Silsden primary school students were in for a shock when they discovered an alien spacecraft had crash-landed in their playground!

Returning after the holidays, children at Aire View Infants School were greeted by teachers dressed up in masks and ‘protective suits’, and evidence of spaceship wreckage was scattered about.

Painter/decorator, Alf Briggs, was on hand to provide pupils with a witness account of the crash-landing, which he said occurred at 9.30pm the previous day.

He added a family of three friendly, but shy aliens exited the spacecraft and entered the school building.

The ‘alien encounter’ turned out to be a ‘big impact’ event planned by headteacher, Vicky Bottomley, and assistant head, Tim Whitehead, to launch a topic on space at the school.

“It’s very exciting,” said Mrs Bottomley. “The parents have been brilliant and the children were all very inquisitive.”

Mr Whitehead added: “We felt this big impact event would be a good thing to do to inspire the children, particularly in their writing.”

Mr Briggs turned out to be actor Alex Fellows, who visits schools to perform ‘alien invasions’ or other similar events.