A flight of mischievous dragons made their lair in a Suffolk primary school last week to inspire a creative writing streak among their young hosts.

Pupils at Worlingworth Primary School were shocked to arrive for classes on Monday morning when they discovered the fearsome creatures camped on the playground in a grizzly nest of skulls and bones.

By Tuesday their unexpected guests had laid eggs, which hatched on Wednesday before the entire brood took flight on Friday and disappeared in a shroud of mystery.

Headteacher Victoria Gascoyne-Cecil said the visit had helped develop the pupils’ creative writing skills.

“It was all about encouraging the children to be confident writers but also to give them the opportunity to write in a creative manner - we particularly chose the dragons to appeal to some of the reluctant boy writers,” she added.

The pupils wrote stories about mystical lands, guides on how to care for baby dragons and designed their own dragon masks to wear.