Southport: 'Elsie always came to school on her dad's shoulders'
The teachers of one of the girls killed in the Southport stabbings have said they remember her always smiling, and arriving at school "on her dad's shoulders".Head teachers Adrian Antell and Jennie Sephton from Farnborough Road School were describing Elsie Dot Stancombe's journey from when she arrived at the school's nursery up until the end of infants class.The seven-year-old was one of three girls killed at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in the Merseyside town in July last year. The others were nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar and six-year-old Bebe King.Ms Sephton, head teacher of Farnborough Road Infant School said Elsie was "a very charismatic young lady".
"She often came to school sitting on her dad's shoulders, or walked through the gates with a big wave, and a big smile," said Ms Sephton.She added that Elsie was "very determined" and liked by her friends and all the teachers.Elsie was several months away from moving into Farnborough Road's junior school before she was killed by Axel Rudakubana, who was jailed for a minimum of 52 years, in January.Her learning would have been under the stewardship of Mr Antell, who said Elsie's classmates were still struggling with what happened."Every child is different and so they will all deal with it in different ways," he said."Sadly we will never get to know Elsie, but we have got to know her friends and have worked hard to support them."
'Positive legacy'
Mr Antell added that the school had introduced different methods to support the children."We have had things like play therapy and support for individual children but that need can change on a daily basis, so what works today might not work in three months time."A charity has since been founded in memory of Elsie, called Elsie's Story.Next month Mr Antell and Ms Sephton will be skydiving to raise money for the trust."Kindness shines through and we wanted to continue with a positive legacy so that Elsie would be remembered, and good things would happen to young people in this community," he said."We've got a huge two-day event planned. The children are going to come to school, and break every rule."We'll do the parachute jump, with the idea being that they break 15 rules, we raise £15,000 and then we jump from 15,000ft (4,572m)."
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