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Parents have expressed surprise after a bus carrying Syrian refugees arrived at their children’s school.

A building on an Ormesby primary school’s grounds is being used as welcome centre, it emerged today.

Staff at Overfields School said the packed bus arrived this afternoon at an empty Redcar and Cleveland Council building on the Daisy Lane site.

It comes on the same day the authority approved plans to allow 125 Syrian refugees a year to move into the area.

It forms part of wider proposals drawn up last year to welcome up to 500 Syrian families on Teesside, who have fled the war-torn country.

Authorities confirmed the families were being greeted at the centre.

It is not known whether they are the first Syrian refugees to arrive on Teesside as part of the project.

A Redcar and Cleveland spokeswoman said: “The refugees were attending a welcome event, which included an introduction to the area before being taken to their homes.”

Alison Ker, who is working at the site, said: “It is just a registration centre and they will be leaving tonight.”

She added those at the site have just flown into the UK but declined to give details over where they would be based.

Parents told of their shock at the school gates as the bus arrived while they were picking their children up.

One told the Gazette: “My kids attend Overfields Primary School and within school grounds there is an unused building.

“As we picked our kids up today you could imagine our surprise when we saw the full bus.”

“I’ve tried contacting the school headmistress and council but nothing has been said.”

However Overfields headteacher Tracy Watson told the Gazette she was as much in the dark about the arrival as parents.

“It is not anything to do with the school,” she said.

“We share the site in question with different providers, one of whom is Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council.”

She added: “I probably know as much as you at this point.”

Under the newly approved council proposal, refugees will be offered services, including housing and welfare, when they arrive.

It is part of the Syrian Resettlement Programme, which aims to resettle 20,000 refugees from war-torn Syria across the UK during this current Parliament.

Last September, political leaders set out plans to offer homes to up to 500 refugee families across Teesside.

Regarding approval of the Syrian proposals, Redcar and Cleveland Council’s Lynn Pallister, cabinet member for health and housing, said: “The council are planning to resettle families who have fled from the civil war in Syria, with a commitment to take around 25 families per year for the next five years. The families have secured five-year refugee status under humanitarian grounds of the UN scheme

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“A Redcar and Cleveland Steering Group has been established with representatives from public and voluntary services who are all eager to welcome the refugees who will be arriving.

“The group recognises that we all have a role to play to assist the families to settle in our communities following a difficult transition from the areas of conflict from which they originate.”