Whitnash pupils had an experience they will 'never forget' when an elephant sneaked into school!​​​​​​​

School children in Whitnash had an experience they will 'never forget' when they got a visit from Wilhelmina the elephant .

Tim Hussey, teacher St Joseph's Catholic Primary School, got in touch with The Slaughterhouse Players after reading about the 'elephant' stopping traffic in Leamington.

So he arranged for it to come into school and meet year six pupils.

Tim said: "As soon as I read the article, I thought it would be fantastic if Wilhelmina could visit our school as a wonderful surprise.

"The children have just completed a project on Sam Lockhart and his three elephants, known as The Three Graces."

Peter Knell and a small group of Players pulled out all the stops to make the visit happen before the end of the school year.

Peter, who plays Sam, was delighted with the pupil's reaction. He said: "With a lot of help and organisation we managed to sneak the elephant into the school without any pupils seeing her, and it was lovely to have such a good welcome.

"The children had plenty of questions and we were very impressed with their knowledge of Sam and his elephants."

Wilhelmina will hopefully bring good luck to all the Year 6 pupils as they leave to start secondary school after the summer.

More information about Sam Lockhart, his circus and his elephants can be found here: https://leamingtonhistory.co.uk/sam-lockhart-elephant-trainer-extraordinaire/