THINGS turned a bit ghoulish at one York primary school with the opening of their pop-up monster museum.

The museum at St George’s RC School, Fishergate, came about after pupils in Years 5 and 6 researched and wrote about different monsters and they wanted somewhere to display their work.

Head teacher Dee Patton-Statham said: “At St George’s RC School we really want our children to love learning and to really have a purpose for reading, for writing and for using and applying their maths skills.

“We are very interested in the creative curriculum and we like to start with a topic that we believe will inspire the children and allow them to produce interesting and exciting work.

“The Monster Topic started as a COOL time (Continuing Our Own Learning) project in years 5 and 6. COOL time itself was inspired by the continuous provision in Early Years and the children in each year group now have the opportunity every week to continue with a project or interest of their own choosing.

“The children loved researching and writing about different monsters from around the world and creating their own artefacts and models. It soon became clear, from the quality of the work, that it would be a great idea to collect their work together in one central place.

“Housing everything in a ‘Monster Museum’ was the brain-wave of the highly creative Year 5 teacher Ryan de Koning.”

A visit was organised for the pupils to the Yorkshire Museum to see how a real museum is set out and they were then able to fine tune many of their ideas after the visit.

Mr de Koning also taught the children how to create QR codes so that their museum included many interactive activities. QR or quick response codes are a type of barcode you can old a mobile phone over to find out more information.

The children wrote hand written invites to VIPS including York MP Rachael Maskell, staff from York Dungeons and the Lord Mayor, Cllr Dave Taylor who visited with the Lady Mayoress, Susan Ridley and said they particularly liked the werewolf display, gravestone and hand models. Emma King the Castle Museum manager also visited and she liked the monster museum so much that she invited the children to help with the castle museum’s new exhibition in the summer.