St Albans pupils investigate mystery egg found on roof

An eggsciting addition to a school roof was no yolking matter for children after a surprise discovery was made.

A huge egg, measuring 60cm in length, was spotted in a nest on a canopy outside classrooms at Mandeville School.

Pupils were amazed by the sudden appearance and even more thrilled when police turned up to investigate while they were in assembly.

Assistant head teacher, James Dickinson, said: “The children were already fascinated by the egg and we were discussing what it could be in assembly, but excitement levels went through the roof when the police arrived in their car outside the hall window.”

The area was then cordoned off and police officers and site manager Kevin Byrne, carefully removed the egg from its nest.

PCSO Lewis Griffiths and PCSO Adriano Russo took statements from the children and reported the “delicate matter” to the Zoological Society of London, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the Natural History Museum, for further investigation.

Children then wrote about their experiences of the day, including diary entries in Year 4, eyewitness reports in Year 5 and tweets in Year 1 and spent their playtime investigating the school grounds for clues.

Deputy head teacher, Nic Keating said, “The quality of talk from the children throughout the whole day was quite brilliant as they made predictions, reported events and justified their thinking.”

Joey Wild, 4, from Reception, had a special message for his teacher: “See, I told you dragons were real!”