Exposed: the ‘illegal school’ teaching children conspiracy theories

In a community centre in Stockport a group of children stand holding hands in a circle with their eyes tightly shut. On the floor in front of them is a collection of crystal pyramids. “It might get a bit warm,” says their teacher, a self-styled shaman called Phil, who tells his students that the rocks can transmit energy into their bodies. “If you’ve got any injuries they might soon go away. These might start healing you.” It is 2.30pm on a Tuesday in January and these children should be in school. Unfortunately, however, they are in school.

For nearly a month I worked undercover as a teacher at Universallkidz, a suspected illegal school in Greater Manchester, alongside colleagues who believed that the dinosaurs never existed