PUPILS at a Manchester school were left terrified after a teacher told them the end of the world was just days away.
During a morning assembly at St Matthew's RC High School, Moston, the head of year told youngsters that a giant asteroid was on a collision course with the Earth.
She is reported to have told the 13-year-olds that they would be allowed to leave school early so they could say their "final farewells" to their families.
The spoof story was designed to teach youngsters to live each day to the full. But a number of youngsters in the assembly believed the doomsday scenario and became upset - some reportedly burst into tears.
Officials at the school say that as soon as it became clear that some of the youngsters were anxious, the teacher made it clear that the tale was untrue.
After the assembly she visited each class to stress that the story had been made-up.
But the school has received a number of complaints from parents.
Commenting on the incident, headteacher Keith Hogan said: "The assembly was led by the head of year and its theme was `living each day to the full'.
Fictional
"To illustrate the point, the children were told a story suggesting that an asteroid was going to hit the the Earth.
"Unfortunately, a small number of pupils took the story literally and became anxious. As this became apparent, the head of year made it abundantly clear that the story was fictional and had been used to emphasise the theme of the assembly.
"Following the assembly, the head of year visited every year-9 class and again told students that the story was untrue and made every effort to ensure that those students who had been anxious were reassured."
Mr Hogan stressed that he had full confidence in the actions taken by the member of staff. "Obviously, I regret the fact that any student was distressed by the content and delivery of the assembly," he said.
"However, I am confident that the head of year acted appropriately and professionally in dealing with the incident."
Manchester councillor Alison Firth, Lib-Dem spokesman for education, believes the head of year went too far.
"This just seems to be over the top," said Coun Firth.
"These young people clearly didn't get the bigger picture, but focussed on the meteorite wiping out their families. You would expect many of them to be upset and to be crying and worried. I think this was an assembly too far."
Did the school go too far? Have your say.
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So this head of year hasn't actually learned by now that very few children pay attention in assembly?
Let's see how she feels when she's told that she's superfluous to requirements, no longer needed as a teacher, etc, etc, maybe then she'll stop and put her brain in motion before opening her mouth.
You would expect Year 9 students to know the difference between fact and fiction. Do they also believe Shrek or Finding Nemo to be true?
This sounds like a story that has developed from the stupidness of these children to me.
Living in Moston, or having the world end ... its a close call !!
Should we not wait a few days before prematurely castigating this prescient teacher? If the cataclism actually occurs, the critics are going to look really stupid. I am sending out my Christmas cards over the weekend just to be on the safe side, anyhow.
Says you Andy from WHYTHENSHAWE i would say Moston is nice than WHYTHENSHAWE any day!! Take a look around what do you have Woodhouse Park.........lovely estate full of boarded up houses!! NICE!!
With Wythenshawe being such a beautiful place to live, of course.
I have three daughters at St Matthews and one of them is in year 9. She found the whole thing highly amusing, as did her mum and I when she told us about it.
St Matthews is an excellent school and the teachers and staff there are brilliant.
This 'story' has been blown up out of all proportion, some kids were upset, granted and I'm sorry they were, but in context with the theme it was obviously not to be taken too seriously.
I like the image accompanying this story, very clever MEN.
This story has all been blown out of proportion. Yes she might have gone too far but as head of year she has responsability for the students. She did the right thing in going to classes, but if the kids have took it seriously, thats their problem. If they are year 9 students, they need to realise the fact that they are old enough now to know that if you are told that it is made up by your head of year, then it's made up. So she made a mistake and took it too far. At the end of the day, she is human just like the rest of us.
I have to say, I expect a rag like 'The Sun' to over-react in this manner, but I'm disappointed that the MEN didn't take a similar line to their sister paper, The Advertiser. This is a story about nothing that potentially hurts someone who is clearlly a valued professional at the school in question. I have no connection with the place, but anything that makes kids sit up and take notice about a serious point has to be of value.
Oh the poor little gullible sweethearts. Compensation all round I should hope, and lots of it too. In fact, its traumatised me somewhat, hearing about the poor traumatised little sweethearts. Can I have compensation too?
Don't kids have any brains these days?! If something like that was about to happen, it would have been all over the media!!
*haha*, We done Katie, i got the response i was looking for.
You could at least spell Wythenshawe correct, i mean, you did have 2 goes at it.
You're not from Moston are you, and too ashamed to admit it.
Actually i know many people from Moston and make the effort to visit them regularly during official visiting times.
My son was actually one of the year 9 pupils who attends this school at was in the assembly. The teacher stood up and told them all that they only had a few days to live and that soon they would be going home.
Now correct me if I'm wrong, but if a senior member of staff tells these kids that this is true then they will believe it. A couple of year 9's left the hall before the end of assembly in tears. Many more were crying in the hall. She DIDNT tell them straight away that this was untrue, but about 10 minutes later which is a hell of a long time for 13/14 years old to think they are going to die
My son came home from school and told me this story on Monday. He said he was frightened and truly beleived what this teacher had said.
However, since this story has broke, I have to add that the teacher doen't deserve to lose her job over this. She is a very good teacher and should be supported over this error. She has made a mistake, but she should be forgiven and let the children move on.
Oh, and the guy from Whythenshawe, How on earth can you call Moston???? I think if a comet was truly heading for earth it would target your dump first. :-)
i think it was ova tha top by the teacher of course she when to far but if you look at it propally she could be predicting the future nobody knows all i got to say is give her a chance for all wee know she could be prodicting the future
I think the idea of living each day fully was lovely, however the way the head of the school tried to emply this was undoubtedly absurd!
I hope these complaining parents dont allow thier children to watch the X - Factor - that is far more distressing and has no educational value whatsoever.
This demonstrates how many teachers in Catholic schools simply don't know their own faith. There are far too many ridiculous assemblies, such as this, that don't reflect the Christian message at all. Perhaps the teacher in question should base her assemblies on the Church's catechism rather than resorting to Hollywood style science fiction!
Well it's obvious that children would be sensitive to the news that they and their families are all going to die. I should imagine the teacher will also have learned the lesson of 'living each day to the full' as her days as an employable teacher might now appear numbered. Of course Moston is defined by its high unemployment, poverty, mental health problems,poor housing etc...(as is Wythenshawe funnily enough). Perfect environment to learn exactly what life is about hey Andy! The school will not attract good calibre teachers easily..she should meet with parents and kids to reassure them that she made a big fat mistake and has learnt her lesson.
I was in the assembly and i believe that the teacher did what she had to do. whe she saw that pupils were crying she reasured us. you shouldn't make comments about what happened or the teacher because you wasn't there and you don't konw the teacher!
Perfect example of elitist social engineering at the expense of an education.
i was one of those pupils in that assemberly and believe me it was scary. how was we supposed to know that it was a joke. she didnt tell us untill people were crying and some were sick. she was stuttering to make it realistic. what she was saying didnt sink in untill she said "obviously we wont keep you here. we will let you go home and say your goodbyes, and hopefully we will see you all back here in a few weeks time". it was out of order there was no need for it. so steve from swinton, go and get a life. was you there? no didnt think so so come back when you get your story straight....
i am a pupil at st matthews and was in the assembly that morning. The story really scared me and because we have heard about asteroids hitting the earth before it was easy to believe. I began to cry fearing for my life, my families and everyone around me. I felt sick and frozen, the story was sick.
im emotionall scared for life thanks too our teacher .well done miss
as a pupil from the year that day this is what i fort :it was very sad in that asembully i actually fort i was going to die fro 5 mins
im emotionally scared for life now
i am a year 9 pupil at st matthews high school and i am appauled at what miss quinn has told me and my fellow year 9 pupils.as we have heard about comets and asteroids possibly hitting the earth it is quite believable that such a thing could happen.i was frightened as was many other people , yet she started laughing at us like you could joke at such a thing , like we didnt care.it said in the papers that after class she came and told us that such a thing could not happen and tried to reassure us it was untrue but what she really said to my class was im just checking everyone is still alive and started laughing , then she left the room.I dont no what she said to the other class's but i am not happy in the slightest.
i am a pupil at st matthews and was in the assembly that morning. The story really scared me and because we have heard about asteroids hitting the earth before it was easy to believe. I began to cry fearing for my life, my families and everyone around me. I felt sick and frozen, the story was sick.