Shock as student arrives for school party in a coffin

Manchester: A school pupil looked dead cool when he turned up at his end of year prom - by arriving in a coffin.

Simon May stunned fellow students from Alder Grange Community and Technology School, in Rossendale, with his killer entrance at the Year 11 bash.

While others turned up at the Higher Trapp Country House hotel in sports cars, convertibles and even police cars and motorbikes, none were able to compete with his ghoulish arrival, reports the Manchester Evening News.

Simon arrived in a coffin inside a hearse, escorted by his older brother Ethan, also a former pupil of the school.

Simon, 16, from Hall Carr in Rawtenstall, said: “It was Ethan who suggested it, he’s an apprentice at an undertakers and he asked if I wanted to go to my prom in a coffin.

“I said yes, and the undertakers that he works for put him in touch with a hire company in Manchester for a hearse.

“I told a couple of friends that I was going to do it but I don’t think they believed me until I actually turned up in it.”

Simon, who is leaving Alder Grange to go on to study graphic design, said his grand entrance provoked a mixed reaction.

He said: “Nobody seemed to be offended, some of the teachers from Alder Grange were there as well and the ones that I spoke to said they thought it was a good idea.

I wanted to do something that hadn’t been done before.”

Simon’s unique form of transport certainly attracted the attention of his classmates.

He even described the spooky experience of laying in the coffin as "quite peaceful".

He said: “I got dropped off at my brother’s work and the hired hearse took us from there up to the hotel where the prom was being held.

“The hearse drove up to the hotel and I was in the coffin. It was quite peaceful being in the coffin, I was in there for about an hour.

“My brother was walking in front leading the hearse up to the hotel before I got out.”

Around 100 students, who have just finished their GCSE exams, chose to arrive in a range of different vehicles, with a police car and a stock car also rolling up at the front door of the Simonstone hotel.

Head of School Jo Griffiths said they had all worked very hard throughout the year.

She said: “They were a really lovely year group with a lot of characters. I’m very proud of them and it’s great to see that most of them will be returning in September to continue their studies at our Sixth Form.”