AN AREA at a Portishead school had to be taped off after a mysterious discovery.

Caretaker Geoff Smith interrupted morning assembly at High Down Junior School after unearthing an unidentified object in the school garden.

Pupils were allowed to take a closer look after police support officers declared it safe and the students discovered it was a large egg.

After moving it to a safe and warm place, youngsters returned to school the next day to find the egg had hatched. Experts were called in and declared the find a dragon’s egg, leaving an empty shell.

The exercise was part of a Wow Day aimed at making learning more exciting.

Class teacher Sue Ryan said: “This has really fired the children’s imagination and over the coming weeks we shall be working on dragon poetry and writing lots of creative stories.”