Primary head 'sorry' for war re-enactment

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A primary school head has apologised after telling pupils Britain was under attack during a project to study the Second World War.

Some children at St Mary's RC School in Bacup, Lancashire, were left distressed and unable to sleep following the re-enactment in which an air-raid siren was sounded and they were led to a mocked-up bomb-shelter.

Headteacher Mike Richards began the role-play at assembly where a recording of Neville Chamberlain's eve of war address was played. The children were told about evacuation and a firework was detonated to simulate a bomb.

Mr Richards said many of the pupils – particularly the boys – enjoyed the experience. "The idea of it was to get the children to empathise with what it was like. The big concern we had was that the children wouldn't believe it. Unfortunately we made it too real. We spent the rest of the afternoon explaining to them that it wasn't."