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Naughty elves' antics thrill school children

Pamela TickellNorth East and Cumbria
Amble Links Primary School Paul Heeley is standing outside his office with his arms crossed and a mock-angry look on his face. Small colourful balls are piled up in the room. Red and white toy elves are sitting on the window sill.Amble Links Primary School
Head teacher Paul Heeley said the community involvement over the years had been tremendous

Bricking up the school entrance, filling the headteacher's office with balls and pinching a lifeboat are just some of the cheeky antics of a school's naughty elves.

Since 2019, elf toys have been "making mischief" at Amble Links Primary School in Northumberland, with the help of the local community.

Head Paul Heeley said the school had "quite a following now" on social media, adding: "When the school's mentioned, people say, 'oh, is that the school with the elves?'"

He said you could hear the anticipation from students as they came up the hill in the morning, asking: "Where the elves? What the elves doing? What have they done?"

Toy elves which cause trouble overnight might have been a US import but have taken off in the UK over the past decade.

"These elves aren't your normal elves that you see on most social media, they do quite large-scale things," Mr Heeley said.

Over the years, local businesses got involved, along with the council and emergency services, all in their own time, Mr Heeley said.

Amble Links Primary School Red and white toy elves appear to have bricked up the school entrance. Grey stones are piled up across an archway. Some elves are in sand buckets and others are holding small spades.Amble Links Primary School
The mischief involved some "very, very early mornings", Mr Heeley said

The elves once got a herd of sheep to block the school entrance, pulled down a lamp-post, and when they were caught in student's makeshift "elf traps", escaped from a recycling centre.

Mr Heeley said: "As it's grown, there's just been so much community involvement, which has been tremendous."

Amble Links Primary School A lamp-post appears to have been brought down by red and white elf toys. Police tape surrounds the scene.Amble Links Primary School
Financial donations have been used to buy school equipment

A small group of people help plan the scenarios during the year.

"It does involve some very, very early mornings for people involved as it's trying to have things ready for when the breakfast club children start coming in," Mr Heeley said.

He said the scenes were cleared away as the school day started, to avoid disruption.

Mr Heeley said some people had wanted to donate to the school after being thrilled by the elves' antics.

Funds raised had been spent on things like Chromebook computers for the students, he said.

Supplied An elf wearing a black costume appears to be driving an orange lifeboat at sea.Supplied
The elves had "quite a following" on social media, Mr Heeley said

Mr Heeley said he loved doing the project every year.

"It's that joy that it brings to them [the children], it's memories for them," he said.

Amble Links Primary School Mr Heeley is throwing his arms up in mock-exasperation as the toy elves appear to have taken letters off the school sign, until they spelt: "eLF School".Amble Links Primary School
The elves get up to "large-scale" mischief, much to the students' delight

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