The football mad pupils of Horrabridge Primary have been joining in with World Cup fever spreading throughout the nation.

Sports coach and headteacher John Clarke organised a mini-World Cup tournament and the children were encouraged to wear England football team shirts to show their support for the national team.

The school competition was run along the lines of the real thing, with teams of three allocated their own nations from a draw. They then competed against each other in tense penalty shoot-outs on the school field in front of their classmates.

The school field came alive with raucous cheers and the red, white and blue of the national team as the competition came down to the acknowledged top hotshots in the school.

John Clarke, headteacher, said: “The children have loved it and are really competitive. They have joined in the fun of the biggest sporting event. We made sure we had mixed-ability teams, so everyone felt involved and joined in the excitement.

“We ran it like a parallel competition with a knock-out stage and they were allowed to come to school in the England strip, to spread the good cheer. We also had red and blue Slushies and white vanilla milkshakes to add more patriotic colour and refreshments.”

Eventually, the competition came down to France v Norway and the school’s own World Cup final takes place on Monday, a day after the real one.