A primary school teacher is seeing more than double after FOUR sets of twins started – in the SAME CLASS.
The eight youngsters make up a quarter of the 30-pupil reception class taught by Wendy Pigott, 47, at St James Church of England Primary School, Hereford.
Identical twins Charlotte and Annabelle Dukes, four, and Lewis and Taylor Willows, five, are joined by non-identical twins Lily and Mia Payne, five, and Malakai and Imogen Ramage, four.
Bizarrely, the four sets of parents, who all come from Hereford, had their children at the local county hospital within a few months of each other.
Identical twins Lily and Mia Payne celebrate their fifth birthday tomorrow.
Incredibly, Lily was born naturally while Mia was delivered by caesarean section 45 minutes later after a staggering 59 hour labour.
Dad Phil, 29, a self-employed football coach, said: ”The odds of having twins through different births is very rare.
”The fact that the girls are now in a class with three other sets of twins is incredible.
”They have only been at school a few weeks but already they are getting on with the other twins and come home saying ‘they’re just like us’.”
Phil’s wife Carly, 29, a stock merchandiser, has twins in her side of the family.
She said: ”We’re going to stop at two for now, I don’t think we could cope with more twins.”
The girls, sit next to four-and-a-half-year-old non-identical twins, Charlotte and Annabelle Dukes.
Mum Sally, 31, a barmaid, said: ”Charlotte is 11 minutes older than Annabelle but they are as thick as thieves.
”They got quite a shock when they started school and found out there were three other twins – they feel like they’re part of a special club.”
Sally, who is married to John, 44, who runs a tool hire business, also has two other children Abigail, 14, and Chloe, 11, from a previous relationship.
Her mum, Joyce Harris, 52, has a twin brother Graham Matthews and her two cousins also came from multiple births.
She said: ”Twins runs through my family like wildfire.
”Oddly, when I gave birth to the girls at the hospital the doctors said they hadn’t seen any twins for years but that year they had lots.
”It must be something in the Herefordshire water!”
Teacher Mrs Pigott, who has two sons, Oliver, 26, and Owen, 25, admits her new intake can be ”confusing”.
She said: ”I had two sets of twins last year, one identical and one non-identical, but this this time we already had three sets on the list to come and then Mrs Dukes was trying to get a place.
”We were just thinking, where will they all go? It can be confusing sometimes but we are getting there.
”Sometimes I do get them [the identical twins] mixed up, particularly Mia and Lily because they really are similar, but they’ve got slightly different personalities so as time goes on you Do get to know them.
”The other children are also very good at knowing which one is which.
”Mia and Lily have got different coloured bobbles but you can’t do that with Lewis and Taylor.
”It is only the fourth week in school though, so we are getting there slowly.”
