Cleland said: “We didn’t know if it was a man on the loose with a gun, so we immediately decided to keep all the pupils indoors over lunch and told them it was a wet break.
“By 12.20pm the police told us they had the situation under control, and we had a normal afternoon. All of the staff did very, very well with the situation.
“We might have had a situation where there were a lot of young children in a state of hysteria, but they stayed calm because the staff dealt with it so well.
“We got a lot of phone calls from parents yesterday, but we reassured them and passed on the message the police had told us.”
The 140-pupil capacity school, which teaches youngsters aged 4 to 11, was open as usual today.
Mr Cleland added: “A lot of the children found out what happened after they got home, and they want to talk about it.
“The staff have been reassuring them that everything is fine and the children are not worried.”
The school also acted as a safe haven for worried villagers during the night while Chapelgate was still largely cordoned off.
Sleeping space was offered to residents too worried to go home and seven people went in for a cup of tea and reassurance.
Mr Cleland said: “We were happy to offer our space for the community.”
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Weather for Peterborough
Wednesday 23 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 11 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: North
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 11 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: North east
