A snake the length of a seven-year-old child was found slithering in a school playground.
The 4ft-long albino corn snake was fortunately spotted by a teaching assistant before the pupils at St Botolph’s Primary School could find it.
Headmaster Mark Cobbold, 48, said the TA was coming back from lunch and told the other teachers there was a serpent heading right for the school in Diss, Suffolk.
‘We went out to look and, lo and behold, there was a snake,’ Mr Cobbold said.
‘It hid away in a bush so we kept an eye on it. It was quite an adventure.’
The school alerted the RSPCA who sent an officer to rescue the yellow-spotted snake.
‘When the RSPCA officer came he scooped it up and it curled around his hand and seemed very friendly,’ the headmaster added.
‘I think we were overly hysterical, the snake wasn’t that bothered. It just wanted to be left alone.’
After capturing the friendly snake, RSPCA officer Jason Finch showed it to the children on their lunch break.
Albino corn snakes are non-venomous, make great pets and mainly eat mice.
The snake was eventually reunited with its owner who hadn’t even realised it was missing until a couple of days later.
But the slippery affair ended up being a ‘nice distraction’ for some of the pupils who were taking their SATs.
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