YOUNGSTERS at St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School in Whitnash had an experience they will hopefully “never forget” when Wilhelmina the elephant visited them recently.
Their teacher, Tim Hussey, got in touch with theatre group The Slaughterhouse Players after reading in the Observer about the elephant stopping traffic in Leamington during a parade in memory of world famous Victorian circus ringmaster Sam Lockhart.
Tim explained “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”.
And 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 reactions.
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”.
