Few in the education sector are ever likely to experience a week as traumatic as the one Anne Tanney and her staff have just endured. Her school, Holy Cross Girls Primary, in the Ardoyne area of north Belfast, is now famous across the world for all the wrong reasons.

Since last Monday, and including yesterday, her charges have had to endure verbal abuse, stone-throwing and on Wednesday, a blast bomb, as they made the 300-yard journey to their school.

Tanney has been a member of the teaching staff at Holy Cross since the school was reopened on that site in 1969. She grew up in the Ardoyne area, attending the same primary school as Mary McAleese and, later, both women were pupils at St Dominic's High School on the Falls Road in Belfast. Here, she tells EL about five days that shocked the world.

Monday

We have always worked very hard at cross-community work. Each year around this time, we would normally be attending meetings with the staff of Wheatfield primary, the Protestant school just across the road from us, so we could plan the different projects that our pupils would work on together throughout the year. There are so many people on both sides of this community who want a better future for their children.

But because of the protest, which began last June and resumed on Monday, we didn't get the chance to begin planning this year's work. I came to school as usual at 8.30 a.m., but when the children arrived I was shocked at the scenes. They had to run a gauntlet of really frightening abuse - there was so much confusion, so much trauma, and many parents turned back or brought their children home straight away because they were so upset. Around 55 children stayed and surprisingly, they seemed to be doing okay.

We had held a meeting with the teaching staff on the Friday and decided that the best thing would be to keep the children to a routine. So we remained perfectly calm and reassured everyone and got the children to the classrooms. Those who wanted to stay with their parents were allowed to, and I moved around the school all day, reassuring everyone, talking to anyone who wanted to talk.

I had been wondering what would happen on the walk to school, but never imagined anything so violent and callous. I think everybody - parents, teaching staff and of course the children - was very shocked. It was a deeply sad experience, but the children who stayed in school seemed to be fine, and we tried to get them back to ordinary work.

By the end of the day I was hopeful that the next day the protest might be called off. In the evening the parents met the board of governors and we advised them of the alternative way to school that was being made available. But ultimately the board decided they could not dictate to parents which route they should take.

TUESDAY

When the children arrived, I went to meet them at the driveway of the school and was relieved to see that they didn't seem as upset as they had the day before. As was the case all week, parents were welcome to stay if they wanted, to have a cup of tea and be supportive of their children. It was straight to the classrooms for those who wanted to go, which was most of them. We have a very dedicated hardworking staff who the children trust - during the summer many children have come up to me saying they were dying to get back to school because they were bored!

At this stage, an alternative route had been arranged but it wasn't as straightforward as it sounds. Parents would have to go around a neighbouring school, through a grassy field and then walk across an all-weather pitch, which is difficult with prams. Around 100 children stayed in school.

Wednesday

I was waiting outside the school for the children when I heard this awful explosion. It seemed so close. When they came, the children were so upset - everyone was. There was crying and screaming and again we tried to get everyone to the classrooms as soon as possible so that they would feel secure. Somehow we got them settled down and working - it says a lot for the resilience of children and the fact that they like school so much. I was very concerned and upset but tried not to show it. If you did everyone else would start to fall apart. That day the board of governors of the school had an emergency meeting and we sent letter of support to the parents.

Thursday

Waiting for the children, we heard the whistles and the horns that the protesters were blowing - it was very eerie. But the day proceeded as normal as possible; about 180 children were at school and some of the teachers concentrated more on painting and creative work, which we think helped.

While I was circling around the school one little girl said she had been feeling sick all day and that her parents had got her a dream-catcher - she must have been having bad dreams. But they had also decided to say a prayer each night and she thought that was working better. A lot of people from both sides of the community were sending presents, and any children that were particularly upset helped arrange the flowers and distribute them to the classrooms. One Protestant man brought a teddy for them; he said he had four children himself and was so upset at the scenes that he had to come to show support. The majority have been like that, it is only a minority who are causing this.

This has destroyed a lot of the good work we have been doing for many years. We have St Francis's prayer for peace on the wall of the assembly hall which we have always said with the children, and we have continued to say it with them this week.

Friday

This was the day of the funeral of the young boy who was killed. The Protestants held a silent protest, and after the children had gone to class the parents, the local priest Father Aidan Troy and some of the local Protestant clergy joined together in saying the Lord's Prayer.

As I did the rounds of the school it seemed that the atmosphere had improved. People might wonder how we got through it; coping with such traumatic circumstances isn't a typical part of teacher training, but as teachers we are trained always to think about the children - and in this situation, that ethos just takes over. We know that most importantly the children need to feel safe and secure in school. One of our teachers is a qualified counsellor and that has been useful, because we know there are likely to be long-term affects on the children.

We have been doing something called "circle work". The children sit around in a circle and can talk about any problems. They seem to really enjoy this process and we have found it works very well. Another project they have been involved in is drawing pictures of their experiences coming to school, or images of the way they would like it to be. That was very interesting.

One child drew pictures of the children at Wheatfield Primary waving to them as they walked to school; another drew her house with people asking questions in each room, which represented the media that have descended on the area in recent days.

Obviously, we are going to have to talk to the parents about creating a very definite programme to help all the children and we have been offered a lot of help from psychologists and counselling groups. Each child will be affected in a different way. I went down to the house of one child whose parents were concerned because she didn't want to leave her home at all. It has been a terribly harrowing experience for everyone, but especially the children.

Every right-thinking person must be absolutely disgusted by these events, but I want to say that the parents have been wonderful, faced with such a difficult dilemma, wanting to support their children and look after them.

We have received a lot of support from the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools; the Bishop of Down and Connor, Dr Patrick Walsh; the local Church of Ireland minister, the Rev Stuart Heaney; the Belfast Library and Education Board; and the Minister for Education, Martin McGuinness, and his department. Schools in Northern Ireland here are politically neutral places where teachers try to protect children.

I hope now that the protest will be called off and that people will realise that their grievances should be addressed through the proper channels. This type of activity doesn't help anybody.

AI had thought before, in normal times, that being a principal was a very difficult job, that teaching was a difficult profession, but it is nothing compared to this.

I would say to all those in the education sector: pray for us, that we get back to something approaching normality and that these children can have a future free from hatred. At the very least they deserve that.