EXTRA-curricular became extra-terrestrial at a Bury school.

Startled staff and pupils recently arrived at Sunny Bank Primary in Hathaway Road to discover a “UFO” had apparently crash landed on the playing field.

Pupils also found strange burn marks and holes surrounding the epicentre of the impact zone as well as green slime in the vicinity.

The site was cordoned off by community police officers while Government officials, wearing protective suits and breathing masks, began investigations.

Headteacher Mike Green said: “Initially, we assumed the debris had fallen from an aircraft. However, CCTV clearly showed some form of alien craft crashing onto the site in the early hours of the morning.”

The Unsworth school decided to devote a week to investigate the bizarre happening.

Thankfully, however, no little “green men” were found and the “crash” had been simulated as a novel exercise to allow the children to use the experience in a variety of lessons.

They were encouraged to use their powers of recall and observation during evidence-gathering interviews.

Deputy headteacher Martin van Hecke said: “The UFO has been the focus of lessons from literacy and art to science and numeracy.

“It’s not every day something like this happens. It has really fired the pupils’ imaginations.”